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DaBair — More like Irrational Wiki.

Published: 2023-07-08 00:19:43 +0000 UTC; Views: 3206; Favourites: 25; Downloads: 0
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Description WARNING: Controversial stamp ahead! Before I begin running my mouth, I just want to let you know that all of the beliefs I'm expressing on here are my own opinions. If you're upset by any of my political opinions, I'm just letting you know that I'm not trying to attack you in particular. The only people I'm criticizing here are RationalWiki and its userbase. I'm going to keep the comments closed since someone might take it the wrong way and try to debate me.

I've never been a fan of political wikis. There are a lot of really bad ones, like Encyclopedia Dramatica, Conservapedia, and Metapedia for example. But I'm not going to go over those today since everyone's already said what needs to be said about them. Today I'm going to go over RationalWiki. Unlike the other wikis I've listed, which are right-wing wikis, RationalWiki is a left-wing wiki. I've seen fewer detailed criticisms of it that don't come from conservatives, which is why I'm talking about it today. Although I may have come off as liberal at times and conservative at others, I identify with the political center and have for quite some time now. Originally I identified as Democrat, then later as Republican until I decided to foreswear all political parties. I am liberal on some issues (like gun control, disability rights, gender equality, and same-sex marriage) and conservative on others (like trans women competing in women's sports, English being the only official US language, legalization of drugs, and (to an extent) abortion). But these days people like me seem to be becoming rarer every year.

Now I'm going to talk about RationalWiki. As I said before, it has a liberal bias. But it takes liberalism pretty far. First off, they're extremely anti-religion. People on RationalWiki seem to hate everyone who's not a left-wing atheist. The truth is, being a left-wing atheist doesn't make you any more "rational" than anyone who's conservative or believes in God. Granted, a lot of religious conservatives are extremely irrational, but irrationality is not confined to one side of the political spectrum. They seem to especially hate Christianity (which makes sense since most of them are probably ex-Christians) and vilify famous Christians. To name one example, they consider Mother Teresa to be a con artist (which is actually a common belief among atheists). They also vilify and demonize people who've done nothing to them at all just because they're not atheists or liberals. They're also "woke" about literally everything, from racial issues to gender issues to trans rights. I might be wrong, but I feel like most of RationalWiki's users are white.

The RationalWiki community also labels many people as "alt-right" even if they're only mildly conservative or don't identify with the alt-right. They also consider most conservative leaders to be dictators, including Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, and Jefferson Davis. Granted, I hate Confederate apologists, but I think calling Jefferson Davis a dictator is a bit extreme. (And hey, Lincoln, though less racist than Jefferson Davis, didn't have 21st century views on black people either.) I hate Donald Trump with a flaming passion and I'm not a fan of Boris Johnson either, but calling them dictators is way too extreme, especially because they didn't take away freedom of speech like, say, Hitler or Mussolini did. Also, some of the users seem to give Islam special treatment by refusing to criticize Islam (even though Islam is a very conservative religion) or in some cases even trying to "rationalize" dangerous Islamists like ISIS and al-Qaeda. To be fair, though, some RationalWiki users are also anti-Islam (especially ones who are ex-Muslims). In fact, there's been edit wars between pro-Islam and anti-Islam users. Meanwhile left-wing leaders get nothing but praise and deification. If you pointed out that Ilhan Omar is anti-Semitic, that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez cries during her speeches, or that Elizabeth Warren's claims of Native American ancestry really are fake, then they'd brand you a racist and a sexist.

While they love to shit on religion, they give atheism special treatment. They consider atheism the only rational system of belief and they even seem to think that believing in God makes you stupid. This is particularly insulting. I do believe in God, but that doesn't mean I'm stupid! Just because someone believes in God DOES NOT mean that they're stupid! They also act like atheists are the only people who can support LGBT rights, and that only atheists can be scientists, which is very unfair to theists who love science and support LGBT rights. They even think women who don't identify as feminists have "internalized misogyny" (you know, because apparently there's no grey area between Anita Sarkeesian and Phyllis Schlafly) and that people of color who aren't woke have "internalized racism" (like if a black person doesn't support Black Lives Matter or if a Latino refuses to be called "Latinx"). God forbid people from marginalized groups have different opinions instead of agreeing on everything!

However, the thing I hate most about RationalWiki is their smug, snobby, pretentious, in-your-face attitude to just about everything. The snark you see in the articles is some of the most mean-spirited snark I've ever seen on the Internet and it almost rivals Encyclopedia Dramatica in fickle meanness. They look down on other cultures (such as Japanese) for not conforming to liberal Western atheist standards. They seem to think the average gamer is a fat, basement-dwelling angry white male Gamergater, even though this stereotype is not true at all. They even have a page about Nintendo, and they downright insult Nintendo and its fans. In fact, their general outlook on life is extremely cynical, miserable and depressing. If anything, they perpetuate the stereotype that atheists are cynical, nihilistic people. Oh, and did I mention that they consider J.K. Rowling to be a "slavery apologist"?

Honestly, some of the crap I've seen on RationalWiki doesn't even sound rational. Their arrogance and narcissism makes them sound very irrational. And why would you want to be around people like that? They may be right about some stuff, but they're a community of insufferable snobs who are willing to shit on everyone who isn't one of them. Please don't stoop to these people's level. There is nothing wrong with being an atheist, but it does not give you the excuse to be a smug, pretentious asshole.
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