• ferristriangle [he/him]
    ·
    9 months ago

    So "people can be Nazi apologists and that's ok"

    How exactly are you coming to the conclusion that this is the position of the person you're replying to?

    Because in the comment chain that I'm reading @authorinthedark@lemmy.sdf.org is making the very reasonable argument that one editor/user =/= Wikipedia.

    The mistake you're making here is assuming that disagreeing with someone's reasoning is the same as disagreeing with their conclusion. We are all on board with the conclusion that the user (or users) that are trying to do nazi apologia are bad. What's being challenged is not whether or not it is good to do nazi apologia, but that in order for this specific event to be considered an example of Wikipedia engaging in nazi apologia as an organization then you need look at the outcome of the appeals process and not simply the fact that an appeal was made. An editor/user tried to white-wash and obscure the subject's nazi affiliation by making an appeal for deletion, the appeal was denied and Wikipedia kept the article up.

    You can still conclude that Wikipedia is systematically biased in numerous ways. That conclusion is not the subject of this discussion. What is being disputed is whether or not this specific incident is a valid component of the reasoning to make a conclusion about Wikipedia one way or the other, and I think it's apparent to everyone that the answer is "no, it is not." This incident tells us that there is a user or users that are shitty, but the end result was that Wikipedia as an organization denied their appeal and left the article up.

    There are certainly other arguments that can be made which support the conclusion that Wikipedia is full of pro-imperialist bias and the like, but this incident is not a good candidate for supporting that conclusion. But what you seem to be doing is working backwards by assuming, "we all agree that (conclusion) is correct, therefore all arguments supporting (conclusion) must also be correct. And anyone who disputes (argument/reasoning) must also be disputing (conclusion)." But this line of thought is simply wrong. You can use ridiculous logic and land on the correct conclusion by chance. It's the classic case of "Right answer, wrong equation." There's no reason to assume that someone is supporting a conclusion that opposes the the one you support just because they're pointing out that you used the wrong equation to get there.

    • zephyreks [none/use name]
      ·
      9 months ago

      But these people see no accountability. Wikipedia doesn't have a mechanism of accountability against these anonymous bad actors.

      • ferristriangle [he/him]
        ·
        9 months ago

        Accountability for what? Failing to delete an article?

        Accountability is for people who wield power. The review process denied them the power to delete the article. That seems plenty sufficient to me.

        • zephyreks [none/use name]
          ·
          9 months ago

          The guy has nothing to really tie him to the action so he can just go on the next post and do the same thing. Eventually it'll get through, because Wikipedia isn't staffed by perfect people. That's a bad thing.

          • ferristriangle [he/him]
            ·
            9 months ago

            Ah, so we're going with "it would be bad if this scenario had a different outcome, so we're just going to pretend this scenario actually represents the bad outcome that didn't happen so I can rationalize being mad about this non-issue."