skippy the bush kangaroo: stupidpedia

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

stupidpedia

over at pharyngula, pz myers almost reluctantly describes why the conservapedia (the conservative answer to the wikipedia) is so bad it's pathetic:

in fact, reading through it leads me to wonder if it isn't actually a parody site. some people are getting the same impression of overwhelming evidence, the intelligent design site that was set up to cater to the teen crowd, but is also looking like a magnet for parodists; the rebuttal to ian musgrave's summary of the evolution of the clotting pathway, for instance, is an amazingly subtle thing that basically puts the idists on the side against any detailed discussion of molecular pathways. it's also obvious that the people behind oe are completely oblivious to the sneaky undermining that is going on, largely because it is so close to their actual positions.

i predict that conservapedia is going to experience the same problem—i look forward to seeing devious examples of the conservative position being delicately exposed as inane. you can't find a better example than their tirade against the biases in wikipedia, which i suspect was written by a sincere conservative, but reads like something out of the onion. among the things they find objectionable:

the use of "bce" and "ce" instead of bc and ad in dates.

wikipedia has lots of articles about trivia, like music and movies.

some articles use the british spellings for words.

they just want more credit given to jesus for everything.

the whole worldwide community of english speakers edits wikipedia; they're going to emphasize american (by which they mean not liberal) opinions.

too many wikipedia entries are "gossipy" or sound like something from the national enquirer.

you know, if someone wanted to just go with it and pretend to be the most obnoxious, sanctimonious, narrow-minded blue-nosed prig, you could probably have a ball writing all kinds of sneering articles for conservapedia. i predict that the history pages are going to be great fun to read, as the editors egg each other on to be more and more outrageously reactionary.

we can't wait to look up noah loading velociraptors onto the ark two by two.

Labels: blogtopia, right hypocrisy

posted by skippy at 8:33 PM |

7 Comments:

you know, if someone wanted to just go with it and pretend to be the most obnoxious, sanctimonious, narrow-minded blue-nosed prig, you could probably have a ball writing all kinds of sneering articles for conservapedia.

Speaking in my role as sanctimonious blue-nosed prig, I have to say that it doesn't sound like all that much fun.

Chalmers Wöder Patterson
Author of "When Conservative Parents Give Birth to Liberal Chldren: A Call for National Sacrifice"
(Regnery - 2003)

commented by

Anonymous, 9:00 PM PST

I think you might particularly be interested in the entry for "Kangaroo," which I cited in my piece on Conservapedia.

commented by

Jon Swift, 10:26 AM PST

Apparently, you've had your wish fulfilled:

http://www.conservapedia.com/velociraptor

commented by

The Factician, 7:15 AM PST

This comment has been removed by the author.

commented by

The Factician, 7:15 AM PST

Jesus Christ, that jon swift person is a moron.

"Many priests and nuns" were apparently killed in the Holocaust? Okay. "Many priests and nuns" were also complicit with the Nazis with their silence, up to and including the Pope, who could have granted asylum to the Italian Jews, but did not. Cardinal Innitzer of Vienna saluted Hitler and yelled "Heil, Hitler!" as Hitler drove into Vienna as a conquerer.

http://www.reformation.org/holoc15.html

In jon swift's world, victims of priest sexual abuse probably asked for it.

commented by

Laura Linger, 8:28 AM PST

http://emperors-clothes.com/vatican/cpix.htm

commented by

Laura Linger, 8:30 AM PST

People really ought to consider that name, "Jon Swift", before getting irate.

commented by

PZ Myers, 9:40 AM PST

Add a comment