You two have the moral highground on this one, I have to say. Any
organised attempt to exclude or harass others based on their ideology,
opinions or demographic not only makes them angrier (and in the case
of racists reinforces their biases), but it also brings one right down
to their level.
I'll never forget some talk show I saw once, where they had a former
klansman and the black preacher who converted him with love and
acceptance. That preacher had the moral highground. Any wikipedian who
cares about the mission of wikipedia will accept these guys reading
and editing our articles. Why? Because the diversity of information
and people involved is '''bound''' to have a positive effect on
them.
It is bound to make them better people, if only slightly. As I always
say, any progress is good progress.And thats why we are here, to help
others grow.
Jack (Sam Spade)
On 8/21/05, Haukur Þorgeirsson <haukurth(a)hi.is> wrote:
Regardless of
what the original agenda, many
eventually shape up, gain in literacy, feed their
curiosity about the world, grow in knowledge of
subjects of interest, make themselves useful, develop
some general perspective, and gain freedom from those
in their orbit who dwell in vexation.
Very well put! It's important to think of people as individuals, even if
they are part of fascist or racist movements. We have paedophiles
contributing in good faith as was recently pointed out. I'm sure we also
have nazis contributing in good faith and there's no reason to worry about
that. (All homeopaths should be banned immediately, though.)
And if you read the conversations on the Stormfront message boards that
have been linked to you'll see that User:Amalekite, who presents a well
reasoned case and is obviously familiar with the workings of Wikipedia,
does not manage to gather any new users for us. Other members of that
board are content with "telling the truth about the Jews" on their own
site.
This is consistent with my own attempts of recruiting new contributors.
It's harder than one might think.
Regards,
Haukur
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