[WikiEN-l] User:Hillman's arguments

[Fred Bauder]

On Jul 27, 2006, at 1:08 AM, Jesse W wrote:

> I just replaced the content of my user page with the following.  I
> thought I would mention this on the list, also, as the resulting
> discussion might be useful.
>
> I find the arguments at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Hillman  
> to be
> disturbing, sensible, and very worrying. I encourage everyone who  
> reads
> this to go read them, and think about them. As I understand them, the
> central point is that Wikipedia, along with many other cultural  
> forces,
> are encouraging convenience over correctness, i.e. it's more important
> to find an answer than the best answer. The specifics, which are as
> important as the general issues, are that, even as the absolute number
> of excellent article revisions stored on Wikipedia increases, the
> percentage of non-misleading article revisions is decreasing; i.e.
> people who want to use Wikipedia to mislead others are having more and
> more success. This also is very disturbing to me, and causes me to
> strongly reconsider my participation in Wikipedia - it is not good  
> work
> to do your part in polishing a building which is being increasingly
> taken over by filth. I would be better off submitting corrections to
> resources which are not suffering from this malady. This is saddening.
> I would love to hear any rebuttals, or even mere comments of sympathy,
> on my talk page. JesseW, the juggling janitor 07:03, 27 July 2006  
> (UTC)
>
> Jesse Weinstein

There is a profound contradiction between knowledge and the social  
construction of knowledge. Wikipedia is about knowledge in all its  
flavors, Fox News, Democracy Now, or the People's Daily are about  
social construction of knowledge, advancing one point of view for the  
good of society.

I do agree that in medical articles it might be best to emphasis the  
mainstream view. Sometimes it is wise to not confuse folks.

But I note you discuss filth. What in your opinion constitutes  
"filth"? Could you also give a few examples of misleading information?

Fred