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Larry Sanger is now a conspiracy theorist [1], believing gems including: - Antifa did the coup. - Face masks are harmful. - There have been "almost zero" dea

Larry Sanger is now a conspiracy theorist [1], believing gems including: - Antifa did the coup. - Face masks are harmful. - There have been "almost zero" deaths from COVID-19. - Soros may have paid people to riot for George Floyd. - The Ten Commandments were God's words: not "inspired", but precisely dictated. [2] Since Wikipedia is hostile to conspiracy theories and religious woo, Larry has in the ensuing years tried (without success) to make a Wikipedia-equivalent site that will be friendly to his nuttery. [1] https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Larry_Sanger https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Larry_Sanger [2] https://twitter.com/lsanger/status/1719344152356217057 https://twitter.com/lsanger/status/1719344152356217057

graphe 3y ago
Every time I read 'rationalwiki' its just a bunch of personal drama about people the writers don't like. Never seen a single good article on there, it's just a bunch of circle jerking politics pretending to be a "rational wiki" like calling it the ministry of truth.
- shadowfox 3y ago
  I think I am confused by your comment in the context of Larry Sanger: are you suggesting that rationalwiki is incorrect and that Larry did not say any of the things quoted?
  - graphe 3y ago
    Only thing I know is a group of limp wristed keyboard warriors hate some people write a wall of text and try to "rationalize" why. The facts don't matter, only the tone does and it's full of impotent anger.
    - Phileosopher 3y ago
      This is a natural product of how power works on the internet. Barring an algo that downgrades time spent, the people with the most power are proportionally the people who do the least things elsewhere. I was clued into this when the BLM protests happened. When I poked into all the names of the protesters I could find who were present on-site, very few of them had day jobs.
- Kim_Bruning 3y ago
  No love lost for sure: https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Larry_Sanger#Views_on_RationalWiki https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Larry_Sanger#Views_on_Rational...
  - graphe 3y ago
    He pretty much sums it up in one sentence. I don't care about Sanger or his politics. These writers have no lives, all they do is criticize things that don't matter. > Besides being the cofounder of one of the biggest websites on the Internet, he is mostly known for two things; criticising Wikipedia, and having created many failed WikiProjects to fix said criticisms. This writing is fine penmanship for a 2nd grader about why I hate Kevin and his Pokemon cards.
- tyg13 3y ago
  It's just a secular leftist response to Conservapedia that mostly focuses on debunking (mostly far-right) pseudoscience and conspiracy theories. I think you're taking the name a bit too literally and the concept a bit too seriously.
  - graphe 3y ago
    Conservapedia and Wikipedia don't call themselves "rational" and the other guy took it seriously, not me. I know its just a bunch of whiny losers. What if conservapedia called itself the unbiased wiki and everyone quoted it?
kaonwarb 3y ago
Your source on [2] does not quite support your interpretation: if you follow the Twitter thread from the beginning, or read Sanger's linked blog post [0], he makes no claims about his own beliefs. He's explicitly considering what one would conclude about Biblical inspiration _if_ one believed what the Bible says about itself. No faith is necessary to consider that question. [0] https://larrysanger.org/2023/10/on-biblical-inspiration/ https://larrysanger.org/2023/10/on-biblical-inspiration/
DeusExMachina 3y ago
> Face masks are harmful Searching that sentence verbatim on Google produces, as a first result, a paper on the National Library of Medicine [1] that states in its abstract: > Extended mask-wearing by the general population could lead to relevant effects and consequences in many medical fields. How is that a conspiracy theory? At most, you can argue that it's not absolutely conclusive or that other studies reach different conclusions. But that's far from declaring something a conspiracy theory. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8072811/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8072811/
- exo-pla-net 3y ago
  > These symptoms were accompanied by a sensation of heat (p < 0.0001) and itching (p < 0.01) due to moisture penetration of the masks (p < 0.0001) in 10 healthy volunteers of both sexes after only 90 min of physical activity. Heaven forbid! It's almost comical how certain people furrow for the tiniest of cherries to support their antivaxx, antimask knee jerking while their bodies get submitted to a gauntlet of health risks from contracting COVID.
  - graphe 3y ago
    Vaccines provide immunity. Which vaccine are you referring to? Flu shots for example are not vaccines. There are no COVID vaccines.
    - exo-pla-net 3y ago
      Poor buddy. Flu shots are indeed a vaccine. I think you're confused by the word "immunity". In the medical sense, it doesn't mean "invincibility". It's a reference to the immune system!
  - DeusExMachina 3y ago
    You are shifting the goalpost. You are now arguing about benefits and disadvantages. Your original argument was that this is a conspiracy theory, and it isn't.
- 3y ago

