Greetings,
It is asked: "are we apolitical?" A spin-off question: "are we
unbiased?"
On Wikipedia, we (are to) provide and serve knowledge/information, not any
particular view(s)
Thanks
Tito Dutta
On Sun, 26 Apr 2020 at 00:34, Chris Gates via Wikimedia-l <
wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
Agreed. There is no way to get around the fact that
some people oppose our
message of free access to our projects for everyone, and the actions we
make in favor of that goal are often political.
However, there is a very large gap between publicly supporting such
policies as a less regulated internet, copyright advocacy, etc., and Earth
Day Live's endorsed viewpoint.
If they were solely about Earth Day, we'd have no issues, as the few people
who oppose Earth Day are probably living in the mountains somewhere with a
half dozen solar panels and tinfoil hats to protect themselves from the
flying saucers surveying the flat earth.
The problem I have with Earth Day Live is that, were the Wikimedia
Foundation to publicly endorse those views, it would inherently be
isolating of people who do not share them. For example, there were many
people on the endorsed streams advocating for all industries to have unions
and a universal $15 minimum wage. Ignoring the fact that it's specifically
American and was shown to everyone globally, I do not support either of
those policies for various reasons (primarily that much of my work is done
for under $15/hr, and I would likely lose some of those jobs), and should
not be forced at odds with the WMF's party line.
If the Foundation begins publicly endorsing certain policies or viewpoints
that are not directly a part of the mission which we all agree with and
work towards, people who disagree with those viewpoints would be forced
into opposition of the foundation intended to represent the work they
volunteer for Wikimedia projects. Our intention is to deliver unbiased
information to people, and if the Foundation has a declared political
stance other than our mission statement, it also opens the Foundation to
legitimate criticism on claims of bias.
There is also the argument of timelessness. Two hundred years ago there was
a very different political landscape with very different arguments taking
place. Two hundred years from now, provided humanity still exists, would
likely be very different than today. Assuming that the WMF and Wikipedia
will still be around, is it better to attempt to remain out of political
advocacy (with the exception of our mission), or to take distinct political
stances whenever the political field shifts? I fall in the former category.
Best regards,
Chris Gates
(User:Vermont)
On Sat, Apr 25, 2020 at 12:45 PM Camelia Boban <camelia.boban(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
Absolutely agree with both. Everything we do in
the wiki movement (as
everything we do in our whole life) has (also) a political meaning.
As we have certain goals and we take certain positions.
Camelia
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Il giorno sab 25 apr 2020 alle ore 18:12 Rebecca O'Neill <
rebeccanineil(a)gmail.com> ha scritto:
Well said. Everything is political, and when the
movement choses not to
speak out or state an opinion on something, then we are giving our
support
> to the status quo.
>
> Believing yourself to be apolitical is as much a fantasy as being
> completely objective, it is inherently impossible.
>
> Rebecca
>
> On Sat, 25 Apr 2020, 16:50 John Erling Blad, <jeblad(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > It is said quite often that the Wikimedia-movement is apolitical. In
> > strongly believe the movement with its goal has never been, and never
> will
> > be apolitical. When we say that knowledge should be free and fully
> > available for everyone, then we make a political statement. It may
not
>
align with you favorite love/hate political party, but it is still a
very
> > strong political statement.
> >
> > So please, don't claim the movement to be apolitical. We may not
align
> with
> > any specific political party in any specific country, but we are
still
> not
> > apolitical.
> >
> > /jeblad
> > _______________________________________________
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