Posted on 06/05/2017 5:22:50 AM PDT by grundle
Official wikipedia policy states:
Wikipedia:Neutral point of view
All encyclopedic content on Wikipedia must be written from a neutral point of view (NPOV), which means representing fairly, proportionately, and, as far as possible, without editorial bias, all of the significant views that have been published by reliable sources on a topic.
NPOV is a fundamental principle of Wikipedia and of other Wikimedia projects. It is also one of Wikipedia’s three core content policies; the other two are “Verifiability” and “No original research”. These policies jointly determine the type and quality of material that is acceptable in Wikipedia articles, and, because they work in harmony, they should not be interpreted in isolation from one another. Editors are strongly encouraged to familiarize themselves with all three.
This policy is non-negotiable, and the principles upon which it is based cannot be superseded by other policies or guidelines, nor by editor consensus.
In line with that policy, a crazy person who lives in my apartment building recently added the following specific, detailed information to wikipedia’s Evergreen State College article:
On June 1, 2017, the Washington Post, referring to events that had taken place earlier that year, wrote, “This year, the school suggested that white students and faculty stay away from campus that day. Weinstein, a biology professor, wrote a letter to organizers saying that he would not stay away from campus, noting, ‘On a college campus, one’s right to speak — or to be — must never be based on skin color.'”
On this same issue, New York Times staff editor Bari Weiss wrote an opinion column which said, “Following the protest, college police, ordered by Evergreen’s president to stand down, told Mr. Weinstein they couldn’t guarantee his safety on campus. In the end, Mr. Weinstein held his biology class in a public park.” Weiss also included a link to this YouTube video, and wrote of the video, “For expressing his view, Mr. Weinstein was confronted outside his classroom last week by a group of some 50 students insisting he was a racist. The video of that exchange — ‘You’re supporting white supremacy’ is one of the more milquetoast quotes — must be seen to be believed. It will make anyone who believes in the liberalizing promise of higher education quickly lose heart. When a calm Mr. Weinstein tries to explain that his only agenda is ‘the truth,’ the students chortle.”
Everything in those two paragraphs is cited by either the Washington Post or the New York Times, which are as reliable (by wikipedia standards of reliability) as any source that one could ever hope to find.
Unfortunately, going against official wikipedia policy, someone else removed that information, and replaced it with this vague, generic, watered down version that doesn’t really convey any specific details about what actually happened at the school:
The Day of Absence is an annual event held in April at Evergreen inspired by Douglas Turner Ward’s play. Each year, minority students are encouraged to attend off campus activities focused on issues involving race. This is followed by the Day of Presence, when the campus community reunites. In 2017 the process was reversed, with white students encouraged to attend off campus activities, while the events for minority students were held on the Evergreen campus. One faculty member, Bret Weinstein, publicly objected to the change. In May 2017, student protests – focused in part on the comments by Weinstein – disrupted the campus and called for a number of changes to the college. Following the protests, a threat conveyed to police led to the temporary evacuation and closure of the campus.
Afterward, something known as an “edit war” happened, with supporters of letting people know the truth reinstating various parts of what had been removed, and opponents of letting people know the truth removing what had been added back in.
As of this writing, none of those original, specific details are in the wikipedia article.
To make matters even worse, YouTube has since removed the video that was cited by the New York Times, with the following explanation:
“This video has been removed for violating YouTube’s policy on harassment and bullying.”
Pretty much any YouTube video of social justice warriors acting like idiots could be removed under that policy, because pretty much everything that social justice warriors do is “harassment and bullying” in one form or another.
But I think the real reason that YouTube removed the video was to protect the social justice warriors from being embarrassed by their own behavior. After the video had been originally put up at YouTube, the protestors had written a letter to the school which stated:
“We demand that the video created for Day of Absence and Day of Presence that was stolen by white supremacists and edited to expose and ridicule the students and staff be taken down by the administration by this Friday.”
I count at least four factual errors in that one sentence:
1) The video was not “stolen.”
2) The video was not “edited” by “white supremacists.”
3) It is the students themselves who “expose and ridicule the students” because they chose to conduct such behavior in a public setting.
4) The video was not put up by “the administration.”
By removing the video, the only people that YouTube is protecting are the people who committed the “harassment and bullying” that YouTube claims to be against. Sunshine is the best disinfectant. The best way to fight against “harassment and bullying” is to expose and embarrass the people who are engaging in it. If YouTube was truly against “harassment and bullying,” then instead of deleting the video, YouTube would link to the video on its home page so as many people as possible would see it.
In addition to demanding that the video be taken down, the protestors also demanded that “criminal charges” be filed against the people who “stole” the video.
Furthermore, after protestors demanded permission to skip doing their homework, the school’s president, a weakling and wimp named George Bridges, gave in to their demand. How hard could it have been for him have said, “You are adults. You chose to attend this school. And with that choice comes the responsibility to do your homework.”?
Evergreen State College has an admission rate of 98%. The school could probably save itself a lot of trouble by lowering that rate all the way down to 96%. And it should get a new president as well.
Wikipedia doesn’t require reliable sources. It only requires sources that support the agenda of the vicious little cliques of homos and communists who run it.
Exactly. Wikipedia is not allowed as a source in most colleges. Seems funny the Swishy, crybaby Progressives are the ones bitching.
Wikipedia is not allowed as a source in most colleges.
it is not recommended as a sole source of information, which for that matter holds true for any research source...as to Wiki’s quality, it depends what you’re researching; I recently read an excellent depiction of the development of the Indo-European based languages...
Can’t use it for anything liberal artsy, but we were assigned to read wikipedia articles on things when I was in (science) grad school. Of course you can’t rely on it for citations, but you can certainly use it to GET citations for books and journal articles.
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