graphe 3y ago

Every time I read 'rationalwiki' its just a bunch of personal drama about people the writers don't like. Never seen a single good article on there, it's just a bunch of circle jerking politics pretending to be a "rational wiki" like calling it the ministry of truth.

shadowfox 3y ago
I think I am confused by your comment in the context of Larry Sanger: are you suggesting that rationalwiki is incorrect and that Larry did not say any of the things quoted?
- graphe 3y ago
  Only thing I know is a group of limp wristed keyboard warriors hate some people write a wall of text and try to "rationalize" why. The facts don't matter, only the tone does and it's full of impotent anger.
  - Phileosopher 3y ago
    This is a natural product of how power works on the internet. Barring an algo that downgrades time spent, the people with the most power are proportionally the people who do the least things elsewhere. I was clued into this when the BLM protests happened. When I poked into all the names of the protesters I could find who were present on-site, very few of them had day jobs.
Kim_Bruning 3y ago
No love lost for sure: https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Larry_Sanger#Views_on_RationalWiki https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Larry_Sanger#Views_on_Rational...
- graphe 3y ago
  He pretty much sums it up in one sentence. I don't care about Sanger or his politics. These writers have no lives, all they do is criticize things that don't matter. > Besides being the cofounder of one of the biggest websites on the Internet, he is mostly known for two things; criticising Wikipedia, and having created many failed WikiProjects to fix said criticisms. This writing is fine penmanship for a 2nd grader about why I hate Kevin and his Pokemon cards.
tyg13 3y ago
It's just a secular leftist response to Conservapedia that mostly focuses on debunking (mostly far-right) pseudoscience and conspiracy theories. I think you're taking the name a bit too literally and the concept a bit too seriously.
- graphe 3y ago
  Conservapedia and Wikipedia don't call themselves "rational" and the other guy took it seriously, not me. I know its just a bunch of whiny losers. What if conservapedia called itself the unbiased wiki and everyone quoted it?

kaonwarb 3y ago

Your source on [2] does not quite support your interpretation: if you follow the Twitter thread from the beginning, or read Sanger's linked blog post [0], he makes no claims about his own beliefs. He's explicitly considering what one would conclude about Biblical inspiration _if_ one believed what the Bible says about itself. No faith is necessary to consider that question. [0] https://larrysanger.org/2023/10/on-biblical-inspiration/ https://larrysanger.org/2023/10/on-biblical-inspiration/

DeusExMachina 3y ago

> Face masks are harmful Searching that sentence verbatim on Google produces, as a first result, a paper on the National Library of Medicine [1] that states in its abstract: > Extended mask-wearing by the general population could lead to relevant effects and consequences in many medical fields. How is that a conspiracy theory? At most, you can argue that it's not absolutely conclusive or that other studies reach different conclusions. But that's far from declaring something a conspiracy theory. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8072811/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8072811/

exo-pla-net 3y ago
> These symptoms were accompanied by a sensation of heat (p < 0.0001) and itching (p < 0.01) due to moisture penetration of the masks (p < 0.0001) in 10 healthy volunteers of both sexes after only 90 min of physical activity. Heaven forbid! It's almost comical how certain people furrow for the tiniest of cherries to support their antivaxx, antimask knee jerking while their bodies get submitted to a gauntlet of health risks from contracting COVID.
- graphe 3y ago
  Vaccines provide immunity. Which vaccine are you referring to? Flu shots for example are not vaccines. There are no COVID vaccines.
  - exo-pla-net 3y ago
    Poor buddy. Flu shots are indeed a vaccine. I think you're confused by the word "immunity". In the medical sense, it doesn't mean "invincibility". It's a reference to the immune system!
- DeusExMachina 3y ago
  You are shifting the goalpost. You are now arguing about benefits and disadvantages. Your original argument was that this is a conspiracy theory, and it isn't.
3y ago