HoaxWiki
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HoaxWiki is a Dutch wiki dedicated to hoaxes, urban legends, conspiracy theories, and general quackery. It extensively covers literally every conspiracy under the sun, from mainstream ones such as aspartame[1] and chemtrails,[2] to obscure ones such as the Tippecanoe Curse.[3] It even has a timeline of all US Presidents, presumably because US presidents are especially susceptible to be the victim of them.[4]
The site is also very fond of RationalWiki, as evidenced by how many times it is used as an external link.
Similarities to RationalWiki[edit]
Already on the outset, it is very clear that HoaxWiki overlaps with RationalWiki's goals to refute the pseudoscience and anti-science movement, to document the full range of crank ideas, and to analyze how they are handled in the media.
As shown above, many conspiracies overlap and the wiki also includes descriptions of notable English conspiracy theorists such as David Icke.[5] In addition, notable topics on pseudoscience such as climate change denial[6] and GMO related topics[7] are covered. As of 2017, even New Age[8] got its own page.
Bad newspapers also get covered, though as of yet HoaxWiki only includes the obvious Belgian popular newspapers Het Laatste Nieuws[9] and Het Nieuwsblad[10] or fake news from the US such as the European Union Times[11] and Natural News.[12]
Differences from RationalWiki[edit]
There has never been an intention to analyze authoritarianism and fundamentalism. While HoaxWiki debunks Holocaust denial,[13] you will never find an article about Nazism. Genocide denial is in fact in general not reported on this wiki; Stalin apologetics and Armenian Genocide denial, for instance, have not been added on the wiki as of yet.
The site also uses Internet laws more frequently, including when a site is a violation of Scopie's law.
Also, while RationalWiki bashes conservatives, the main target of HoaxWiki is greens (specifically of the slur variety, in the wiki's terms, "goatwoolsocks").[14] In a sense, you could call HoaxWiki the political centrist version of RationalWiki, and indeed there are good examples of this:
- RationalWiki's article on Greenpeace tends to give equal coverage of both the good and bad sides of the organization. HoaxWiki's article on it focuses on all the bad things Greenpeace has done.
- There is a neutral writing style about literally every US president, with the exception of President Trump. Even for presidents that RationalWiki is more positive about, such as Abraham Lincoln, HoaxWiki depicts them more neutrally.[15]
- RationalWiki's article on Ronald Reagan puts a direct focus on all the bad things during his administration, while Hoaxwiki describes his administration in more general terms to focus more on the hoaxes and conspiracy theories about him.
- Donald Trump,[16] whose HoaxWiki article managed to contain even more hate for him than RationalWiki's article.
- RationalWiki's article on Bernie Sanders is largely positive about him, with only a small section dedicated to his problematic views. HoaxWiki's article accentuates the more crank ideas that he had prior to and during his run for presidency and what penultimately led to him failing to win the presidential elections.
The style of writing is also different. RationalWiki tends to stop an example section after a few examples, while users at HoaxWiki are encouraged to find every stupid article under the sun.
HoaxWiki also tends to delve into the more well-known Dutch conspiracy theorists such as Micha Kat[17] and Mark Peeters[18] and quacks such as John Consemulder[19] that are too obscure for the mainstream.
Finally, HoaxWiki does have articles dedicated to media sensationalism and frauds such as like farming[20] that RationalWiki doesn't have.
See also[edit]
- Psiram – a mainly German wiki and wider project (with wikis in French and other languages too), concerned with quackery, pseudoscience, conspiracy theories, and more.
External links[edit]
- HoaxWiki (in Dutch)
- Second website (in Dutch)
- Their article on RationalWiki (in Dutch)
References[edit]
- ↑ http://nl.hoax.wikia.com/wiki/Aspartaam
- ↑ http://nl.hoax.wikia.com/wiki/Chemtrails
- ↑ http://nl.hoax.wikia.com/wiki/Vloek_van_Tippecanoe
- ↑ http://nl.hoax.wikia.com/wiki/Lijst_van_presidenten_van_de_Verenigde_Staten
- ↑ http://nl.hoax.wikia.com/wiki/David_Icke
- ↑ http://nl.hoax.wikia.com/wiki/Klimaatopwarming
- ↑ http://nl.hoax.wikia.com/wiki/GMO
- ↑ http://nl.hoax.wikia.com/wiki/New_Age
- ↑ http://nl.hoax.wikia.com/wiki/Het_Laatste_Nieuws
- ↑ http://nl.hoax.wikia.com/wiki/Het_Nieuwsblad
- ↑ http://nl.hoax.wikia.com/wiki/European_Union_Times
- ↑ http://nl.hoax.wikia.com/wiki/Natural_News
- ↑ http://nl.hoax.wikia.com/wiki/Holocaust#Holocaustontkenning
- ↑ http://nl.hoax.wikia.com/wiki/Geitenwollensokken
- ↑ http://nl.hoax.wikia.com/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln
- ↑ http://nl.hoax.wikia.com/wiki/Donald_Trump
- ↑ http://nl.hoax.wikia.com/wiki/Micha_Kat
- ↑ http://nl.hoax.wikia.com/wiki/Mark_Peeters
- ↑ http://nl.hoax.wikia.com/wiki/John_Consemulder
- ↑ http://nl.hoax.wikia.com/wiki/Like_Farming