Europe caves to bullies on speech, Yes, Wikipedia – Latest News
Foreign desk: Europe Caves to Bullies on Speech
Twenty years in the past, notes Jacob Mchangama at Persuasion, a Danish newspaper began a “global firestorm” when it printed cartoons depicting Muhammad. Today, “European democracies” have turned away from “defending” the “principle” of free speech and “are increasingly choosing appeasement.” In London, a Turk was fined for committing a “religiously aggravated public order offence” by burning a Koran, whereas the person who attacked him with a knife was not punished. “Western governments and human rights groups” more and more give “credence” to a “narrative” that “defamation of religion” ought to be criminalized. Violence has “filled the gap” to “silence dissent” as seen within the 2015 Charlie Hebdo murders and the 2020 killing of a French instructor by “a radicalized teenager.”
Tech watch: Yes, Wikipedia Can Be Fixed
“I launched Wikipedia on January 15, 2001,” however within the years since, “the standards that inspired the company have been sacrificed in favor of ideology,” laments Larry Sanger at The Free Press. To repair this, the web site ought to “create an open, identifiable editorial committee” that settles controversies by vote. Today’s Wikipedia has a “systemic bias” that’s “globalist, academic, secular, and progressive,” so “to better record the chorus of worldwide voices, Wikipedia should permit multiple, competing articles per topic” and permit pages to “be externally rated” by customers. And the web site wants to get rid of its “so-called ‘Reliable sources/Perennial sources’” record, which “favors left-wing media sources and hamstrings right-wing and religious media sources.” In order to ratify adjustments like these, “Wikipedia needs an editorial legislature chosen by fair elections.”
Liberal: Ditch the Two-Party System Now
“Somehow,” even with “a world of unbridled” freedom, “America still only offers people two viable political parties to choose from every election,” fumes the Liberal Patriot’s John Halpin. “You get Democrats or Republicans. That’s it!” Yet “recent CNN/SSRS polling shows the depth of Americans’ displeasure with two-party politics.” The ballot reveals that 44% of adults now “self-identify as independent” in contrast to simply 28% Republican and 27% Democrat. Independents say “they vote ‘on the issues’ or ‘for candidates’ rather than for party lines.” But adjustments within the system received’t occur “unless and until voters demand real electoral law reforms.” Americans should declare their independence and “embrace” their “liberation from partisan insanity!” Voters’ “choices have been limited to two worn-out, increasingly extremist” and “incompetent political parties” whose demise “can’t come soon enough.”
More From Post Editorial Board
Libertarian: Blame Randi & Co. — Not ‘Fascists’
Randi Weingarten, “the nation’s top teacher,” simply “wrote a book implicitly referring to her opponents as fascists,” roars an incredulous Robby Soave at The Hill. “Perhaps Weingarten is just trying to distract” from the truth that Americans are “profoundly dissatisfied with the state of public education in this country.” She portrays “herself and the teachers she represents as the opposition” to “an attempted fascist takeover of the U.S. education system.” Yet that’s not the “experience of most Americans.” They know the union is a “powerful, relevant decision-maker” whose “fingerprints are all over these failing policies!” “That doesn’t make them fascists,” however — like Weingarten — they’re “responsible for the mess we’re dealing with now.”
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Gotham journal: Waymo’s Coming, Like It or Not
“In late August, Waymo quietly unleashed eight vehicles onto New York City streets” and was met with protests from Uber, Lyft and taxi drivers, stories Pirate Wires’ Harris Sockel. “If history is any guide, we’ll see more of these protests, and ever more creative arguments against” Waymo’s presence. “Already, I’ve heard that New York City just ‘isn’t built’ for self-driving cars,” and, of course, autonomous autos “will kill us. All of which is to say: Waymo’s rise in NY will be long, and clownish, and turbulent.” But it would come as a result of — regardless of arson assaults in different cities, an accident through which a Waymo hit a bike owner and a number of other incidents of sensor sabotage — Waymo retains increasing throughout America. “Waymo nationalism is coming, New York. Might as well accept your fate.”
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board
