Saturday, February 24, 2007

Conservapedia or The Wingnut Encyclopedia

Recently a website was offered up a non-liberal-biased and Christian-oriented online encyclopedia called "Conservapedia" - a wholesome and more factual version (they claim) of WikiPedia, which they term "anti-American." Maybe the fact Wiki is available in a host of languages is a clear sign it is of nefarious origins.

Conservapedia is often like reading the worst research paper ever to emerge from the home-schooled, or perhaps a book report from Bart Simpson. But they do include a whopping amount of exclamation points on nearly every sentence (a clear sign of their deep convictions that all info available are excitable versions of fact.)

If you're looking for either a good laugh or perhaps just some mild shocks, then a few random searches and even some in-depth reading of this online document offers much to amuse as well as much to distort.

The readers and writers of MetaFilter have been noting the bizarre entries found at the site. One I noticed was this write-up on horror fiction writer H.P Lovecraft and his fictional creation of monsters like Cthulu.

Conservapedia says:

"
However in 1926, during a period of massive unrestricted immigration to the United States, investigative journalist Howard P. Lovecraft published an expose about the reappearance of American versions of the cult in Massachusetts and Louisiana. The article, titled "The Call of Cthulhu," is a first person retelling of his findings."

WikiPedia says:

" ...
a fictional being created by horror author H.P. Lovecraft. ... According to Lovecraft, however, this is merely the closest that the human vocal apparatus can come to reproducing the syllables of an alien language.[5] Cthulhu debuted in Lovecraft's short story "The Call of Cthulhu" (1928) "

Maybe they should call this dubious encyclopedia CluelessPedia, as they are unable to distinguish fact from fiction.

And after some thought, I have decided to create what I call JoePedia. It's very easy to use and every search for information you might input provides a single response, suitable to all queries::

"Of course I know all about that. But why should I tell you?"

9 comments:

  1. How about 'comaPedia?
    I actually like CluelessPedia.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I went to Conservapedia typed in cock sucker, no result, went to edit/create this entry, got account, entered G.W. Bush photo with the caption 'nuff said. I bet they won't accept it. Perhaps I should have put a pic of Monica Lewinsky, I wonder if they would keep it?

    Sure Wikipedia is anti-American, it is international, everyone knows only Americans love America now...oh yea and a few million Mexicans.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous12:02 AM

    I just learned on Conservapedia that the Pilgrims founded Jamestown. Really! You can look it up!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh, my crappity crap crap.

    I just...

    *sigh*

    ReplyDelete
  5. oh, McGee -- that was hilarious! I loved this part: "the name Jesus almost always refers specifically to Jesus of Nazareth, believed by Christian followers to be God's dad, who came to earth as a human c 2 AD. However, God has recently revealed on His blog that Jesus is actually His nephew, not His son"

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  6. oh and elrod - that is EXACTLY what the Conservapedia says!! astonishing stupidity.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Jed and Tits.
    I seriously, seriously love you guys.
    I mean this.

    ReplyDelete