User:Aboriginal Noise/Archive

Multiculturalism as a blockable offense

Let me begin by stating that I am very glad that I left Conservapedia when I did, for the addition of multiculturalism in the list of block reasons would have set me over the edge, causing much foaming at the mouth on certain peoples talk pages and a subsequent permaban. And while I don’t regret aiding Conservapedia for the time I did, I just wish I’d been more involved in matters outside of articles and categorization.

I realize that Conservapedia is a conservative, Christian, American encyclopaedia, and that its point of view is exactly that, but what is America but a melting pot of multiple cultures? Myself, I’m as American as the proverbial apple pie and baseball, but my ancestors, through various generations, came from SIX different Western European countries. Did they not bring what they knew from their home countries to the table? Do not most current Americans have the same or similar background as I do? Essentially, what is American culture but a collection of cultures from all over the globe?

Granted, this block was used only 3 times since its inception. The first was here with a user named OmarAlfarouq. This is the edit that caused the block to occur. I see nothing that would indicate a multicultural world view, with the exception of the user’s name. The second occurred here, with nothing terribly out of place. The third and most recent occurrence is this list of contributions from Woloct. Most of the contributions seem OK with the exception of the final one discussing Canada and hockey, but even so, does not seem to be a multiculturalist worldview. If anything it is just a bit snarky. Is this the way to remove all non-American points of view? Even if the point of view is not multicultural? While three instances of blocking is not enough to garner a statistical trend, it does seem terribly suspect. What lies in wait for all of those from Britain or Australia who contribute positively to the project? And while she wasn’t explicitly blocked with this as the block reason, is this the reason for the stripping of JessicaT's sysop rights?

What I see now is that if Conservapedia does represent a microcosm of Conservative America, then Conservative America is terribly mistaken. I personally value the existence of the world view. I learned a lot at university from other students from all over the world, and from the doctors I assisted in passing the USMLE exams after college. And I’ve learned a few things from sites such as this one in regards to what types of views are held practically everywhere in the world.

My Time at CP

I joined CP in November 2008 as WesleyS, just to see what all of the fuss was about, as most of you here have been there in one form or another. I didn't go over there to vandalize, just to get inside the machine. I used all of my correct info such as my real name and the like. Eventually, probably after 1000 edits, I decided to try and gain some rights. I never asked for them, I just put my nose to the grindstone, doing maintenance work and reverting you vandals. After a particularly difficult spree, Andy threw me a bone with the blocking rights, which were totally unexpected but appreciated. I felt like if I kept working hard, that I could get sysop rights in time.

There was talk about nominating me for sysop (and I'd like to thank DuncanB for his public nomination of me), and that I would have to prove a lot of things, such as identity to all of the sysops who may approach me with questions. The one thing that apparently didn't stand was a coincidental BoN here that was similar to one I edited with at CP on one occasion. Keep in mind that this was around the time when they were really cracking down on anyone with dual site membership, so that shot my chances to hell, although no less than 2 of the administration knew of my account here. I suppose, though, that I had proven myself as a person not there to upset the apple cart.

Either way, my experience at CP was mostly positive, and I had a chance to meet some interesting people. I still talk to some (Hi Alan! Konnichiwa Jess!) and have a healthy respect for others, such as CPalmer and JY23. And I know you all despise TK, but we had some good conversations, and feel he was honest with me throughout our communications. Speaking of communications, I received some emails from some of the folks that I had blocked asking "Why are you here [at CP]? You seem like a well-learned guy." Correspondence like this had me asking the very same thing in time. The straw that broke this camel's back was a comment about liberals' intelligence. While it wasn't directed at me per se, it still felt hurtful. I've never taken an insult to my intelligence well, and this was no different, so I decided to leave CP. I wasn't oblivious to what felt like pure hatred of all things liberal while I was there, I just chose to ignore it. I don't apologize for blocking any of you, especially if it involved clamscrubbification or Finland ducks. If I hadn't done it, someone else would, probably with a snarky goodbye comment. You'll note if you look at my block log that I never used Liberal vandalism as a blocking reason (what is that anyways?), and I hadn't ruled out a return to service until the whole AlanE debacle that proved to me that dedication to a project isn't a good enough reason to overlook one's political stance.

I should also note that I have never maintained a sockpuppet at CP, and WesleyS is a one-shot deal. I will never return to CP unless it is as cp:User:WesleyS. All apologies to JLauttamus, if he checks in here time to time, for getting him mixed up in this. He was blocked for being a sock of me, however, I'm pretty sure that he has had an account at CP longer than I. Either way, we are not one in the same.