Wikipedia:Account suspensions/Cognition

Cognition

Note: This is also reported at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents#User:Cognition_(II)

I've blocked Cognition (talk · contribs · block log) for 24 hours for disruption, and for violations of WP:NPOV, WP:NOR, WP:POINT, and WP:No personal attacks. S/he's a LaRouche-movement activist or supporter, and since opening the account on June 29 has made mostly disruptive or inflammatory edits (158 posts, 76 to articles), with lots of WP:POINT and attempts to insert LaRouche POV. His user page is a clear example of LaRouche thinking: Aristotle is "possibly the greatest evil in distant times," John Locke "depraved," Adam Smith "systematically insane," Kant "pathological liar," Hitler "put into power by London bankers," Bertrand Russell an "evil" advocate of "genocide," and "Lunatic Isaac Newton."

Background for those not familiar with the LaRouche situation in Wikipedia: there have already been two arbcom cases that ruled LaRouche supporters must not use Wikipedia to promote LaRouche, and may not insert material originating with the LaRouche movement unless the articles are closely related to LaRouche. The arbcom has ruled that material published by the LaRouche movement amounts to original research.

Some of the disruptive edits:

• Using an image to insert a POV: his first edit was to remove the Immanuel Kant picture and replace it with one that made Kant look ugly. [1] Kant's a LaRouche bogeyman and Cognition's user page calls Kant an "avowedly pathological liar."
• Bad-faith objections to FACs: he has lodged objections against two featured-article candidates Bertrand Russell [2] and Carl Friedrich Gauss, [3] because LaRouche POV was not included in them. In the case of Bertrand Russell, he objected because the article didn't make clear that Russell was "one of the worst monsters in recent history."
• Bad-faith VfD nomination: he nominated Chip Berlet for a VfD. Berlet is an investigative journalist who has written about the LaRouche movement. See Wikipedia:Votes for deletion/Chip Berlet
• He's inserted LaRouche POV into Dennis King, another journalist who has written about LaRouche, including an anonymous Amazon review that said King had "no intellect" and "lesser morals." [4]
• Abusive edit summaries e.g. "removing outright lies by barbarian POV-pushers." [5]
• Deletion of links that contradict LaRouche POV. [6]
• Deletion of posts on his user page warning him about the LaRouche arbcom rulings and 3RR, with the words "remove harassment."
• Personal attacks: He uploaded a rabid dog image and awarded the "rabid dog beast-man barnstar" to User:SlimVirgin and User:Willmcw with the words: "For working around the clock to defend fascism and synarchism." [7] [8]

Cognition shows too much knowledge of WP to be a new user (his first edit was to upload an image and tag it as fair use), though I'm not convinced she's User:Herschelkrustofsky, who's banned from editing LaRouche articles, because he's a little too manic for HK, and HK could spell, but it wouldn't surprise me if they were connected. SlimVirgin ^(talk) July 3, 2005 10:26 (UTC)

• Concur with the block; reached the same opinion independently Uncle Ed July 5, 2005 18:47 (UTC)
  1. Deletion of the entire quotation section from Milton Friedman with the Edit Summary "not the place to sell his quack ideas" [9]

Thanks, Ed. Cognition's heading for another block. Has twice inserted into Bertrand Russell that he was a Nazi; gave User:Herschelkrustofsky (a banned LaRouchie, who Cognition may even be a reincarnation of) a barnstar; tried to restore a page on Adam Carr, which had been directed to his user page, because Adam previously opposed the LaRouchies, and also because the LaRouche movement doesn't like Adam's employer. I currently have five or six pages protected because of the POV pushing, which begins to look like vandalism in the case of calling Russell a Nazi. SlimVirgin ^(talk) July 5, 2005 19:06 (UTC)

I've blocked Cognition for 3 days. He's using Wikipedia to push his own POV, as if it were his own personal blog. His user page calls Queen Elizabeth a dope pusher; he removed representative quotes from the Milton Friedman page. I fail to see any encyclopedic purpose in his wiki edits. Uncle Ed July 6, 2005 01:42 (UTC)