ProleWiki: Difference between revisions

From Leftypedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search
(4 intermediate revisions by the same user not shown)
Line 38: Line 38:
The ProleWiki administration would, at around new year's eve in 2022-2023, organize several raids against external sites which criticized ProleWiki, although similarly claiming it was part of a greater ideological struggle, despite being purely careerist in motive.<ref>[https://lemmygrad.ml/post/475280 InfraWiki is being raided] by @ledlecreeper27 [ProleWiki editor] (1 January 2023) ''Lemmygrad''</ref><ref>[https://lemmygrad.ml/post/468504 RationalWiki made an article about us] by @Leninistkommus [ProleWiki editor] (23 December 2022) ''Lemmygrad''</ref>
The ProleWiki administration would, at around new year's eve in 2022-2023, organize several raids against external sites which criticized ProleWiki, although similarly claiming it was part of a greater ideological struggle, despite being purely careerist in motive.<ref>[https://lemmygrad.ml/post/475280 InfraWiki is being raided] by @ledlecreeper27 [ProleWiki editor] (1 January 2023) ''Lemmygrad''</ref><ref>[https://lemmygrad.ml/post/468504 RationalWiki made an article about us] by @Leninistkommus [ProleWiki editor] (23 December 2022) ''Lemmygrad''</ref>


On 26 January 2023, former and current anti-revisionist members of ProleWiki would form the Committee to Reconstitute ProleWiki, dedicated to combatting the revisionist line which ProleWiki maintains.<ref>[https://wisconcom.substack.com/p/announcement-on-the-creation-of-the/comments?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2 Announcement on the creation of the Committee to Reconstitute ProleWiki] (26 January 2023)</ref>
On 26 January 2023, former and current anti-revisionist members of ProleWiki would form the Committee to Reconstitute ProleWiki, dedicated to combatting the revisionist line which ProleWiki maintains.<ref>[https://wisconcom.substack.com/p/announcement-on-the-creation-of-the/comments?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2 Announcement on the creation of the Committee to Reconstitute ProleWiki] (26 January 2023)</ref> The ProleWiki administration would reaction to these developments by purging their editorship (banning multiple accounts), making private messages by former members of ProleWiki suspected of being apart of this committee public (most of which contained compromising information),<ref>[https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=ProleWiki&diff=43051&oldid=43038 ProleWiki: Difference between revisions (edit on 28 January 2023)]</ref> and harassing and intimidating former members, even creating multiple fake accounts to persist in this.


== Ideology ==
== Ideology ==
Line 52: Line 52:


=== Sectarianism against anti-revisionists ===
=== Sectarianism against anti-revisionists ===
The site has even demonized and otherwise attacked followers of [[Irish Republicanism]], along with other modern revolutionary and anti-imperialist forces, calling them "petite-bourgeois" and "counter-revolutionary".<ref name=":7" />
ProleWiki, particularly since its purge of anti-revisionists in October 2022, has vilified anti-revisionist trends greatly. They have denounced [[People's Socialist Republic of Albania|Albanian]] communist leader [[Enver Hoxha]] as degrading into "dogmatic and opportunistic thinking",<ref>[https://lemmygrad.ml/post/497001/comment/357281 Post by ProleWiki administration Forte]</ref> denounced the concept of social-imperialism as "idealist" and "nonexistant" (and proceeding to defend reactionary and imperialistic actions by the Khruschevite-Brezhnevite Soviet Union),<ref>[https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Social-imperialism ProleWiki - Social-imperialism]</ref> and denounced Maoism as being "Gonzaloism".<ref>[https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Gonzaloism_(disambiguation) ProleWiki - Gonzaloism]</ref> The site has even demonized and otherwise attacked followers of [[Irish Republicanism]], along with other modern revolutionary and anti-imperialist forces, calling them "petite-bourgeois" and "counter-revolutionary".<ref name=":7" />


