Thursday, July 31, 2008

Conservapedia: Lying about context equals truth!

It's hard to figure how Conservapedia could be any worse in their indignation. But to resort to lying about an article they link? What's worse, the article lambasts Conservapedia for being worse than what CP sees as the problem, and CP makes the news post that the article proves CP's case!

Say what?
Conservapedia sparks more discussion on the internet: "The more the Dawkins types try to turn this into a head-on fight, the more moderate religious believers edge into Conservapedia territory." Indeed. Liberals and atheists do not win in debate, and their biggest gains are in censoring the truth.


Apparently, Conservapedia can't win in debate because they resort to distorting and flat out lying.

The posting links to an article from The American Prospect. The article, from Ezra Klein, has the opening line (note: LINE. Not paragraph, not introduction. A sentence!):
Like Daniel Davies, I find the gleeful aggression of Hitchens and Dawkins and Harris a bit tiresome.

The rest of the article slams Conservapedia, including its article on "Causes of Atheism," which itself is an exploration into the insanity of the editors of Conservapedia.

So where does the quote come from that CP uses, since it's not in the article? A user comment (emphasis added for clarity):
Man but Ezra this is exactly why the Dawkins-style aggression is so dangerous. Your response to this asinine Conservapedia entry is a pretty classic example of radicalism born out of heightened contradictions. Going from bemused tolerance to allergic outrage is never a good thing in a democracy.

It's an especially bad thing when your side doesn't have the numbers to win -- which atheists clearly don't in the USA. The country's realistic options are a moderate live-and-let-live set of religious faiths or a (much smaller) set of fundamentalist religions. The more the Dawkins types try to turn this into a head-on fight, the more moderate religious believers edge into Conservapedia territory.

Now frankly if it was just a matter of the most annoying sectors of atheism and Christianity yelling at each other, that wouldn't particularly matter to me. But of course the success of MANY Progressive policy positions rests on the buy-in of moderate Christians. It's not worth sacrificing abortion rights to gain the sense of intellectual supremacy you get from out-arguing a a fundy who thinks the world is 37 minutes old. And more fundamentalist Christians = a scarier world for non-Christian religious minorities, the lion's share of whom vote for liberals.

Posted by: NS | July 28, 2008 10:48 AM


That's right, Conservapedia takes out ONE line from a user comment on an article pointing out the absurdity of their site to show that Conservapedia is right. What's worse, the user's OTHER comments further trash Conservapedia's type of argument:
Your response to this asinine Conservapedia entry is a pretty classic example of radicalism born out of heightened contradictions.

And:

Now frankly if it was just a matter of the most annoying sectors of atheism and Christianity yelling at each other, that wouldn't particularly matter to me.

So why would Conservapedia try to make out the article and/or user comment supports their ideology, when these clearly don't? Do they not believe their readers will bother going to the article to find out what it says for themselves?

Do they even bother with the commandment of their religion that states, "Thou shalt not bear false witness"?

Unfortunately, this seems to be standard fare for "The Trustworthy Encyclopedia."

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