User:Pablo X/Bogeymen
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Dissent is good!
[edit]The nature of Wikipedia, and its strength, is that anyone can edit. Collaboration is essential, and the more diverse the editor base, the better. Remember that it takes an infinite number of monkeys with an infinite number of typewriters to produce the works of Shakespeare, nothing less will do.
... please focus your efforts on content creation and improvement, and try not to demonize those who also seek to improve the encyclopedia by editing it: they are not your mortal enemies
— HiDrNick
There are no bogeymen under the bed
[edit]For most Wikipedians, there is no "battle" between "inclusionists" and "deletionists." However for some, this conflict is very real.
The only people who benefit from perpetuating it are those who participate in it. Identifying an enemy validates and excuses their own actions. If there were no battleground, there would be no need for warriors.
Consider also that your own personal beliefs colour your perception of your environment. If you have identified an 'adversary' it is natural to see evidence of that adversary's evil machinations in many situations. This phenomenon goes a long way to explaining witch-burning, genocides, and the arrest record of Pete Doherty.
You cannot lose if you do not play
[edit]Yet our best trained, best educated, best equipped, best prepared troops refuse to fight! Matter of fact, it's safe to say that they would rather switch than fight!
If we refuse to take sides in this "battle", admonish those whose behaviour perpetuates this fake division, and advise others not to take sides, the battle will disappear.
Flame warriors and Internet Tough Guys have been with us since even before Al Gore invented the Internets. They are trolls, do not feed them.
On martyrs
[edit]A hundred stories of this kind are to be found in the martyrologies. Thinking to make the ancient Romans odious they made themselves ridiculous.
Dictionnaire philosophique, Voltaire, tr. Theodore Besterman