=== Anti-science promotion ===
=== Anti-science promotion ===
Line 75: Line 75:
This arrangement would last until the banning of Jucheguevara in September 2022 for his attempts at overcoming this "troika" and becoming the sole "leader" of ProleWiki, a position which Forte effectively holds.<ref name=":9" />
This arrangement would last until the banning of Jucheguevara in September 2022 for his attempts at overcoming this "troika" and becoming the sole "leader" of ProleWiki, a position which Forte effectively holds.<ref name=":9" />


==== Administrative abuses of power ====
=== Administrative abuses of power ===
The ProleWiki has consistently spied on users' activities, banned them with no vaild reason (other than their ideological stance), and otherwise acted in a highly cliqush manner.<ref name=":4" />
The ProleWiki has consistently spied on users' activities, banned them with no vaild reason (other than their ideological stance), and otherwise acted in a highly cliqush manner.<ref name=":4" />
==== Harassment of former editors ====
The administration of ProleWiki has even resorted to bullying and harassment against former editors, particularly those who speak out against the site and its revisionist line.<ref name=":4" />


==See also==
==See also==

Revision as of 22:11, 28 January 2023

ProleWiki
"The proletarian encyclopedia"
Type "Collaborative online encyclopedia" (self-declared), propaganda outlet
Available in 7[note 1] languages
Founded 30 September, 2020
Founder Felipe Forte
Key people CriticalResist,MxAsh,[note 2]
Jucheguevara
Users 90> (claimed)
~5 (active users)
URL prolewiki.org

ProleWiki is a self-described "communist (Marxist-Leninist)" and "anti-imperialist" collaborative encyclopedia founded in September 2020. It is based on MediaWiki software.[1] The site has promoted itself as "the proletarian encyclopedia".[note 3]

ProleWiki is infamous among most socialist circles for its exceedingly narrow range of accepted ideological trends, with most of its editors being militant Dengists and those who are not often getting banned, its nearly uncritical support for the economic and political system of China, Russia, and other modern capitalist states (of which they codify their support of in their "principles"[2]), and its extremely closed and numerically small administration, and its support of anti-science movements. Depite claiming to maintain nearly 90 fully active editors as of January 2023, the site in reality has less than a dozen editors who are even moderately active.

The site is greatly connected to other ideologically-aligned communities on the online left, such as Lemmygrad and GenZedong, and is dependent on these external sites for their recruitment of editors and preservation of the ideological line of the site. ProleWiki often serves as a "gateway" for Communists to be indoctrinated into chauvinistic and revisionary ideology, with the site actively promoting "Patriotic Socialist" and other social-chauvinist points of view and allowing users of those persuasions into the project.[3][4]

History

The following is a timeline of major events and developments which have taken place on ProleWiki.

Founding and early development (30 September 2020 – 24 November 2021)

ProleWiki was founded on 30 September 2022 by Brazilian pro-CPC propaganist Felipe Forte and other users of the internet forum Lemmygrad. The inital concept for ProleWiki likely originated as a reaction to the Liberal bias found on Wikipedia, with ProleWiki initally attempting to promote itself as "the people's Wikipedia". The then-sole administrator of ProleWiki, Forte, would firstly attempt to attract editors via promoting his project to several pro-China Telegram channels and to Lemmygrad. He would also attempt to self-promote his site on Wikipedia shortly. Also at this time, the site allowed Marxist-Leninists are many distinct subgroupings to join and freely express their views, a policy likely taken out of pragmatism.[5] Forte would also create a number of fake accounts and spambots on the site to boost SEO engagement to make the site more visible to unknowing newcomers, however, when this action failed to be yielding regarding account creation, Forte would later falsely claim that the spambots he covertly made were unintentional and made a system of "account requests" which, supposedly, was implemented to repel future spam attacks,[1] but in truth existed as part of Forte's plot to slowly turn ProleWiki into a pro-CPC propaganda outlet via preventing non-revisionist Marxists from joining.[6]

