this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2025
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Out of the loop

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I am a self proclaimed wiki-phile, I always donated when I could. It was kind of like going to the library without the fresh book smell.

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[–] ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world 234 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Elon Musk and his cult followers are getting pissy with and declaring war on Wikipedia because they think it's biased against them. So basically, Wikipedia is being dragged into this right wing culture war.

[–] Hegar@fedia.io 129 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

It's not really a right wing culture war at this point, they're trying to destroy any source of information not controlled by the rich fascists who've seized control of the state.

[–] Sop@lemmy.blahaj.zone 26 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

CIA has their own wikipedia editors. As do most large companies & rich people. Wikipedia is not exactly neutral, but for melon it’s not biased enough.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 35 points 2 weeks ago

Oh man, its 2008 again. Can't wait for them to rediscover Conservapedia and Voat.

[–] GraniteM@lemmy.world 16 points 2 weeks ago

Reality has a well-known liberal bias.

[–] foggy@lemmy.world 148 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

If you're seeing hate at wikipedia it is manufactured by Elon Musk.

Someone Luigi this fuck already.

[–] poo@lemmy.world 23 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Agreed, but watch out, Lemmy.World has some super shitty bootlicking mods going around deleting any comment that insinuate Musk should have anything less than a perfectly healthy long life. Thinking of switching instances because this one is failing lol.

[–] CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 2 weeks ago

I haven't looked back since I left. Very much recommend

[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 4 points 2 weeks ago

Good thing we have other instances then. Maybe we need a Luigi instance

[–] zachimusprime44@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

Imma not delete it

[–] eclipse@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

Didn't realise we were using Luigi as a verb now.

I'm on board with the vernacular.

[–] BigMacHole@lemm.ee 63 points 2 weeks ago

Nothing changed at Wikipedia but FOX told me it was WOKE!

-People who Do Their Own Research!

[–] Taleya@aussie.zone 54 points 2 weeks ago

People who are inconvenienced by facts and reality are trying to start a war against them

[–] schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de 35 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Which "bunch of people"? Question is way too vague to answer meaningfully, there are many people who have one reason or another to hate Wikipedia.

[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 29 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Elon started badmouthing them. I don’t know specifically why, but it was he.

[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 28 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Here you go:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservapedia

This has been escalating for like two decades.

[–] serenissi@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Few article I saw, all are very basic and low quality. How's that 'escalating'?

[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

The point is that many conservatives have hated Wikipedia for a long time, and Conservapedia is a microcosm of why, not that the alternatives are necessarily good.

[–] Joshi@aussie.zone 27 points 2 weeks ago

Hate for Wikipedia comes from a few places.

The first and most important is that most people who have tried to edit Wikipedia have their first edit reverted, usually with good reason, because they don't understand the procedures and policies. Unfortunately these procedures and policies are what maintains high quality.

Related is news articles and blogs about edit wars and less frequently that an article or group of articles is genuinely captured by one volunteer who will protect their own little fiefdoms and not allow anyone else to edit them. This happens but it's pretty uncommon and the structure of Wikipedia means that it only really stands on fairly obscure articles.

It's also true that Wikipedia does have an inherent western liberal bias. It's subtle but it is there and results from the fact that for the majority of Wikipedia editors western liberalism is the water they swim in. Any claim that is counter to this ideology needs to be cited up the wazoo whereas claims that are confidant with it will often slide without citation. Those with a strong attachment to an alternative ideology often find it infuriating.

Finally there are individuals who would rather have the arbiter of truth be the powerful rather than a relatively democratic institution.

All that said Wikipedia is a remarkable achievement and an invaluable part of the internet.

[–] Dorkyd68@lemmy.world 24 points 2 weeks ago

The right has always hated Wikipedia because it's gives free knowledge. They think every page is littered with lies

[–] DarkFuture@lemmy.world 24 points 2 weeks ago

Wikipedia is a massive source of free knowledge.

Conservatives do not like knowledge and have declared a war on it.

We live in an anti-intellectual society. That's why a felon rapist who illegally attempted to overturn an election is running the show and destroying our federal government, along with an unelected billionaire.

[–] serenissi@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

I 'hate' wikimedia foundation for one thing: they complied and gave away editors email to court and censored one page upon fraudulent lawsuit by a propaganda news channel in India. Sure if they didn't, they might get threatened to be blocked in India but I really doubt it would've hold long enough given that whole wikipedia can be downloaded fairly easily (or it is trivial to set up a mirror). They probably won't get donations though in that case :/ so probably the move is reasonable?

[–] Tedesche@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

Okay, now I’m OoTL—where are you seeing a bunch of folks hating on Wikipedia?

[–] sleepmode@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

Always pay extra attention when someone is hating on something. Typical sealioning or rotten fish social engineering tactics.

[–] gimmelemmy@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

It is an op by the people who have recently seized power. They do NOT want the free flow of information