Post
by CrowsNest » Wed Oct 31, 2018 12:01 pm
Ordinarily, this should have been a hopeless exercise, with a landslide of opposition of the type seen by the early voters. What I think is happening here, is an accidental alliance of two sick factions, to overturn the orthodoxy of awfulness that is Wikipedia governance.
First, there is the sort of evilness represented by Drmies and Cullen et al, some very twisted and manipulative people who are justifiably criticised by us for their epic levels of shamelessness and hypocrisy. They've seen Sashi associate with us and agree with us, even assist us, and so obviously they see no downsides and lots of upsides in getting him to spend more time on Wikipedia, on condition he is not allowed to criticise them there. Even better if he voluntarily offers that up as his own unblock restriction/condition, getting him to do that is a classic example of the sort of psychological manipulation that is part and parcel of Wikipedia's control mechanisms. The only people who cannot be controlled, are the elite power users pulling Sashi's strings here.
His return to the fold gives him less time to spend here, if he returns at all. But if he does, he cannot criticise them here either, much less investigate or make accusations. If he did he would be reported for being a very naughty boy, and so likely be very quickly re-banned. Wherein he would perhaps be surprised to learn that his first ban will absolutely count when people consider his overall record when discussing his second potential ban, even if many people are claiming now it should be overturned because it was unfair.
There is a second grouping at work here too, the likes of 28Bytes and Boing!, people who would have bridled at the characterisation of Wikipedoracy as "a cesspool for discontents". They're not so much supporting Sashi to benefit Sashi, as they are opposing those who would exclude him because they think he has Wikipediocracy cooties. They see the potential reformation of Sashi as yet another thing they can use to demonstrate Wikipediocracy is not a hate site.
Not a threat at all, but rather Wikipedia's long lost friend, a place that even more Wikipedians need to come over to. To make it even more of a useful tool for furthering the interests of certain disaffected Wikipedians, people who cannot reasonably claim any common cause with Sashi, or people like us. They'd be very glad he is trying to soothe their fears he has an ulterior motive, because hidden motives is their thing. We are upfront, we are the hate site, and you should be afraid of us. We find little point in insurrection, it is largely a waste of a serious critic's time.
This second group aren't doing it because they have sympathy for Sashi, they were largely indifferent to his plight. They could have exposed Cirt months ago, it was a Wikipedia editor well on the fringes of the cult (openly dismissed on Wikipedia as biased by MjolnirPants, with absolutely no sanctions forthcoming) who finally thought, this is fucked up, and filed the SPI. Their question to Wikipediocracy's regulars, "why didn't Wikipedia do this when it was so obvious?" was met with the usual apologisms. You would be a fool to assume Cirt isn't one of them.
Jake admitted he hasn't even bothered to look into his case until now, until it looked like he might get back in. Sashi has over 1,000 posts to Wikipediocracy, and yet even their Administrator didn't care to investigate why, only discovering now that his expulsion was "comically trussed-up" and "laughable". Jake was happy to sit back and ignore Sashi as just another disillusioned victim of the cult washed up his shore, and he has plenty of those in his ranks. Until he realised there was something in it for him to see him rehabilitated. Not for him is our noble cause of providing safe harbour and enlightenment.
If Jake genuinely cared about Sashi, he would have taken an interest and compelled the likes of Alex Shih, who now has over fifty posts on their site, to answer the questions he has been putting to him on Wikipediocracy about what precisely ArbCom did in their deliberations of the justice of his ban, if anything at all. There are at least seven regular Wikipedicracy posters supporting Sashi in this request that I can identify, which means there are probably more who keep their association very secret. More than enough to sway the outcome.
Where were they when Sashi was asking pertinent questions on Wikipediocracy? Things that needed to be brought up on Wikipedia? I don't recall them saying anything on Wikipedia, which is understandable - first rule of the cult, you do not stick your neck out for anyone, unless to do so advances you up a level. But they will gladly take a small risk to benefit the cult's little brother, if it helps it grow in influence over Papa Bear.
