Yeah, there’s all sorts of crazy political purity tests on Lemmy, and associated misuse of slurs.
And on Wikipedia:
On one side, my MAGA-adjacent family is starting to question it as “liberal biased”… as they leave Fox News blasting in the background.
On the other, tankies and some different leftist extremist leftists dismiss it as propaganda.
That’s a good sign, to me. Its never been perfect and has problems, but extremists trying to tear its credibility down is a sign of just how valuable it is.
how about one of the original creators of wikipedia no longer using his own software and encouraging everyone to also not use it? he claims that the cia have been using it as a tool of information warfare since 2007
I will admit that for shallow questions like ‘did this thing happen in this year’? wikipedia can sometimes be more useful than a plain search engine, also sometimes from wikipedia you can find links to real sources which can also be useful.
Since Sanger’s departure from Wikipedia, he has been critical of the project, describing it in 2007 as being “broken beyond repair”.[8] He has argued that, despite its merits, Wikipedia lacks credibility and accuracy due to a lack of respect for expertise. Since 2020, he has also accused Wikipedia of having a left-wing and liberal ideological bias in its articles.[9][10] Sanger’s effort to change Wikipedia was seen by some as part of a right-wing attack on Wikipedia.[11][12]
Of course Wikipedia is biased (probably western/liberal biased), astroturfed, and such. I was taught that in middle school. But calling it something like a CIA misinformation op falls into “perfect is the enemy of good” at best, and sounds more like the efforts of bad actors trying to tear down information sources they can’t control.
I really don’t like that.
For all its flaws, Wikipedia is one of the last “free” information oases on Earth. It’s critical to humanity’s survival. It should improve, yes, but we don’t need any more conspiracies undermining it.
Yeah, there’s all sorts of crazy political purity tests on Lemmy, and associated misuse of slurs.
And on Wikipedia:
On one side, my MAGA-adjacent family is starting to question it as “liberal biased”… as they leave Fox News blasting in the background.
On the other, tankies and some different leftist extremist leftists dismiss it as propaganda.
That’s a good sign, to me. Its never been perfect and has problems, but extremists trying to tear its credibility down is a sign of just how valuable it is.
how about one of the original creators of wikipedia no longer using his own software and encouraging everyone to also not use it? he claims that the cia have been using it as a tool of information warfare since 2007
I will admit that for shallow questions like ‘did this thing happen in this year’? wikipedia can sometimes be more useful than a plain search engine, also sometimes from wikipedia you can find links to real sources which can also be useful.
On the contrary, to quote Wikipedia’s article on him:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Sanger
Which lines up with external articles written by him that I’m reading, including his take on Grokipedia: https://larrysanger.org/2025/10/grokipedia-a-first-look/
Of course Wikipedia is biased (probably western/liberal biased), astroturfed, and such. I was taught that in middle school. But calling it something like a CIA misinformation op falls into “perfect is the enemy of good” at best, and sounds more like the efforts of bad actors trying to tear down information sources they can’t control.
I really don’t like that.
For all its flaws, Wikipedia is one of the last “free” information oases on Earth. It’s critical to humanity’s survival. It should improve, yes, but we don’t need any more conspiracies undermining it.