{"id":2361238,"date":"2024-10-29T19:09:01","date_gmt":"2024-10-29T23:09:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/musk-calls-wikipedia-broken-after-page-resurfaces-defining-trump-as-fascist-washington-examiner\/"},"modified":"2024-10-29T19:13:57","modified_gmt":"2024-10-29T23:13:57","slug":"musk-calls-wikipedia-broken-after-page-resurfaces-defining-trump-as-fascist-washington-examiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/musk-calls-wikipedia-broken-after-page-resurfaces-defining-trump-as-fascist-washington-examiner\/","title":{"rendered":"Musk calls Wikipedia \u2018broken\u2019 after page resurfaces defining Trump as \u2018fascist\u2019 &#8211; Washington Examiner"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fmusk-calls-wikipedia-broken-after-page-resurfaces-defining-trump-as-fascist-washington-examiner%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2361238&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Elon Musk publicly criticized Wikipedia, \u2063labeling it &#8220;broken&#8221; after an article resurfaced that \u2063described former President\u200b Donald Trump as \u200da\u2063 &#8220;fascist.&#8221; The controversial page,\u200d originally titled \u200c\u201cDonald Trump and Fascism\u201d but later renamed to &#8220;Comparisons between Donald Trump and fascism,&#8221; was predominantly edited by just two individuals, raising questions \u200dabout its neutrality given \u2063Wikipedia&#8217;s vast editing \u200bcommunity. Musk&#8217;s \u200bcomments were prompted\u200c by a report from Ashley Rindsberg in *Pirate Wires*,\u200b which detailed how the page, loaded with left-wing academic references, \u200cwas created \u2064to \u2064support a \u200bnegative portrayal of Trump and his \u200cpolitical ideology, referred\u2063 to as &#8220;Trumpism.&#8221; The article included comparisons\u2062 to historical events such\u200b as \u2062the\u2063 January 6 Capitol riot and the Beer Hall Putsch. \u200bCritics on Wikipedia\u2062 have raised concerns about the bias\u200b in sourcing and the context in which Trump and his supporters were described, leading\u2063 to \u200dongoing debates about the\u2063 objectivity of the entries \u2064related to Trump\u200d and his\u2063 political\u200d movement.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Musk calls Wikipedia &lsquo;broken&rsquo; after page resurfaces defining Trump as &lsquo;fascist&rsquo;<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_1847968\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p>Tesla CEO <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/elon-musk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Elon Musk\">Elon Musk<\/a> called Wikipedia &ldquo;broken&rdquo; after one of the site&rsquo;s pages was revived defining former President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/donald-trump\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Donald Trump\">Donald Trump<\/a> as a &ldquo;fascist.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>Ashley Rindsberg of <em>Pirate Wires<\/em> published a report on Tuesday detailing the circumstances under which the Wikipedia article &ldquo;Donald Trump and Fascism,&rdquo; since changed to &ldquo;Comparisons between Donald Trump and fascism,&rdquo; was recreated. The page, which effectively labeled Trump a fascist, was mainly written by just two editors, Di (they-them) and BootsED, who comprised 91.2% of all edits, an unusual pattern on a website featuring over 48 million editors in the English edition alone. The report caught the attention of Musk.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Wikipedia is broken,&rdquo; he said, quoting the article.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"nl\" dir=\"ltr\">Wikipedia is broken <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/luZErdUJ1x\">https:\/\/t.co\/luZErdUJ1x<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/elonmusk\/status\/1851311033178341676?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 29, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/cdn-cgi\/scripts\/5c5dd728\/cloudflare-static\/email-decode.min.js\"><\/script><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script> <\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The &ldquo;Comparisons between Donald Trump and fascism,&rdquo; <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\">page primarily sourced left-wing academics<\/a> and included an entire section comparing the Jan. 6 riot to Adolf Hitler&rsquo;s Beer Hall Putsch.<\/p>\n<p>Rindsberg noted that the page was created on Sept. 21, 2024, the same day the U.K.-based newspaper the <em>Guardian<\/em> published an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/seth-rogen-mocks-concerns-over-rise-in-online-anti-semitism\/\" title=\"Seth Rogen Mocks Concerns Over Rise In Online Anti-Semitism\">essay titled<\/a>, &ldquo;Is Donald Trump a Fascist?&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The <em>Pirate Wires<\/em> article also featured the Wikipedia page of &ldquo;Trumpism,&rdquo; the ideology and movement associated with Trump, which is described in hostile terms.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Trumpism has been described as&nbsp;authoritarian and&nbsp;neo-fascist.&nbsp;Trumpist rhetoric features&nbsp;anti-immigrant,&nbsp;xenophobic,&nbsp;nativist,&nbsp;and&nbsp;racist&nbsp;attacks against minority groups.&nbsp;Identified aspects include&nbsp;conspiracist,&nbsp;isolationist,&nbsp;Christian nationalist,&nbsp;evangelical Christian,&nbsp;protectionist,&nbsp;anti-feminist,&nbsp;and&nbsp;anti-LGBT&nbsp;beliefs,&rdquo; the page read.<\/p>\n<p>Rindsberg found that the &ldquo;Trumpism&rdquo; page included several sources that contradicted what was being written.<\/p>\n<p>A 2016 article in&nbsp;<em>Scientific American<\/em>&nbsp;by psychology professors Stephen Reicher and Alexander Haslam was cited in the article as supporting the claim that Trumpism is a political movement, though the article itself was primarily criticizing media commentators who portrayed Trump supporters as Nazis, racists, and fascists.<\/p>\n<p>The discussion page on the &ldquo;Trumpism&rdquo; article contained a slew of complaints from fellow editors.