Monday, January 26, 2009

Conservapedia-aka You Have Got To Be Joking

You might consider the following exhibit A as to why the Republican Party has lost the last two elections. It is supposedly from a site called Conservapedia. Although it was founded by a son of Phyllis Schafley (based on the proposition that Wikipedia, from which it was modelled, has a liberal bias) as a conservative learning tool for home-schooled conservative children and a reference guide for social conservatives in general, this entry at least seems to read more like Landover Baptist. Click on the picture to enlarge. I have more thoughts on this matter below, as this might not be so cut-and-dried as it seems.



Sometimes it's really better to just keep your sentiments to yourelf, isn't it? Or, is this a legitimate representation of the site's views? Bear in mind, I found out about this from Wonkette.

I have to wonder if this might be a matter of trolling. Conservapedia prides itself on being harder to disrupt than Wikipedia, in that they have more stringent guidelines for posting and editing. Still, how hard could it be to open an account, wait a few weeks or even months, possibly post a few minor entries in order to secure status, and then make a submission designed to embarrass the site and make waves? One possible clue is the title of the above picture, which is "killem", but of course anyone who saves a picture from a site onto their computer can change the name of the image. If it was a legitimate or semi-legitimate (posted by a true conservative who is about three bricks short of a load), the name may have been different. Or maybe not.

To be sure, there are undoubtedly conservatives who genuinely feel this way, just as there are more than a handful of liberals who are as bad or worse. A few random samplings of the more lunatic postings of Democratic Underground, for just one example, would certainly attest to that.

Nevertheless, this is quite remarkable. Bear in mind one or a few conservative posters does not necessarily represent the majority, even on Conservapedia, which for the time being is down for "maintenance". A visit to their site reveals the following temporary posting-

Conservapedians,

We are working on some maintenance now. Conservapedia will be back up shortly.

Thank you for your patience, Conservapedia Staff


When the site is back up, I have an idea the offending posting will have been removed. In the meantime-Wonkette, if you did that, (1) you ought to be ashamed of yourselves and (2) okay, yes, that was hilarious.

And if this really was an intentional posting by Conservapedia-yes, I know many leftists and liberals are every bit as bad, but remember, the conservative movement is the one at a severe disadvantage, for now, and these kinds of antics are not helpful, to put it lightly.

UPDATE-Well, the page is back up-kind of. Yeah, the page is there, with the title Democratic Senators From States With Republican Governors. However, aside from that tile, the page is a blank, empty, save for the usual side-bar links and whatnot, the things that appear on all pages, like for example a link to the home page. Judging by this, I was correct in my assessment that the page being down for maintenance was precisely due to this article, though as far as I know they have not directly addressed the controversy yet. Maybe in time they will. I would like to see some kind of attempt at an explanation, denial, accusation of sabotage, or something, even if its something stupid. Come to think of it, that would be so much the better.

4 comments:

Frank Partisan said...

The link led to a page that exceeded its bandwidth.

There are conservative news channels, book publishers, make-up lines, rock bands etc.

Rightist counterculture.

SecondComingOfBast said...

Yep, there are conservative everything, except for one thing-a conservative party.

Tony Sidaway said...

The filename "killem" on the picture is a red herring. It's a screen shot made by, or sent to, Wonkette, and the word does not originate on the Conservapedia website.

I've speculated that this guy was genuine, because he acted like a genuine editor for months (see my blog on this) but actually it isn't unknown for a parodist on Conservapedia to go undetected for ages.

One user, Bugler, became a site sysop and was a favorite of site founder Andrew Schlafly, until one day a few weeks ago he admitted he was a parodist and left the site.

What is significant, I think, is that the article stood around for three or four days and was given minor edits by about half a dozen well established editors, who must have seen the text, but it was only after the Wonkette site highlighted it that it was deleted and blamed on a parodist.

Unknown said...

If ever, in the course of human events, I should find myself, like
Frank Olson or Edward Kelly, falling from a lofty precipice or
high-rise building, PLEASE rush to place copies of this page under me to break my fall...
More fluff on this chatty little
Huffington Post-type coffee-clatch
than Milo Mindebinder's entire
Egyptian cotton crop...
But hey, who gives a motherfueking
shit, right?
Oh well, i'll let you get back to
your chilli & fudge recipes...
GODDESS(motherfucking)BLESS!