--- Bryan Derksen bryan.derksen@shaw.ca wrote:
At 06:26 PM 1/28/2005 -0800, Robert Brookes wrote:
A comprehension problem perhaps?
No. You're comparing the actions of people "here now" (ie, Wikipedians on Wikipedia) to the actions of brownshirts throwing bricks through windows of Jewish-owned shops (which you yourself state was a component of the Holocaust). It's right there.
Too broad a brush there I'm afraid. I am sadened that you chose to present that I was refering to the whole Wikipedia community as Nazis while I was clearly refering to the very small group of people (whom I term "gunslingers") with my comment:
"As it stands the evidence is already clear that there are people who are being elected as sysops after a few months purely on the basis that they will enforce "discipline" as their sole contribution to Wikipedia."
So I put it to you that your attempt to twist this precise and specific statement of mine into general criticism of "Wikipedians" is disingenuous and deserving of a public apology.
Let this reply by Skyring help you;
"You used the phrase "Gestapo-like" to illustrate heavy-handed admins. That was entirely appropiate.
But this is exactly what I was disagreeing with; the comparison of the Gestapo to heavy-handed admins is emphatically not appropriate.
I specifically spoke of a sub-set of those admins "... elected as sysops after a few months purely on the basis that they will enforce "discipline" as their sole contribution to Wikipedia."
Again, I stated very precisely and specifically that I was refering to a very small group of people within the admin/sysop structure.
Maybe when the heavy-handed admins are rounding up editors and killing them en masse you might have basis for it, but right now it's _just a website_.
That's what they said way back then. What's a brick through a shop window? The time to get worried is when they start rounding up the Jews ...
If an admin goes mad with power and bans you, it just means you've got some spare time in your day to browse webcomics or whatever. Get some perspective.
Some people are more equal than others then? I wonder what would happen if one of these gunslingers banned you?
I have perspective. I try to live up to the promise that it must never happen again. I believe that whenever we see evidence of the beast rising out of the human breast we must stand up and be counted ... even if we get knocked down in the process. I am prepare to stand and be counted ... are you?
Ponder this: ============ Niemoller's address to the U.S. Congress
The exact text of what Martin Niemoller said, and which appears in the Congressional Record, October 14, 1968, page 31636 is:
"When Hitler attacked the Jews I was not a Jew, therefore I was not concerned.
And when Hitler attacked the Catholics, I was not a Catholic, and therefore, I was not concerned.
And when Hitler attacked the unions and the industrialists, I was not a member of the unions and I was not concerned.
Then Hitler attacked me and the Protestant church -- and there was nobody left to be concerned."
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