On Fri, Nov 14, 2008 at 6:47 AM, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
2008/11/12 Anthony wikimail@inbox.org:
Thanks. I think that proves my point. Wikipedia has been taken over by altruists.
- This is evidently some special jargon usage of the word "altruist",
rather than one recognised by most English speakers using the word.
- I question the "taken over". Who was running it before it was
"taken over"? Evidence?
Jimmy Wales was. I don't think I need to provide any evidence of that.
On Fri, Nov 14, 2008 at 6:49 AM, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
2008/11/13 Anthony wikimail@inbox.org:
Why would someone be *glad* that it's not obvious who wrote an article? What rational reason could there possibly be for such a position? I'll grant that in some situations it might be rational to give away your work for free and without attribution, but to be *glad* specifically *because* you are not attributed, I don't see how that can possibly be considered a moral position within the framework of Objectivism.
I suspect the difficulty here is that you're speaking Objectivist jargon, but those you're conversing with are speaking more conventional English.
The topic of the thread is Ayn Rand and Wikipedia. If you want to participate in it, it certainly helps to know what you're talking about. There are plenty of resources available online and offline to learn more. If you're not interested, there's always the "delete" key.
I think the twisted mental state which would cause someone to be *glad* that no one can figure out that they created something (something which presumably they consider good), is fairly self-evident, though.
(Are you sure Kurt Weber isn't posting using your email address in the
From: line?)
Kurt Weber is a Libertarian. Not being familiar with Ayn Rand you might not get the significance of that. But if you don't understand these things you shouldn't be commenting on them.