Wikipedia as the gaping anus of the Western world

You can talk about anything related to Wikipedia criticism here.
Post Reply
User avatar
Criminal Minds
Sucks Noob
Posts: 11
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2022 1:35 pm
Has thanked: 5 times
Been thanked: 8 times

Wikipedia as the gaping anus of the Western world

Post by Criminal Minds » Fri Aug 12, 2022 3:33 pm

The more I immerse myself in Wikipedia, the more I come to view it as an abject cultural failure.

When you think about it, Wikipedia really is a major security vulnerability for the West. I have a hard time believing that it is controlled by Western intelligence agencies, as some here suggest. I see too much material on that site that is consistent with Russian, Chinese, foreign nationalist, pervert, etc objectives, rather than American or British intelligence agencies.

Yes, CIA-related groups have dumped a ton of money in the project. But this really just makes them look like sad, hapless retards, who are funding their own humiliation. Which is nothing unusual. After all the US govt has been pumping money in to self-defeating projects for decades, and shows no sign of kicking the habit, ever.

Imagine what Yuri Bezmenov would have thought about Wikipedia. He rightfully saw the American education system as having been hijacked by the international left, but at least it might be possible to fix. How are you supposed to fix Wikipedia, an anonymous site that anyone in the world can use, and which is a nightmare to try and correct? It's total chaos. And I see mainly Russian, Chinese, foreign nationalists and so forth as the main beneficiaries of this tool.

And since both Wikipedia and the lazy, mentally sluggish West remain unflinchingly devoted to the values of free speech, collaboration, "community", freedom of information, anonymity, etc, it is unlikely they will be overcoming this handicap, ever.

User avatar
ericbarbour
Sucks Admin
Posts: 4547
Joined: Sat Feb 25, 2017 1:56 am
Location: The ass-tral plane
Has thanked: 1099 times
Been thanked: 1797 times

Re: Wikipedia as the gaping anus of the Western world

Post by ericbarbour » Sat Aug 13, 2022 5:51 am

Criminal Minds wrote:
Fri Aug 12, 2022 3:33 pm
Yes, CIA-related groups have dumped a ton of money in the project. But this really just makes them look like sad, hapless retards, who are funding their own humiliation. Which is nothing unusual. After all the US govt has been pumping money in to self-defeating projects for decades, and shows no sign of kicking the habit, ever.
Nailed it. More to the point: it's a failure partly because "the great American experiment" or whatever, is starting to fall apart. Mighty empires rarely last more than 250 years. Instead of "well run libraries" we get 30,000 chimpanzees with typewriters.

User avatar
wexter
Sucks Warrior
Posts: 574
Joined: Sun Nov 15, 2020 4:18 pm
Has thanked: 274 times
Been thanked: 279 times

Re: Wikipedia as the gaping anus of the Western world

Post by wexter » Sat Aug 13, 2022 1:24 pm

ericbarbour wrote:
Sat Aug 13, 2022 5:51 am
Criminal Minds wrote:
Fri Aug 12, 2022 3:33 pm
Yes, CIA-related groups have dumped a ton of money in the project. But this really just makes them look like sad, hapless retards, who are funding their own humiliation. Which is nothing unusual. After all the US govt has been pumping money in to self-defeating projects for decades, and shows no sign of kicking the habit, ever.
Nailed it. More to the point: it's a failure partly because "the great American experiment" or whatever, is starting to fall apart. Mighty empires rarely last more than 250 years. Instead of "well run libraries" we get 30,000 chimpanzees with typewriters.
I think it's the post WWII economic and security framework that is falling apart, and that framework is global to include global free trade. Yes, the "American Experiment" is also failing because "the organs" of governance no longer work. Organs include corporations, three branches of government, communication (press, Wikipedia, Alex Jones, etc), international institutions.

There is no overarching conspiracy of any kind. Nobody appreciates two major inflection points of recent history.

1945 to NOW

Examples of security framework and global framework failures
--Europe importing natural gas from Russia (there was a false expectation that they would integrate into the framework
--Corporations moving manufacturing to China to arbitrage labor and to evade costly first world "standards." Even with the "writing on the wall" there has been little adjustment on the part of corporations.
--Chinese exceptionalism, face, and feelings of historic humiliation
--Falsely justified Iraq war and failure to address 9-11
Every example above has had knock on effects that have to be worked out
There is a failure to acknowledge the security framework as a requirement for global and integrated economic function
There is quite a bit of magical thinking that has to adjust

Last 250 Years

The 250 years you describe might be the Anthropocene which is really a "Renaissance" that we have lived through. The starting point for this era might be the steam engine because it allowed us to access huge amounts of dense energy. Technology may have been a trigger for the American revolution which coincided. Renaissance, was even recognized by John Lovelock who coined Anthropocene, “ the colossal expansion of our knowledge of the world and the cosmos that this age has produced."


