Conservapedia: Your Number One Source for Blatant Hypocrisy and Flagrant Right-Wing BS
The Conservapedia is a conservative version of Wikipedia that is anything but what it claims to be: an “encyclopedia you can trust.” The Conservapedia goes to great lengths to indicate that Wikipedia is full of trivial and even misleading articles, and emphasize the high quality of their own offerings.
I find it difficult not to be amused by the lengths Conservatives will go to massage the truth in order to make it fit their narrow, ignorant ideology. In the world of a slsah-and-burn Conservative, their is no such thing as Absolute Truth, because everything, even the truth, exists to be massaged and propagandized into a form that supports their narrow cosmology.
The problem with this attitude is that truth and can be absolute. Truth is not ideology-dependent, nor is it the ideological equivalent of modelling clay, something that can be molded into something that pleases the hands molding it and justifying the ignorance and prejudice of the artist. Truth is absolute. It’s not dependent on ideology, religious belief, or political philosophy. This isn’t to say that good people can disagree and see the truth differently, but going out of your way to massage the truth only means that your dealing in propaganda.
Wikipedia is hardly a perfect compendium of human knowledge and information, but Conservapedia is truly a joke- an unintended only, certainly, but a joke nonetheless. If you think I’m kidding, checking Conservapedia’s entry on homosexuality:
Homosexuality is an immoral sexual lifestyle between members of the same sex. It is more than simply a sexual act, it is going beyond the boundaries that God has setup for marriage; one man and one woman.
Sexual relations between the same sex is condemned in both Old and New Testaments. It is forbidden directly four times in the Bible.
If that’s not amusing enough for you, checking the Conservapedia entry on abortion:
The vast majority of scientific studies have shown that abortion causes an increase in breast cancer, including 16 out of 17 statistically significant studies.[5] Studies showing that abortion increases breast cancer predate the political controversy.[6] It is undisputed that having a baby protects against breast cancer, and thus early termination of pregnancy must increase the risk of cancer for the mother compared to carrying that same pregnancy to birth. Yet the abortion industry conceals this increased risk, just as the tobacco industry concealed its cancer risk for decades.
Hmm…I don’t know about you, but when I think of the term “encyclopedia”, I think of a source of information. I’m certainly not looking for something that’s going to confirm my preconceived notions. Then again, if you so certain of your own moral, political, and ideological correctness, and you the sort who watches Fox News Channel because it’s “fair and balanced”…well, Conservapedia is perfect for you. After all, it’s not about knowledge and information at all; it’s about reinforcing already strongly-held views and opinions. If you’re a Conservapedia fan, you’re not looking for information- you’re looking for affirmation and reinforcement.
Welcome to the death of Intellectualism and Reason. Why think critically and rationally when you don’t have to? If you’ve already convinced yourself of the truth, why allow your unshakable faith to be shaken by competing information. Propaganda Truth, after all, is what you make it, no??
