Wikipedia:No Nazis

This is an essay.

It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints.

This page in a nutshell: Racists (and other discriminatory groups) are inherently incompatible with Wikipedia. They will almost inevitably lack a neutral point of view and be a POV-pusher. If you think you've spotted one, see if you can find a number of supporting diffs and if so, report them straight to the incident noticeboard. Also report racist imagery on user pages on sight.

It is a common perception – based on our claim of being the encyclopedia anyone can edit – that Wikipedia welcomes all editors. There is also a misconception that because maintaining a neutral point of view is one of Wikipedia's five fundamental principles, administrators would be acting contrary to this if they blocked a racist upon learning of their public self-identification. Because of this, many neo-Nazis, neo-fascists, white supremacists, white nationalists, identitarians, and others with somewhat-less-than-complimentary views on other races and ethnicities – hereafter referred to collectively as Nazis – believe they are welcome to edit Wikipedia, or that they can use Wikipedia as a propaganda tool, so long as they stick to the letter of our policies. This is not true. Nazis (and other inappropriate discriminatory groups) are not only unwelcome here on Wikipedia, they are usually indefinitely blocked on sight if they express their racist ideas on-wiki.

Nazi beliefs

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WP:RACISTBELIEFS

The core beliefs uniting various types of Nazis are:

That white people are more intelligent than non-whites.
That white people are more industrious than non-whites.
That white people are more physically adept or attractive than non-whites.
That white people are morally and ethically superior to non-whites.
That the various cultures of white people are better than the cultures of non-white people.
That white people have the right to live in a white-only nation.
That a large majority of crimes are committed by non-whites.

In addition, there are many more beliefs that are quite common, though not universal among these groups. These include:

That there exists a massive conspiracy to enrich Jews at the expense of others.
That white people are being systemically killed, out-bred and otherwise forced into a minority status.
That minority groups are seeking to destroy Western culture.
That Islam or Muslims are the source of terrorism.
That the Holocaust never happened, or historians have inflated the death toll.
That non-whites hold back white progress.
That non-whites intend to kill whites.
That non-whites should be slaves
That white people are more oppressed than other groups.
That non-whites shouldn't have basic human rights
That groups of people should be wiped off the face of the planet, or systematically repatriated to the lands or continents they supposedly originated from.
That Jewish people are responsible for the creation of Communism.
That Adolf Hitler was a great leader for the German people, despite (or because of) Nazi Germany's innumerable atrocities.
That the many atrocities committed by Adolf Hitler were completely justifiable.
That Kurdish people are inferior to other people.
That the Arab Belt ethnic cleansing policy of the Ba'ath Party was not ethnic cleansing.
That the concept of free speech entails freedom to post race-, gender-, or identity-based slurs, insults, or promotion and glorification of hate and violence, without any consequence whatsoever, and that any consequence brought upon them is an act of censorship.
That the Globalists are plotting to destroy western civilization using Cultural Marxism.

These beliefs are – without exception – either demonstrably false, completely unsupported by evidence, or just impossible to prove. The very existence of a "white race" is a pseudo-scientific idea that has been rejected by the scientific community since the late 1960s – shortly after the discovery of molecular genetics. See Race (human categorization) § Modern scholarship for more on this. Debunking these beliefs is not the purpose of this essay, so they are not addressed here. Suffice it to say that all of these beliefs are considered false or meaningless by experts in the relevant fields. One can verify this with any sufficiently in-depth encyclopedia. There happens to be one close at hand.

Other kinds of racists

As is pointed out in the note in the lede, much of what is written here can be applied to racists of various non-white (or non-Nazi) flavors, as well. All one must do is swap out "white people" and "non-whites" for the races in question, and if the shoe fits, their behavior is no more excusable than that of any Neo Nazi or Klansman.

