Tuesday, February 12, 2008

A very unsettling thing

Today at work, I needed to find a few facts about a guy who, in addition to being a big contributor to the museum, is also a major NYC real estate developer. So of course the first thing I did was Google him. The first entry was Wikipedia. After that, about 90% of the posts were from the most hateful, vicious anti-Semitic websites. They claimed his collusion in various "Jew Conspiracies" to, essentially, take over the world and profit from everyone else's misery. Now, I'm all in favor of crackpot theories -- they generally do no harm and are often quite entertaining. But this was not that kind of crackpot. We all know in a somewhat abstract way that this kind of hate is out there, but to encounter it face to face was almost like being physically assaulted. I am a fierce supporter of free speech and I understand that that means not only things I agree with but also things I find repellent. I comfort myself with the thought that this is what a mature democratic state is, that people can express their ideas, whatever they are, without worry of being silenced. I just want to keep the people who express those particular ideas as far away from me as possible.

6 comments:

wa11z said...

So what happened? That's only half the story, isn't it?

TheWriteGirl said...

No, there's no other half. I eventually found some information that I could use and that was the end of it. But I had to wade through all that crazy conspiracy theory/hate propaganda to find it. If you want the details, PM me. I don't feel like going into it here.

ctheokas said...

That's one of the downsides of the internet: All the crazies who rant and rave about whatever conspiracy. Right or left, it's the same. Give people a comment space or forum, and it all goes to hell.

fermicat said...

Those people are probably just jealous of his success. But creepy. Definitely creepy.

TheWriteGirl said...

Creepy for sure. I'd much rather run across the websites proclaiming that alien lizards are living on earth and interbreeding with humans. Those kind of crazies are much more acceptable. The stuff I ran across was truly scary.

Beth said...

This is the dangerous thing about the internet and Wikipedia especially. Just because you see it written online does NOT mean it's true, but few people actually care enough to research the truth. That sickens me. Free speech is great, but people using it to deface and slander people/groups isn't.