While the site was able to enjoy a short-lived spike of editors and general activity for the first weeks of its existance, and the sole adminstrator Forte delegated sysop roles to several other people.[7] However, this activity would soon sputter out entirely after the project progressed into early 2021. In response to this setback, Forte would later restrict adminstrator roles to merely two editors who were fully servile to his personal ideological line - CriticalResist and Jucheguevara (who was a known "Patriotic Socialist" and general holder of many reactionary views) - and declare himself "supreme comrade" of ProleWiki,[8] claiming that the previous democratized administration was suffering from "absenteeism". However, these adminstrators were greatly commited to their positions, and this action was truly done in order to ensure ProleWiki would become purely a propaganda hub for Dengist revisionism and ruled in a top-down manner by him personally, as the other adminstrators were begining to question the pro-China ideological line of ProleWiki.[9]

Ideological consolidation and first purge of anti-revisionists (25 November 2021 – 31 July 2022)

In response to increasing discontentment on the part of the editors concerning the extremely revisionist and anti-Marxist stance Forte had taken towards the People's Republic of China, Forte would initate the first ideologically-motivated purge on ProleWiki on 25 November 2021, banning a total of 12 editors in the span of just 3 hours (which as at the time over 90% of all active editors on ProleWiki). In an attempt to obscure the reasoning behind this mass-banning, Forte would claim that these editors were "Khruschevites", "Trotskyists", and "Radlibs". Following this, Forte and the other administrators would openly state ProleWiki's dogmatic and permanent support for the People's Republic of China and codifed it in their principles.[10][2] Forte and the others in his clique would proceed to completely discard Lenin's scientific theory of imperialism (calling it "dogmatic" and "outdated") and started embracing anti-Stalinist ideology, even downplaying Stalin's contributions to Marxism.[11] ProleWiki, from this point forth, would consistently deny the account requests of anti-revisionists and generally any Communist who failed to fanatically support China.

Ideological conflicts and administrative disunity (1 August 2022 – 27 September 2022)

While the internal condition of ProleWiki would remain relatively stable for most of early-to-mid 2022, with few notable conflicts within the editorship or administration of ProleWiki, This state of internal coherence would all rapidly disintegrate in August of 2022 when, along with others things such as protestations regarding the treatment of China, the inevitable creation of the page on Patriotic Socialism happened. The page noted Patriotic Socialism (with regards to the pseudo-socialist chauvinist ideology found in the United States of America) as being opportunist and revisionist. However, certain members within ProleWiki were Patriotic Socialist, including a then-administrator Jucheguevara, and a conflict would start between Patriotic Socialist and non-Patriotic Socialist (which included two of the three administrators) elements within ProleWiki.

This conflict would result in the non-Patriotic Socialist attaining ideological victory over the Patriotic Socialist elements, with the correct anti-Patriotic Socialist viewpoint of the article persisting. Relative peace would remain in the ProleWiki community, however, this would not be long-lasting. A month after the initial conflict, in September, the before-metioned administrator with Patriotic Socialist views, Jucheguevara would, particularly following the creation of the articles on MAGA Communism and on Infrared, which similar to the one on Patriotic Socialism, made clear that “MAGA Communism” was anti-Marxist and revisionist, and the Infrared collective (who are major “theorists” and promoters of “MAGA Communism”) were chauvinist, apparently experience escalating discontent with ProleWiki itself. Jucheguevara would conspire with the Infrared community to effectively infiltrate ProleWiki and force it to adopt Patriotic Socialist ideology, and to enforce a pro-Patriotic Socialist viewpoint onto the previously metioned articles. The then-administrator, Jucheguevara, would be banned on 27 September 2022 upon the discovery of his actions by the other ProleWiki administrators.[12]

This action, however, was largely done for non-ideological reasons on the part of the other ProleWiki administrators, with it being less the case that they cared about combatting social-chauvinist trends and more simply being the fact that their power within ProleWiki was increasing being compromised.[13]

"Great purge" of anti-revisionists and total adoption of ideological orthodoxy (28 September 2022 – 23 October 2022)

In response to an increasingly militant ideological stance against anti-revisionist trends, Hoxhaist user Wisconcom and like-minded users would begin to protest this anti-Marxist stance which the administrators were increasingly propagating by August 2022.[14] After weeks of this ideological conflict within ProleWiki, the administrators, after repeatedly losing debates within the community to the anti-revisionist faction, threatened Wisconcom and other anti-revisionist users with a ban from the project.