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;All 5 of the sources backing the use of &lsquo;authoritarianism&rsquo; in the intro are opinion pieces that fail to draw a clear correlation between Trump&rsquo;s policies or supporters and authoritarianism,&rdquo; one wrote. &ldquo;I think the editors are playing a bit fast and loose here. Do we really want to claim here on Wikipedia that the ideology of Donald Trump and his supporters is authoritarian? That just seems so removed from reality and I&rsquo;m wondering if we&rsquo;re not saying this in bad faith here.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;This is incredibly misleading and does not represent at all what Trumpism is. For example, Trump supporters favor LEGAL immigration. That does not make them &lsquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/asylum-seekers-stream-into-us-after-biden-revokes-remain-in-mexico-policy\/\" title=\"Asylum Seekers \u2018Stream\u2019 Into US After Biden Revokes \u2018Remain In Mexico\u2019 Policy\">anti-immigration<\/a>,&#8217;&rdquo; another editor wrote. How [in] any way shape or form is he authoritarian? Trump supporters fully support the constitution- it is a flat out [lie],&rdquo; another editor wrote.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;This article is just false. There is no other way to put it. It is not what Trump supporters believe. It is what the far-left labels Trump supporters. Wow &ndash; never seen such misinformation,&rdquo; they continued.<\/p>\n<p>On the &ldquo;Trumpism&rdquo; page, one editor who made up over half the edits removed the contributions of other editors who cast a more neutral angle, Rindsberg found.<\/p>\n<p>The contribution, &ldquo;Some historians have argued that [characterizing Trump as fascist] is an inaccurate use of the term, pointing out that while there are parallels there are also important dissimilarities,&rdquo; was replaced by a sentence saying that many scholars reject the &ldquo;populist&rdquo; label to instead view Trumpism &ldquo;as a new form of fascism,&rdquo; citing far-left academics such as Judith Butler, Noam Chomsky, and Cornel West.<\/p>\n<p>While anyone with an account can edit Wikipedia, some high-interest articles are locked to <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Wikipedia:About\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"prevent\">prevent<\/a> &ldquo;vandalism.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Though commonly used interchangeably, Nazism and fascism were two different phenomena. (Fascists and Nazis went so far as to fight a civil war in Austria in 1934.) Fascism, though notoriously difficult to define, is characterized primarily by a totalitarian government, the military mobilization of the entirety of society, the organization of the economy into state-managed &ldquo;corporations,&rdquo; and ultranationalism. While it is largely cited as having begun in Italy under Benito Mussolini, fascist governments also formed in Slovakia, Hungary, Vichy France, Greece, Belgium, and Austria throughout the 1930s and 1940s. The last clearly fascist government collapsed in 1945, and the ideology has failed to significantly take root anywhere since.<\/p>\n<p>Following World War II, it has primarily been used as an insult. Author George Orwell noted the phenomenon in a 1944 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.orwell.ru\/library\/articles\/As_I_Please\/english\/efasc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"essay\">essay<\/a> titled &ldquo;What is Fascism?&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;It will be seen that, as used, the word &lsquo;Fascism&rsquo; is almost entirely meaningless,&rdquo; he wrote. &ldquo;In conversation, of course, it is used even more wildly than in print. I have heard it applied to farmers, shopkeepers, Social Credit, corporal punishment, fox-hunting, bull-fighting, the 1922 Committee, the 1941 Committee, Kipling, Gandhi, Chiang Kai-Shek, homosexuality, Priestley&rsquo;s broadcasts, Youth Hostels, astrology, women, dogs and I do not know what else.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\"><strong><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In the final weeks of the 2024 election cycle, the Harris campaign and Democrats have explicitly sought to portray Trump as a fascist, drawing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/reporters-notebook\/3204245\/reporters-notebook-kamala-harris-trump-hitler\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"comparisons\">comparisons<\/a> with the former president and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-house\/3199943\/when-comparing-trump-hitler-falls-deaf-ears\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Hitler\">Hitler<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Republicans and some Democrats have decried the rhetoric as a <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/RepMTG\/status\/1849139181999862045\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"possible incitement to violence\">possible incitement to violence<\/a> following the two assassination attempts against Trump.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <script>!function(){var g=window;g.googletag=g.googletag||{},g.googletag.cmd=g.googletag.cmd||[],g.googletag.cmd.push(function(){g.googletag.pubads().setTargeting(\"has-featured-video\",\"true\")})}();<\/script><script>var _bp=_bp||[];_bp.push({\"div\":\"Brid_1847968\",\"obj\":{\"id\":\"27789\",\"width\":\"1280\",\"height\":\"720\",\"stickyDirection\":\"below\",\"video\":\"1847968\"}});<\/script><script defer src=\"https:\/\/services.brid.tv\/player\/build\/brid.min.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Musk labels Wikipedia as &#8216;broken&#8217; over Trump &#8216;fascist&#8217; page<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2653,"featured_media":2361239,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Elon_Musk_bbv4.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[4250,3634,10199],"class_list":["post-2361238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner","tag-musk","tag-trump","tag-wikipedia"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Elon_Musk_bbv4.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2361238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2653"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2361238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2361238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2361239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2361238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2361238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2361238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}