{"id":58512,"date":"2021-07-05T19:00:24","date_gmt":"2021-07-06T00:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=58512"},"modified":"2021-07-05T19:00:24","modified_gmt":"2021-07-06T00:00:24","slug":"wikipedia-is-more-one-sided-than-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=58512","title":{"rendered":"Wikipedia Is More One-Sided Than Ever"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Wikipedia Is More One-Sided Than Ever<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Some animals are more equal than others.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cAll encyclopedic content on Wikipedia,\u201d\u00a0declares<\/a>\u00a0a policy page, \u201cmust be written from a\u00a0neutral point of view<\/strong>\u00a0(NPOV<\/strong>).\u201d This is essential policy, believe it or not. Maybe that will be hard to believe, if you have read many Wikipedia articles on controversial topics lately. But it is true: neutrality is the second of the \u201cFive Pillars\u201d policies that\u00a0define<\/a>\u00a0Wikipedia\u2019s approach to the craft of encyclopedia-writing. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales made a statement that Wikipedia now regards as definitive. \u201cDoing The Right Thing takes many forms,\u201d he\u00a0wrote<\/a>, \u201cbut perhaps most central is the preservation of our shared vision for the\u00a0NPOV\u00a0and for a culture of thoughtful diplomatic honesty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes, Wikipedia is very earnest about its neutrality.<\/p>\n

But what does \u201cneutral\u201d mean? This is easy to misunderstand; many people think it means the same as \u201cobjective.\u201d But neutrality is not the same as objectivity. If an encyclopedia is neutral about political, scientific, and religious controversies\u2014the issues that define the ongoing culture war\u2014then you will find competing sides represented carefully and respectfully, even if one side is \u201cobjectively\u201d wrong. From a truly neutral article, you would learn why, on a whole variety of issues, conservatives believe one thing, while progressives believe another thing. And then you would be able to make up your own mind.<\/p>\n

Is that what Wikipedia offers? As we will see, the answer is No.<\/p>\n

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Like Switzerland. Sort of.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

What Is \u201cNeutrality,\u201d Anyway?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cNow wait a second,\u201d I can already hear some people saying. \u201cI reject this distinction between objectivity and neutrality. Neutrality does not mean giving equal weight to all opinions. Neutrality means approaching issues without emotion, following standards of logic and science. The neutral approach seeks hard facts and assembles hard-won truths for a critical audience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wikipedia Is More One-Sided Than Ever Some animals are more equal than others. \u201cAll encyclopedic content on Wikipedia,\u201d\u00a0declares\u00a0a policy page, \u201cmust be written from a\u00a0neutral point of view\u00a0(NPOV).\u201d This is essential policy, believe it or not. Maybe that will be hard to believe, if you have read many Wikipedia articles on controversial topics lately. But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[5243,31413,31414,18056],"class_list":["post-58512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liberty","tag-bias","tag-larry-sanger","tag-neutrality","tag-wikipedia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58512"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58513,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58512\/revisions\/58513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}