While this would permit some internal peace to develop within the ideological groupings of ProleWiki, ideological disputes would soon develop when the ProleWiki administrators purposefully began blocking the account requests of anti-revisionists – with them instead turning towards ultra-Dengist communities such as Lemmygrad and r/GenZedong for editor recruitment almost exclusively[15][16] – and openly went on a propaganda effort against anti-revisionist figures and movements, with them openly calling Maoists, Hoxhaists, and other anti-revisionists "dogmatic", "ultra-left", "sectarian", etc. in their articles.[17][18][19] Following this, anti-revisionist users, led by user Wisconcom, would send a petition demanding administrative transparency (of which largely did not exist, with the administrators holding secret "proceedings" to ban users, make major decisions, etc., without anybody in the editorship knowing[15]), the allowance of anti-revisionist users into the site, the expansion of the administration to more members, and the development of a democratic centralist system, rather than the one-man rule that the lead administrator Forte had over the site.[20]

The administration would reject this petition, despite its popularity among the ProleWiki comradeship, claiming that it was a purely "careerist", "factionalist", and "sectarian" action.[21]

The "great purge" on ProleWiki (23 October 2022)

Immediately following this, the ProleWiki administrators would proceed to ban editor Wisconcom from the project for his ideological stance and threat he posed to the power of the administration (a decision acted upon without any consultation from the wider community, and purely from the "initiative" if the administrators alone), with him otherwise being largely supported by the comradeship of ProleWiki for an administrator role.[21] However, the banning marked the start of a "great purge" across the project, with over 25 accounts of mostly anti-revisionist users (called by the ProleWiki administrators "Hoxhaist worms") being banned within the span of a few hours. The administrators would later deny the clearly ideologically-motivated nature of this purge on ProleWiki, with them later framing Wisconcom, along with other banned users, for "careerist" actions, even including concocting fake screenshots and messages in an attempt to discredit these anti-revisionist users.[15][22]

Following this event, the ProleWiki administration would effectively prohibit any sort of anti-revisionist communists from being allowed into the project, and would codify this stance in their principles.[2][23]

Recent developments (24 October 2022 – present)

ProleWiki would essentially abandon its orginal intention of being an ideological encyclopedia following these sweeping ideological purges. Its goals and focus has changed from the dissemination of Marxist theory and economics to generally misinformative "counter-propaganda" in favor of the actions of Russia and China, with little care for actual ideological content. The administration has taken the direct of extreme ideological pragmatism, with them starting to allow editors into the project based less upon their ideological stance and more upon the degree of their "support" for so-called "anti-imperialist" and "socialist" countries such as China, even allowing non-Marxist and right-wing nationalist elements into their project solely for being supportive of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, despite lacking any care or understanding for Marxist theory.[13]

The ProleWiki administration would, at around new year's eve in 2022-2023, organize several raids against external sites which criticized ProleWiki, although similarly claiming it was part of a greater ideological struggle, despite being purely careerist in motive.[24][25]

On 26 January 2023, former and current anti-revisionist members of ProleWiki would form the Committee to Reconstitute ProleWiki, dedicated to combatting the revisionist line which ProleWiki maintains.[26] The ProleWiki administration would reaction to these developments by purging their editorship (banning multiple accounts), making private messages by former members of ProleWiki suspected of being apart of this committee public (most of which contained compromising information),[27] and harassing and intimidating former members, even creating multiple fake accounts to persist in this.

Ideology

Marxism-Leninism and support for "actually existing socialism"

ProleWiki, despite claiming to adhere to Marxism-Leninism, has commonly be described as Dengist in most communist circles due to its militant, if not uncritical support for the People's Republic of China and its present economic system.[28][13] Despite the common views shared by Dengists that the current state-capitalist system of China is only applicable to the conditions of that country and nowhere else, ProleWiki has taken on a more extreme view, claiming that (with minimal concern for Marxist theory) private property under socialism is only "half-abolished"[29] (contrary to the views of nearly every Marxist theorist), that billionaires are a critical part of a socialist state and must retain a large degree of state power,[30] and that "market socialism" (an oxymoron by the understanding of Marxian economics) is, in the words of the leading ProleWiki administrator, "a redundancy [in terms]. There's no socialism without markets".[14]

