Thursday, May 3, 2007

Conservapedia, an update


So, the happy little writers at Conservapedia have been busy. If you'll recall, Conservapedia is the wikipedia analogue that has a number of slightly different rules. For example:

We do not allow liberal censorship of conservative facts. Wikipedia editors who are far more liberal than the American public frequently censor factual information. Conservapedia does not censor any facts that comport with the basic rules.
Ahhh... conservative facts. Unlike, for example, communist facts. Or libertarian facts.

Conservapedia is an attempt to make a parallel universe for conservatives, where they can create their own facts. In that regard, they've been quite successful. They've filled in many details in pages that were previously barely more than a sentence or two. For example, they've fleshed out their entry on Unicorns:
The existence of unicorns is controversial. Secular opinion is that they are mythical, however some young earth believing Christian apologists have advanced various arguments that the biblical unicorn was not a fantasy animal and that the animal did not have one horn.
Wow. Unicorns are controversial? Good thing they're trying to stay "true and verifiable."

And their religious references are not that subtle. From their page on yeast:
Over 600 different species of yeast are known and God has widely distributed them in nature.
What else have they been up to? Oh, how about a conspiracy-a-palooza! (And they didn't invite me!). Here they tell us why those dirty liberals come up with god-hating ideas like evilution:
Many graduate students in anthropology and related fields need topics and funding for doctoral work, and the Theory of Evolution fills that need. If the theory were recognized to be false, then these graduate students would be left without work and jobs. The financial incentives may exceed $1 billion annually, and will cause a greater support for the theory, particularly among academics and government workers benefiting from the money, than would exist in the absence of these incentives.
Holy, moley. What a scam! The government will hand out money just because an idea exists, even if it's not true? Just 'cause? (/sarcasm) My head hurts. As it happens, according to Conservapedia the motives to spewing evilution aren't just financial, they're also political:
The more a state imposes the teaching of evolution in its schools, the more liberal that state votes on Election Day. Tennessee is an example of a state that kept evolution out of its schools for most of the 20th century, including winning the Scopes trial to ban the teaching of human evolution. It has consistently been one of the most conservative states on Election Day, and even rejected its own native son Al Gore in 2000, causing him to lose the election.
I feel faintly ill, reading this. This is a conspiracy just too grand, even for me. Fortunately for me, this little ironic gem is right at the end:
Once accepted for years, it can become difficult for some people to question that as an adult and admit that they were misled by people they trusted, or admit that they were wrong for much of their life.
Yep, at least I agree with them on that one, though perhaps not in the sense that they intend.

Go ahead. Swing on over there. And while you're there, make an account, and write something up. It seems to have fewer satirists on now, and more batshit crazy conspiracy loons.

Digg!

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