According to Wikipedia, Erick Erickson has an Insatiable Need to Eat Asian Children (Update: Wikipedia deletes!)

Or “Why You Shouldn’t Trust Wikipedia Part 14,242”

Update: The Wikipedia page has deleted the whole line.  This might be in response to a Gawker story (which I won’t link to) where they allegedly called his mom and asked her if it was true and she denied it.  That led to people proclaiming that Erickson was lying, instead of that it being a disputed account.   Because that is the most obvious explanation, instead of the mother being embarrassed and not wanting to admit it.

So, on Pearl Harbor day this year, Erick Erickson tweeted this out:

Growing up, I remember my parents never letting us have Asian food on December 7th. They were children of WWII.

— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) December 7, 2015

This in turn led to a deep discussion about getting past the racism of some of our parents and commending him for being honest about his upbringing and...

Just kidding, everyone attacked him for his candor and, even though he didn’t endorse what his parents did, they assumed he agreed with them.

And it even found its way into his Wikipedia page.  See if you see what is wrong with this image:

(I have the whole thing screencapped in case it changes.)

Yep, according to Wikipedia, “Erickson's parents refused to let his family eat Asian children on December 7th.”  Apparently Mr. Erickson had an insatiable desire to each Asian children, at least when he was growing up, and his parents could only prevent him from eating said children on one day a year, or something.

Nor is this the only thing Wikipedia has ever gotten laughably wrong when it comes to conservatives.  For instance, during the Bush administration, Wikipedia said Condi Rice was trained to be a “concert penis” and littered Bush’s entry with the word “jerk.”

I think the big picture is this.  The words on your screen do not appear by magic.  There is a human hand behind each word, even these you are reading right now.  They can be driven by an honest desire to get at the truth, or they can be driven by unconscious bias or even a conscious agenda.  About three and a half years ago when I first embarked on my quest to hold Brett Kimberlin accountable for the crimes he committed against me, I recognized that I need to establish my credibility.  So I provided my source documents and even video evidence to support my story.  As I said back then: “In other words, you won’t have to believe my word on this.  You will only have to believe your eyes.”

Always be skeptical about what any person is telling you, even from a source as authoritative as a textbook.  Make sure that there are fact checkers who are not asleep at the switch or so filled with bias themselves that they can’t recognize an error when it appears.  In computer programing they have an acronym: GIGO.  It stands for Garbage In, Garbage Out, meaning that if your inputted information is bad, your output will suffer.  In our democracy we have to base our decisions on the information we have, and if the information we have is garbage, our decisions will be garbage.  So you need to screen your sources of information for trustworthiness.

As for Wikipedia, it’s just not trustworthy--at least not on politically charged topics.

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Sidebar: as a matter of full disclosure, Mr. Erickson was a co-defendant in some of the Brett-Kimberlin-related litigation and even apparently settled.  If you think that somehow creates a bias in me that affects this article, that seems unlikely.  At best, it means that when someone talked about it on Twitter, I was slightly more likely to notice the story because I know him a little.  But once I noticed it for any reason I doubt I would have drawn different conclusions.

Also, regular readers might wonder, “hey, Aaron! You’re blogging again!  Does this mean you will be filling us in on what has been happening in Kimberlin Saga?  Yes, I will be working on that, soon.

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My wife and I have lost our jobs due to the harassment of convicted terrorist (and adjudicated pedophile) Brett Kimberlin, including an attempt to get us killed and to frame me for a crime carrying a sentence of up to ten years.  I know that claim sounds fantastic, but if you read starting here, you will see absolute proof of these claims using documentary and video evidence.  If you would like to help in the fight to hold Mr. Kimberlin accountable, please hit the donation link on the right.  And thank you.

Follow me at Twitter @aaronworthing, mostly for snark and site updates.  And you can purchase my book (or borrow it for free if you have Amazon Prime), Archangel: A Novel of Alternate, Recent History here.  And you can read a little more about my novel, here.

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Disclaimer:

I have accused some people, particularly Brett Kimberlin, of reprehensible conduct.  In some cases, the conduct is even criminal.  In all cases, the only justice I want is through the appropriate legal process—such as the criminal justice system.  I do not want to see vigilante violence against any person or any threat of such violence.  This kind of conduct is not only morally wrong, but it is counter-productive.

In the particular case of Brett Kimberlin, I do not want you to even contact him.  Do not call him.  Do not write him a letter.  Do not write him an email.  Do not text-message him.  Do not engage in any kind of directed communication.  I say this in part because under Maryland law, that can quickly become harassment and I don’t want that to happen to him.

And for that matter, don’t go on his property.  Don’t sneak around and try to photograph him.  Frankly try not to even be within his field of vision.  Your behavior could quickly cross the line into harassment in that way too (not to mention trespass and other concerns).

And do not contact his organizations, either.  And most of all, leave his family alone.

The only exception to all that is that if you are reporting on this, there is of course nothing wrong with contacting him for things like his official response to any stories you might report.  And even then if he tells you to stop contacting him, obey that request.  That this is a key element in making out a harassment claim under Maryland law—that a person asks you to stop and you refuse.

And let me say something else.  In my heart of hearts, I don’t believe that any person supporting me has done any of the above.  But if any of you have, stop it, and if you haven’t don’t start.