Jake is only interested in protecting the influential Wikipedia insiders who come to his site, in the process shedding Wikipediocracy's already pretty diluted bad reputation within the cult. He wants more of them to come over and enjoy his hospitality on favourable terms. The sight of them returning a nicely rehabilitated Sashi is a means to that end, hence why he received special coaching from jps on how to get back in. You only get a bad reputation within the cult, by delivering solid, hard hitting critiques of it.
jps, a Wikipedia sock-master himself, would love nothing more than to see more powerful Wikipedians who support his Guerilla Skepticism agenda, becoming a part of the Wikipediocracy establishment. It's all about making sure the only people who can stand to be on Wikipediocracy, are those who think the right thoughts. It befits a Wikipedia that is now a hair's breadth away from declaring belief in God to be a reason to ban you.
What I don't see here, is anyone acting for the benefit only of Wikipedia, and not simply to benefit themselves or to disadvantage critics, including Sash, as a primary if not their only motive. If you were only interested in the long term health of Wikipedia, you'd say to Sashi, mea culpa for the whole Cirt thing, by all means come back, and absolutely keep kicking over rocks and let us know any time you spot what you think is an obvious sock or a massively biased editor who is gaming the system to eliminate opponents, because we clearly absolutely suck at it. Don't worry if you're not productive in writing or maintaining content, we have plenty of people who are solely interested in that.
They'd never say that though, because a core feature of the Wikipedia cult, is that you don't go looking for socks because they are a bad thing for Wikipedia, you use that spectre of unpersonning tactically, to smear and ultimately eliminate your opponents. Just as they use this idea that not writing or maintaining content, is somehow a sign you are a threat to Wikipedia.
On Wikipedia, if you want to last, you are meant to look the other way if an obvious a sock is helping you, or if the games of a biased editor match your strategic goals. Because of the pervasive bias that is present on Wikipedia, something that Wikipediocracy is absolutely OK with, nobody complained about Cirt, not his obvious socking or his elimination of Sashi, at least nobody who mattered. Sashi was seen as a threat, even an oddball, on both Wikipedia and Wikipediocracy, for daring to suggest Wikipedia's coverage of Jill Stein wasn't neutral.
In their warped minds, defeating an opponent, and by fair means or foul, is always a benefit to Wikipedia, because by definition, what they do is always in the best interests of Wikipedia. The fact they let Sashi get banned in the first place, proves that to be untrue. Despite countless examples like this, they absolutely assume an air of infallibility. This is the level of arrogance you have to have, to be able to readily assume that you can write a better encyclopedia than the professionals.
This isn't really genuine guilt that is on display here on the supporter's part, this is fear that Sashi gets totally disillusioned by being kept permanently on the sidelines, even though his ban was clearly unjust. They already know what happens in this scenario, because they've seen it with the mistake they made with The Devil's Advocate - the shunned editor gets so pissed off they start writing exposes for publications who are only too eager to receive stories of Wikipedia's bias and dysfunction, perpetuated by a psychotic system of governance that is anything but what is advertised. They saw that Sashi has the same passion and outlet for writing his thoughts as TDA had, so they have decided to nullify the threat.
Pertinent to all this, is this sick idea that that there is no justice on Wikipedia. Any instances of what looks like justice in how you are treated, particularly by a large group of Wikipedians massed to consider who is and is not worthy to share the sandpit, any outbreaks of fairness and due process in how the mob operates, are always going to be purely accidental at best, outright deceptions or PR stunts at worst.
They're super proud of this 'no justice' mantra, they love that they are this fucking awful in how they treat people, particularly outsiders or nonconformists. So much so that they clearly wouldn't break that long tradition of no justice just for Sashi, who admits himself he hasn't really done a lot for Wikipedia, content wise, and that doesn't look like changing upon his return. Therefore, quite obviously, the motive for unblocking can't be to right a wrong and see justice done in the end. Nor can it be their sick version of welcoming back a useful editor who is contrite and recommitted to being WP:THERE.
The pertinent phrase is, keep your (capable) enemies closer. Sashi should be flattered.
