Reply #28: "exert a secret control over events and activities"?

[MrPrax]

But you support a post that is implying just this, except with a different set of actors?

The poster THINKS there is some conspiracy involving the 'enemies of Israel', wikipedia and the public? The poster THINKS there is a secret movement a foot to 'revise' traditional meanings so as to 'change' opinions and attitudes towards Jews, Israel and the racist violence?

I think Colbert was a little too flippant. Nothing on the internet is written in stone; nor is knowledge itself. It is always being 'revised'. It's just Colbert thinks there are people that do it professionally and the public doesn't have this training or ability.

However --

Study: Wikipedia as accurate as Britannica

Wikipedia is about as good a source of accurate information as Britannica, the venerable standard-bearer of facts about the world around us, according to a study published this week in the journal Nature.

Over the last couple of weeks, Wikipedia, the free, open-access encyclopedia, has taken a great deal of flak in the press for problems related to the credibility of its authors and its general accountability.
....
In the end, the journal found just eight serious errors, such as general misunderstandings of vital concepts, in the articles. Of those, four came from each site. They did, however, discover a series of factual errors, omissions or misleading statements. All told, Wikipedia had 162 such problems, while Britannica had 123.
Zdnet

So the experts are no better than the public in relating accurate information. The moral of this story -- don't believe everything you read and make a point of surveying a large body of contrasting material to make up your own mind, including 'primary sources'.

doublethink: "the power of holding two contradictory propositions in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them"
The book itself...Chapter 9 -- now isn't that a strange reference ;-)