I’m going to rename my blog. I’m going to call it “Stupid things I’ve found on WikiAnswers”. They have a motto over there “There are no stupid questions”. I used to believe this… before I began looking around W/A. After reading a number of the answers I’ve given up on that faint hope.
Now don’t get me wrong, there are great people over there that labour valiantly against the tide of illiteracy, ignorance and arrogance. Unfortunately a few of the worse offenders of misinformation are the supervisors themselves. Sometimes there is a hint of the truth buried in the details of their answers which gives the answers a air of legitimacy. But bad information is still bad, no matter how hard you try to twist the facts to fit your personal take on history. I write this primarily as a cautionary tale for people to be careful where you get your information. Have faith, but not in what you find on the Internet.
I had a running battle with one of the supervisors over the origins of baseball and for the final time “NO ABNER DOUBLEDAY DID NOT INVENT IT!!” The first documented game occurred in Beachville, Ontario on June 4, 1838 long before Doubleday came on the scene. But this supervisor relentlessly posts it was good ole’ Abner despite being shown evidence this was a fiction that no baseball historian believes.
This self-confessed historian also insisted that the participants in the Boston Tea Party were “Smugglers of Dutch tea. They didn’t like it because the British had lowered the tax on tea and would cost them money.” I can’t even begin to understand this answer. She repeatedly inserts the tea was too cheap argument into answers. High school history was a couple of decades ago, but if memory serves me, it was high taxes (among a number of other issues) that sparked the Tea Party, not cheap tea. She has this fascinating take on the Revolution, that it was basically a plot by tea smugglers to keep the price of tea artificially inflated to maximise profits. She often calls the smugglers Dutch tea smugglers, which implies the Dutch themselves were involved in the Revolution.
She loves to write answers that are partially correct and erase additional information made by other people. Here is an excellent example:
Who were the Sons of Liberty and Daughters of Liberty?
There was only the Sons of Liberty and they comprised 12 men before the American Revolution.
The answer was partially correct. The words Sons of Liberty and the American Revolution were good. Other than that … no. There were Sons and Daughters of Liberty, their existence is well documented.
She isn’t content to tamper with just American history, she revises … well … just about every bit of history:
Where did the medieval people get clothes?
Here answer was: Clothing was made by hand either from wool or linen. Most people wore a wool tunic in the Roman fashion.
This is partially correct. But it doesn’t deal with nobility. Someone added much more detail but she erased it. So now we have people wandering around thinking Kings and peasants wore the same clothing.
What were medieval teachers called?
There weren’t schools or teachers in the middle ages. So, they weren’t called anything. About 90% of the population couldn’t read or write.
Well, I guess that answers that. Just don’t tell any of the Universities that were formed during the Medieval period. She is correct about the illiteracy, but to erase centuries of intellectual history because you don’t either pick up a book or use Google to verify your statement, is baffling. A quick search on the Internet called up dozens of credible links dealing with the history of Medieval Universities.
What kind of animals would be killed in a middle ages butcher shop?
There was no butcher shop and people caught or grew the animals that they killed. You have to remember there was no good method to keep meat fresh, so it was killed and eaten the same day. Types of meat eaten were beef, lamb, goat, chicken, fowl of all sorts, hare, rabbit, deer, eels, boar, pork.
This isn’t just wrong, it’s nonsense. They ate what they killed the same day? There were methods of preservation and NO people did not eat an entire deer in one day. For the record, butchers have been around a long, long time. Butchers Guilds were formed as early as the 1300′s, with many of the records still around. This was an honoured profession. The guilds broke down butchering into various levels of skill and types of meat/preservation etc required. Yet again, a quick search will take you to pages and pages on the history of the Guild of Butchers.
Did medieval explorers have ships?
There were no middle age explorers. Exploring didn’t start until the late 1400′s.
So much for the Portuguese explorers and Marco Polo. Oh well, they don’t count I guess.
There are pages and pages of this type of nonsense. I make jokes about them, but periodically I become stressed because I know people take the answers as the truth. It’s becoming easier for historical revisionists to rework history, because they have a ready and eager audience who will believe whatever you post on the Internet. Just sound like you know what you are saying and Voila! Instant history remake. The inherent problem with WikiAnswers, it has a large student audience. I shutter to think of some of the homework being handed in. If you have supervisors, the gatekeepers of information, posting nonsense, how can we trust the source.
I think my will to live is being sapped out of me. As I said in a previous post “my pain is your pain”. Here are a random sampling of some of the more ludicrous answers given to legitimate questions. For the record, none of the answers were supplied by my favourite bugaboo supervisor. These are just random folks piping in with their answers.
After ww2 what countries did Russia take over?
none except the country of Georgia and Georgia is free after fighting. East Berlin is still controlled by Russian Government.
Are stasi the secret German police?
The Stasi, known as SS, are the secret German (Nazi) police and bodyguards for Hitler. They were the feared warriors of the Nazis. They had a fighting group that was considered one of the best fighting groups the Allied Forces had ever encountered. They were also called The Waffen SS. The SS would kill a person without provocation. So the general populous really feared them.
Do you want to sigh now? Go ahead, get it out of your system. It will only get worse as you read on.
How were wounded soldiers treated after returning home from world war 1?
Harry Houdini saved money and donated it to help the wounded soldiers after world war I
Actually, I rather liked this answer. It was so, divinely cockeyed. Didn’t answer the question, but it was fun.
WHEN did Russia leave the war war in world war 1?
When the Soviet Union was formed, Russia was to busy capturing small closer nations to make themselves stronger the signed treaty with the Allies and later on allied with Germany. It was until world war 2 when there allies were broken with the German invasion of the Soviet Union.
This was a real potpourri of inaccurate information cloaked in misinformation, hidden under a kernel of truth.
Is religion a big part of england’s people?
… Many claim they are believers but they do little with that belief to the consternation of the spiritual leaders and the Queen of England. She is a very devout and devoted born again Christian.
Elizabeth, born-again Christian? Do you want to call Number 10 and warn them or shall I?
Who did the Germans attack in1939?
The Germans attacked Poland in 1939 then kicked the Poles out of their own country and next he moved his own Germans into Poland. He put the Polish Jews into concentration camps.
Ah that old mistruth cloaked in a kernal of truth. I’m not sure which is worse, the incorrect information or the idea that there is a hint of legitimacy to it that makes it so hard to put down.
Did winston churchill have syphlis?
No, Winston Churchill did not have syphillis. He was a family man and did not contract STDs.
Oh yea, no one has ever, ever cheated on their spouse and brought home an unwanted souvenir from their dalliances. No married man has ever contracted syphillis. Randolph Churchill was supposed to have contracted syphillis although there are some reports that have cast doubt on this.
What year did the Holocaust happen?
1941 until 1945
This is so wrong. So terribly wrong. So very, very wrong. No wonder Holocaust deniers are having a field day. So much misinformation is being passed off as fact, it is making it more difficult to stem the tide of denial.
Be very careful where you get your information from. If you have a child in school, for the love of all education, vet the places they are getting their “facts” from. Check and then triple check the information. Better yet, a quick trip to the library might provide a reliable way of checking the information gathered.
Be afraid, be very afraid.