We are living (or lived through) the apex of a Renaissance.


The last 250 years can be charted and the chart looks exactly like Bitcoin in its heyday "L shaped to the left." The same chart pops up in population growth, human mobility, agricultural output, and technological advancement etc..

"Realization tends to happen slowly and then all at once"
"The framework (things we rely on) are working less well recently and will work even "less well" in the near future..

A huge change is going to have to be absorbed, by change and fact resistant people who are magical thinkers.

The "brunt" of this change will occur over my remaining lifetime (10-25 years), frankly the dislocation is happening sooner and faster than I anticipated. How we exit the change will be unknown at a lower base or higher base.


The "fall," dislocation, adjustment is going to be very unpleasant to live though for most people (even living through the adjustment will not be assured for tens or even hundreds of millions of people. Take away oil going to China, take away food going to China, take away natural gas going to Europe, take away finished goods (including chips) going to the US, and factor in declining demographics. Its going to be a disaster,


Wikipedia is just tons of bad information (entertainment, noise), it won't put food on the table even for its own participants.




It was a surprise to me that Tim Shell (Wikipedia founder) was "libertarian royalty" and a Ayn Rand fanatic (along with Jimbo). Libertarians (Liber-tards) are great at magical thinking, making lots of noise above their weight class, and mesmerizing the gullible. Libertarians have come up numerous times on this forum because the noise from them is spattered all over Wikipedia. Self ascribed Liber-tards and Anarchists are all grifters - its a narrative that got amplified by Bitcoin.


https://www.openculture.com/2017/04/buc ... -1965.html
Wikipedia - "Barely competent and paranoid. There’s a hell of a combination."

User avatar
ericbarbour
Sucks Admin
Posts: 4547
Joined: Sat Feb 25, 2017 1:56 am
Location: The ass-tral plane
Has thanked: 1099 times
Been thanked: 1797 times

Re: Wikipedia as the gaping anus of the Western world

Post by ericbarbour » Sat Aug 13, 2022 9:51 pm

wexter wrote:
Sat Aug 13, 2022 1:24 pm
Last 250 Years

The 250 years you describe might be the Anthropocene which is really a "Renaissance" that we have lived through. The starting point for this era might be the steam engine because it allowed us to access huge amounts of dense energy. Technology may have been a trigger for the American revolution which coincided. Renaissance, was even recognized by John Lovelock who coined Anthropocene, “ the colossal expansion of our knowledge of the world and the cosmos that this age has produced."
That was a PART of it. The USA grew quickly thanks to its natural resources, "lack of competition by native people" (because most of them were killed by the smallpox brought by Europeans in the 16th century), ample coastlines for shipping, moderate climate, plenty of good cropland, etc. as well as rapid industrialization. It's now 246 years old, counting from the Declaration of Independence.

Don't forget John Glubb's "Age of Empires" paper from 1976. Loads of academic people thought Glubb was a typical bigoted English empire heeler, and his Wikipedia article just drips with contempt. Some of his conclusions were a bit "approximate" thanks to the general random insanity of pre-industrial history. Not to mention poorly kept records. But I've yet to see any serious rebuttals to his paper about how long actual empires last. Arguments about the length of the Ottoman empire aside, the only major exception was first/second dynasty Egypt before the Greeks. People seem to accept these conclusions at general face value now.
Screenshot 2022-08-13 at 14-49-51 Fate of Empires - glubb.pdf.png
Screenshot 2022-08-13 at 14-49-51 Fate of Empires - glubb.pdf.png (72.71 KiB) Viewed 859 times

User avatar
wexter
Sucks Warrior
Posts: 574
Joined: Sun Nov 15, 2020 4:18 pm
Has thanked: 274 times
Been thanked: 279 times

Re: Wikipedia as the gaping anus of the Western world

Post by wexter » Sat Aug 13, 2022 11:08 pm

lack of competition
Lack of competition, was essentially an island - Mackinder, was the only country intact after WWII.

Glubb per your link - he seems to have described some of the elements of breakdown we are seeing today - including divisiveness.
Wikipedia - "Barely competent and paranoid. There’s a hell of a combination."

Post Reply