On Sun, Mar 13, 2005 at 01:15:19AM -0700, Mark
Williamson wrote:
Mr. Randombtr will be trusted less about Chinese
history than Mr.
Uneducatedchinesefarmer, even though there is a possibility that Mr.
Randombtr has his Ph.D in Chinese history and has lived in China for
20 years - after all, Mr. Uneducatedchinesefarmer is actually Chinese.
Even if he never saw a history textbook, or if he moved to the UK at
age 3 and never learnt much about Chinese history than some half
truth, half legend that his grandparents taught him (probably more
likely - uneducated Chinese farmers are unlikely to be editing on
en:), he is trusted disproportionately more because "he is Chinese".
You forgot one exception - at least on en, being Polish makes one
considered less trustworthy about Polish history, not more.
This is not unusual. Outsiders can sometimes look at another country
more objectively. E.g. de Tocqueville on democracy in America; Burke on
the revolution in France, etc. Problematic native editors are not
limited to Poland
Ec