From: Rob gamaliel8@gmail.com Reply-To: English Wikipedia wikien-l@Wikipedia.org To: "English Wikipedia" wikien-l@wikipedia.org Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Nazi userboxes Date: Thu, 30 Nov 2006 16:47:16 -0500
On 11/30/06, Thomas Dalton thomas.dalton@gmail.com wrote:
Is everyone displaying any of the userboxes on these pages
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:GRBerry/German_userbox_solution#Political_...
going to banned?
The only reason I can see for treating Nazis differently from anyone else is because people don't like Nazis. It boils down to banning someone for being unpopular.
If Wikipedia were based in Germany, it would be an obvious ban for breaking the law, but Wikipedia is under US jurisdiction, and the US doesn't have any such law.
Do you believe that the Nazi party is no different from any of those other parties, or is this just a cheap rhetorical device? Be honest.
Do you also not see the difference between free speech in the public sphere and in the private sphere? While the principles of and laws regarding free speech should of course apply to Nazis like they do to everyone else, Wikipedia is not obligated by those principles and laws to provide a soapbox for Nazis.
Isn't it pretty far outside of our purview to be providing a soapbox for some controversial political parties and not others? Why do we allow any of this crap? What justifies allowing people to proclaim their affiliation with one party and not another? I'll agree that Nazi is beyond the pale, but where, precisely, is "the pale"?
GTB
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