<story><title>English Wikipedia drove out fringe editors over two decades</title><url>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2023-11-06/Recent_research</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>letmevoteplease</author><text>Here is a quote from the COVID-19 lab leak theory article[1] as an example of how Wikipedia&amp;#x27;s NPOV policy is implemented. I&amp;#x27;ll let it speak for itself.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;The lab leak theory is informed by racist undercurrents, and has resulted in anti-Chinese sentiment. [...] While the proposed scenarios are theoretically subject to evidence-based investigation, it is not clear than any can can be sufficiently falsified to placate lab leak supporters, and they are fed by pseudoscientific and conspiratorial thinking.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;COVID-19_lab_leak_theory&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;COVID-19_lab_leak_theory&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>olalonde</author><text>I haven&amp;#x27;t really followed the lab leak theory but it&amp;#x27;s so frustrating when claims of &amp;quot;racist undercurrents&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;dog whistling&amp;quot; are made without substantial evidence. Those terms are just used to halt constructive dialogue and make unsubstantiated accusations. And they are often an instance of the following logical fallacy: &amp;quot;Racists support X, therefore supporting X is racist.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Those terms were frequently used to shut down discussion when the Quebec government made the decision to prohibit certain public employees from displaying religious symbols a few years ago.</text></comment>
<story><title>English Wikipedia drove out fringe editors over two decades</title><url>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2023-11-06/Recent_research</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>letmevoteplease</author><text>Here is a quote from the COVID-19 lab leak theory article[1] as an example of how Wikipedia&amp;#x27;s NPOV policy is implemented. I&amp;#x27;ll let it speak for itself.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;The lab leak theory is informed by racist undercurrents, and has resulted in anti-Chinese sentiment. [...] While the proposed scenarios are theoretically subject to evidence-based investigation, it is not clear than any can can be sufficiently falsified to placate lab leak supporters, and they are fed by pseudoscientific and conspiratorial thinking.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;COVID-19_lab_leak_theory&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;COVID-19_lab_leak_theory&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>gerdesj</author><text>&amp;quot;The lab leak theory is informed by racist undercurrents&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;The language used here is indicative.  Few native English speakers would ever deploy a racist undercurrent when a perfectly decent overtone exists to do the job properly.  An undercurrent is covert and an overtone is overt.  The allegations are largely overt.&lt;p&gt;It turns out that most large Chinese cities are home to labs that study coronaviruses and virus outbreaks occur rurally ... anyway the article is now obviously bollocks, through over editing.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;COVID-19_lab_leak_theory&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;COVID-19_lab_leak_theory&lt;/a&gt; - click on View History, hit the 500 entry link and you will only go back to February this year!&lt;p&gt;You do get to view the complete history of this article. You can watch it churn, revision by revision.  There must be a paper in there or two - just on the revision history of a WP article.&lt;p&gt;Start here: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;w&amp;#x2F;index.php?title=COVID-19_lab_leak_theory&amp;amp;oldid=1005881401&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;w&amp;#x2F;index.php?title=COVID-19_lab_leak...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>