I almost never think of looking up Steinbach on Wikipedia. I mean, I live here! I already know about it!
But Andrew looks it up. And it’s probably a good thing he does, because one day this past January, he came across a particularly ridiculous bit of misinformation that some bitter ignorant fool decided to put up on there.
It’s sad, really. And kind of funny. Thankfully another Wikipedia user deleted this crap pretty quick, but if you check the page history (if you know how to do that kind of thing) you can still find it in the archives. When people edit Wikipedia pages they’re supposed to give sources to back up their information. Instead this person prefaced his rant with this little tidbit: “Used insider knowledge to describe the true feelings of Steinbach. I’ve lived here 12 years, trust me.”
Ooooh, “insider knowledge”. To someone as old as me, 12 years is not that impressive. But, I digress. (Actually, this entire post is pretty much a digression.)
Oh, and they also left behind an IP address, 142.161.141.193, so if any of you know more about computers than I do we might even be able to reveal this pathetic mysterious individual with an encyclopedic insider knowledge of Steinbach. Ha!
The ill-conceived ignorant paragraph has since been removed from the page (thank goodness), but I think it does indicate the mindset of some individuals.
The comments show a significant ignorance about many things including, but not limited to, who or what are Mennonites, questions of German ethnicity, geography, the Filipino community, the role of religion in Steinbach, our alcohol laws. This individual gets the facts wrong in almost every way.
So, how? How could someone who apparently had “insider information” get things so wrong? Apart from the fact that some people are just Internet trolls, there are also people in every community whose judgements are so clouded they cannot see their own biases and ignorance. Armed with a little “insider knowledge” makes them feel like they know something that they do not. I’m not sure what can be done about this…other than extra vigilance on the Wikipedia page. Ha.
Have you ever looked up your town or city’s Wikipedia page? Who knows what you’ll find!