ProleWiki maintains the commonly-held Dengist view of "actually existing socialism", and views China, Laos, Vietnam, Cuba, and "People's Korea" as modern dictatorships of the proletariat. ProleWiki has expressed its uncritical support for China on many occasions,[10] denying China's present social-imperialist and neocolonialist efforts as a mere "bourgeois propaganda effort" (despite the editors proceeding to utilize billionaire-owned Russian and Chinese propaganda outlets and references),[31][32] that it is presently in the socialist mode of production and a full dictatorship of the proletariat (a stance which not even the Chinese government holds),[33][34] and even a Soviet-style planned economy, with their sources being posts on pro-China subreddits which cite no sources whatsoever.[35] (despite over 75% percent of the Chinese economy being owned by private, mostly bourgeois, entities, and even the public sector being run with a lack of workplace democracy and on a for-profit basis[36]).

ProleWiki administrator Forte has even asserted that all socialists who are unsupportive of the modern capitalist system of China, regardless of their ideological stance, are universally "without realizing it, praising the capitalist system!",[37] indicating that ProleWiki, despite its claimed goals, values dogmatic support for "actually existing socialism" rather than actual revolutionary activities.

Sectarianism against anti-revisionists

ProleWiki, particularly since its purge of anti-revisionists in October 2022, has vilified anti-revisionist trends greatly. They have denounced Albanian communist leader Enver Hoxha as degrading into "dogmatic and opportunistic thinking",[38] denounced the concept of social-imperialism as "idealist" and "nonexistant" (and proceeding to defend reactionary and imperialistic actions by the Khruschevite-Brezhnevite Soviet Union),[39] and denounced Maoism as being "Gonzaloism".[40] The site has even demonized and otherwise attacked followers of Irish Republicanism, along with other modern revolutionary and anti-imperialist forces, calling them "petite-bourgeois" and "counter-revolutionary".[23]

Anti-science promotion

ProleWiki has taken a number of anti-science positions, particularly regarding psychiatry. The leading ProleWiki administrator and founder, Forte, himself is a self-declared supporter of the anti-psychiatry movement, and has even "invited" editors from anti-psychiatry communities on Reddit and Lemmygrad to promote their denialist views.[41]

ProleWiki has openly endorsed the "big-pharma" conspiracy theory, claiming that nearly all psychiatric and pharmaceutical research and developments are ultimately part of a larger plot by "big-pharma" to drug the working class into submission, and that most professionals working in those fields are members of the bourgeoisie and "bribed" by this "big-pharma" plot. Many editors on ProleWiki have even claimed that conditions such as autism and ADHD were "scientism", "nonexistent", and "facts of culture".[42]

Structure

Administration

Since its founding in 2020, ProleWiki has fuctioned as effectively the personal "playgroud" of its founder and current administrator, Felipe Forte. Forte has total control over every aspect of decision making within the project, and he will, at best, merely make purely aesthetical reforms to his administration when facing overwhelming criticism.[13] Since 2021 however, he has delegated certain trivial fuctions to loyal editors, making them administrators. Forte prefers to organize his administration on the basis of a clique of three administrators at any given instance, (i.e. a "triumvirate", or "troika"[5]) where he can better ensure the other two administrators dedicate their time fighting amongst themselves for greater power and affirmation from him.

Throughout the existance of ProleWiki, a number of these "troikas" have been formed by Forte.

