05 October 2009

Wikipedia is Untrustworthy

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You can write anything you want on the internet. Do a search for "founding fathers are terrorists" and in about 0.08 seconds, it will generate over 84000 pages of results. Yes, the Declaration of Independence was high treason, but they were hardly terrorists. Since when is it terrorism to urge British citizens to exercise their franchise and demand representation? Since when is it terrorism to throw tea into the harbor? If thoughts and opinions are treasonous, then we'd all have to turn ourselves in.

That being said, just because someone writes something doesn't make it fact.

Wikipedia may be a good place to start, but it is far from authoritative. For my own part, in lieu of trusting what Wikipedia says Keynes or Smith said about Economics, I read their books. I read Rules for Radicals and the Federalist Papers. I have seen the Declaration, the Constitution, and the Magna Charta. I didn't just watch Kiera Knightly in Pride and Prejudice- I read it. I don't trust what people say just because it's at my fingertips in under a second via whatever search engine you choose.

A few years ago, several Duke Lacrosse players were slandered with accusations of rape. A few years ago, a friend of mine was accused of adultery. Back in grad school, I was accused of cheating, and as an undergrad, I was accused of lifting a paper from another source. Despite unfounded allegations in all of these instances, the accused have been exonerated. DNA evidence has commuted the sentences of people on death row. Sarah Palin, whom I do not know and for whom I am not sure I would vote, was buried in legal challenges as the governor. As Letterman basted her with jokes about situations of illicit physical intimacy involving various members of her family, he until this last week obfuscated his own dirty laundry.

Those who scream the loudest, when they are themselves not paragons of virtue, more often than not proclaim their own sin as sodom. Mark my words- he who smelt it dealt it. If it stinks, look to the source, not the target.

So, wikipedia may be easily accessible, but if you let your education end there, your freedom will end there too. As for paragons of virtue, if you meet one, tell me. I would like to be his friend.

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