In short, wiki projects existence itself is a political act. Furthermore, it's a "liberal" (in wide sense) political act: you may attribute values as free and universal access to knowledge to various political factions, but these values are the founding principle of this virtual place.
Also, even neutrality is a political act. Without bringing Orwell into our small mess, *aiming at* saying the truth (or whatever it might be) becomes a revolutionary act.
I may agree some wordings/choices are questionable in consideration of WMF's mission but neutrality is not algebraic zero. Actually neutrality implies protecting our interests.
Vito
2017-03-02 14:55 GMT+01:00 David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com:
On 2 March 2017 at 13:30, Peter Southwood peter.southwood@telkomsa.net wrote:
It is not possible to get away from politics while remaining in contact
with civilisation. Politics follows you around. It is possible to ignore politics only until they affect you directly.
Well, yes. Who are these people with lives of such privilege that they don't have to think about politics?
Literally everything Wikimedia has ever done is heavily political. Here in 2017, the following are political:
- scientific fact
- acknowledging scientific fact
- spreading knowledge without permission
- the fact of education
- availability of education
That's just going off what's come out of the White House in the last month, off the top of my head.
There is no such thing as "no politics", there is only "I am not personally reminded of the discomfort of others".
- d.
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