The administrative "troika"

From 27 January to 27 September 2022, ProleWiki was largely under the control of three administrators:[1]

This arrangement would last until the banning of Jucheguevara in September 2022 for his attempts at overcoming this "troika" and becoming the sole "leader" of ProleWiki, a position which Forte effectively holds.[12]

Administrative abuses of power

The ProleWiki has consistently spied on users' activities, banned them with no vaild reason (other than their ideological stance), and otherwise acted in a highly cliqush manner.[13]

Harassment of former editors

The administration of ProleWiki has even resorted to bullying and harassment against former editors, particularly those who speak out against the site and its revisionist line.[13]

See also

External links

Notes

  1. However, most of the site is available in English, with the other language versions scarcely receiving any edits or updates. Some versions of ProleWiki in different languages, such as the Chinese ProleWiki, have not been edited in over half-a-year.
  2. Largely in a technical capacity.
  3. ProleWiki, however, has also hitherto entitled itself the people's wiki or the people's Wikipedia, indicating ProleWiki's founding motivations as creating an ideologically alternative to Wikipedia.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 ProleWiki - ProleWiki
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 ProleWiki - Principles
  3. Shall American communists hate their country?, by ProleWiki administrator Jucheguevara (1 August, 2022) ProleWiki
  4. The Mysterious Destruction of Productive Forces [an essay which promotes the "degrowth" conspiracy, a commonly-held view among the far-right] ProleWiki
  5. 5.0 5.1 Statement on democracy within Prolewiki, by ProleWiki administrator CriticalResist (23 October, 2022) ProleWiki
  6. "Enjoy ProleWiki's first spam attack" by ProleWiki administrator Forte (16 November, 2020) Lemmygrad
  7. User rights log ProleWiki
  8. Template used by "supreme comrade" Forte to indicate his "leadership" over the site.
  9. ProleWiki adminstrators voicing their discontent on the talk page of the article on China
  10. 10.0 10.1 WE FULLY SUPPORT CHINA's SCIENTIFIC DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIALISM by ProleWiki administrator Forte (25 November 2021) ProleWiki
  11. Topic on Comradeship:Forte ProleWiki
  12. 12.0 12.1 "Jucheguevara has been removed from administrative positions", by ProleWiki administrator Forte (27 September 2022) Lemmygrad
  13. 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 13.5 On ProleWiki (13 November 2022)
  14. 14.0 14.1 Topic on Talk:Market "Socialism" is Capitalism by Wisconcom (15 August 2022) ProleWiki
  15. 15.0 15.1 15.2 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named :2
  16. We welcome our new members from r/GenZedong by ProleWiki administrator Forte (3 March 2022)
  17. ProleWiki - Hoxhaism
  18. ProleWiki - Maoism
  19. ProleWiki - Anti-revisionism
  20. Topic on Comradeship:Forte
  21. 21.0 21.1 On the blocking of Wisconcom by ProleWiki administrator Forte (23 October 2022) ProleWiki
  22. Blocked users ProleWiki
  23. 23.0 23.1 Post by @ReubenG06 (24 December 2022) Twitter
  24. InfraWiki is being raided by @ledlecreeper27 [ProleWiki editor] (1 January 2023) Lemmygrad
  25. RationalWiki made an article about us by @Leninistkommus [ProleWiki editor] (23 December 2022) Lemmygrad
  26. Announcement on the creation of the Committee to Reconstitute ProleWiki (26 January 2023)
  27. ProleWiki: Difference between revisions (edit on 28 January 2023)
  28. Commiepedia - ProleWiki
  29. ProleWiki - Socialism
  30. Comrade:Deogeo/Sandbox
  31. ProleWiki - Imperialism
  32. ProleWiki - Chinese debt-trap myth
  33. ProleWiki - People's Republic of China
  34. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named :22
  35. ProleWiki - Planned economy
  36. Political Economy of East Asia: Regional and National Dimensions, Kevin G. Cai, 2007
  37. Ensaio:O esquerdismo moderno [On modern leftism] by ProleWiki administrator Forte ProleWiki "Quando os maoistas, os trotskyistas, anarquistas, liberais, ou, enfim, os esquerdistas infantis chamam essas experiências socialistas de "capitalismo de estado", estão, sem perceber, elogiando o sistema capitalista!"["When Maoists, Trotskyists, Anarchists, Liberals, and finally infantile leftists call these socialist experiences "state capitalism", they are, unconsciously, aggrandizing the capitalist system!"]
  38. Post by ProleWiki administration Forte
  39. ProleWiki - Social-imperialism
  40. ProleWiki - Gonzaloism
  41. ProleWiki - Psychiatry
  42. Talk:Psychiatry