A general question regarding Brandt and WP: NPA, One rule for one? Options

[Jonathan]

Why is it that it is okay for members of the Wikipedia Brethren/Cabal to constantly call Brandt all sorts of horrendous names as expertly covered in Brandt's website when WP: NPA is quite possibly the most overly quoted policy used by admins (other than, of course, WP: AGF).

Is it the case that members of the Wikipedia Elite ™ are basically able to do whatever the fuck they want? Cool! In which case, it would be great to infiltrate Wikipedia by becoming an admin, because then you could use your shiny brand new powers to send Wikipedia crashing to oblivion from within. And considering as how Wikipedia will probably be dead and buried in 10, maybe 15 or perhaps 20 years time, just who is going to give a damn when a beacon of abuse and unreliability goes down in flames?

But seriously, the fact that people like Raul, Snowspinner and Freakofnurture and SlimVirgin can do what they like is deeply troubling. I can't understand why Jimmy can't simply revoke their adminship status and ban them forever. Just what the hell can they do?

[Daniel Brandt]

Your version makes it sound like I supported Holocaust denial. In fact, Berlet's anger was directed at PIR because Berlet found himself on the PIR board of advisors along with L. Fletcher Prouty.

Prouty's unforgivable sin was to let Liberty Lobby republish his book, The Secret Team, which is one of the early anti-CIA books (Ballantine, 1974). This was a very significant book, and copies were already difficult to find by the early 1980s. No one else would reprint it. Prouty himself didn't have an anti-Semitic bone in his body. But the association with Liberty Lobby, which was anti-CIA and anti-Zionist, caused Berlet to fly off the handle. He expected me to kick Prouty off of the PIR board of advisors, with the suggestion that if I didn't, Berlet himself would have to leave. So I politely thanked Berlet for his past support, and whipped out the white-out, and removed Berlet from the Board.

Then Berlet contacted the other advisors and denounced me. Three other "progressive" advisors quit in the wake of this: Holly Sklar, Martha Wenger, and Tom Barry. It's no big deal -- the board of advisors has zero power and it's the Board of Directors that's important. Berlet also contacted Dennis Brutus, a poet and professor who spent time in prison with Nelson Mandela for ANC activities, and quite an impressive activist. But Dennis Brutus would have none of Berlet's bullshit, and he's still on our Board of Directors.

Prouty was a reasonable, highly-motivated critic of the Secret State with a lot of insider Pentagon experience to draw on. He was the so-called "Man X" in Oliver Stone's movie "JFK." Once he became a critic, Prouty was someone who was impossible to compromise. When it came to making a choice between Prouty and Berlet, it was a rather easy decision for me to make.