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While Big Tech is under much-deserved scrutiny for its monopolistic control over our online lives, one popular site often escapes criticism. Perhaps because its founder is merely a millionaire among billionaires; perhaps because it masquerades in scholarly drag as an "encyclopedia;" perhaps because journalists and researchers have become so lazy they cannot live without it; Wikipedia rarely comes in for the kind of criticism directed at Google, Facebook, and Twitter. This oversight is a big mistake. Wikipedia paints itself as a crowdsourced knowledge utopia, a beautiful democratic experiment allowing everyone with internet access to contribute to an egalitarian consensus-reality. Unfortunately, when something sounds too good to be true, it usually isn't. Not only is Wikipedia a mouthpiece for the Anglo-American ruling class - it's also a tool of character assassination deployed against anti-establishment figures. Increasingly controlled by a group of ideologically-motivated editors, Wikipedia has become little more than a tool for disseminating neoliberal imperialist propaganda and destroying the reputations of those who resist the status quo.

Progressive Radio Network has been investigating the "real" Wikipedia for months. My latest contribution is here, and more than a dozen articles on the subject are available on the PRN website, including this excellent piece by Richard Gale. Please send them to friends and family you suspect of being Wikipedophiles, especially if they're journalists, professors, or otherwise involved in shaping public opinion. It's not too late to get help.

(edit: just added another piece. Seriously if you need more evidence to quit relying on Wikipedia for your facts fix, I can't help you. Wikipedia is great for looking up the population numbers for Hanoi, or the birthday of David Bowie, but terrible for anything remotely controversial. As goes Croatia so goes the world.)