Effects of white supremacist beliefs

The problem with editors who hold these beliefs is that they usually interpret nominally clear information that pertains to those beliefs in a drastically different manner than an objective reader would. This leads to the frequent introduction of errors. It also results in Nazi editors taking wildly different stances on the weight of certain experts and sources who digress from the accepted consensus in their profession. For example, the consensus of neurologists and research psychologists is that there is no meaningful correlation between race and intelligence, yet a small number of experts continue to do work in that field, and even to publish said work. While this work is occasionally quite well done (though instances of poor methodology and even deliberate fraud seem more frequent than with mainstream scholarship), it nonetheless represents a fringe view within the field. Racist editors will almost inevitably attempt to add those views to articles about the subject, and will almost always present them with greater or equal weight to the mainstream view. This means that Nazi editors almost inevitably run afoul of our policies on original research, verifiability and the neutral point of view.

Another problem with white supremacist beliefs is that they immediately alienate any non-racist. As soon as a good-faith editor begins to suspect another editor of harboring these beliefs, it becomes all but impossible for them to work together without conflict. Without fail, non-racists find Nazi beliefs to be abhorrent. They fly in the face of the basic decency shared by most non-racists, and even though a Nazi editor may perceive themselves to be moral and objective, to all non-racists this is obviously and horribly untrue. The Nazis of early 20th century Germany set out to build up their nation, to improve the future abilities of all of humanity, and to protect their people from perceived threats. All of those are intentions which, in most contexts, would be highly moral, even laudable. But in the context of racist beliefs, they resulted in possibly the most evil regime to ever exist. It is important to note that Nazism presents a special case, owing to the holocaust. Even if one is a "nice" Nazi who doesn't really believe non-Aryans should be exterminated, or even if one is just "playing around" with Nazi slogans, imagery, or ideas, the moment an editor identifies as a Nazi in any way, they are endorsing the Holocaust in the eyes of the vast majority of other editors.

Owing to their white supremacists beliefs, far-right extremists often organize edit campaigns on various anonymous channels, believing that they could seize Wikipedia with their racist or fascist propaganda. Such users by nature do not come in good faith, and they will inevitably utilize various civil POV pushing techniques under the remote semblance of civility. This includes, but is not limited to, inserting fringe views from questionable sources, and trying to frustrate and drive away other editors in pages and pages of endless sea-lioning debates. This is an ever-present threat to this project, as it undermines the reliability and the collegial editing environment that gave rise to Wikipedia's reliability. For the healthy longevity of this project, Wikipedia must strive to be free from such disruptions.

Blocking Nazis

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WP:BLOCKNAZIS

The English Wikipedia and the Wikimedia movement as a whole are based on the concept that everyone has a right to receive free knowledge, regardless of their race, ethnicity, class, creed, or any other demographic factor, and that everyone has the right to contribute to this sharing of knowledge so long as they act in a way that does not disrupt the ability of others to contribute. Racism, both historical and neo-racist varieties, is inherently incompatible with these principles in a way that virtually no other ideology is. This is particularly true of neo-Nazis and other groups with ties to genocidal ideologies.

Disruption by racists, while often taking place in articles and talk pages, often comes to a flash-point in user space, when a user openly displays iconography from racist groups on their user page or signature. The only way for administrators to recognize this form of disruption is if these individuals make it known on Wikipedia. Declaring oneself to be a racist or using Wikipedia as a webhost to show racist or Nazi imagery and propaganda or mythologizing crosses the line into disruptive editing because it is telling a significant portion of our readers and editors that they shouldn't exist. This is contrary to the principles in the policy on personal attacks and Wikipedia's five pillars. That isn't acceptable, and we block for it. This is sometimes interpreted as censorship. It is not censorship. As a private website, Wikipedia and its community has the right to determine that some actions cross a line that make it impossible to contribute in a collaborative environment, and when that line has been crossed, the person is no longer welcome.

Additionally, editors who come here to push this fringe point of view in articles, under the guise of the neutral point of view policy, are typically blocked as POV pushers.

Don't use claims of racism as a coup de grâce

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Casting aspersions of racism (as well as -ist or -phobe aspersions) should not be used as a trump card in disputes over content or a coup de grâce on a noticeboard. They have the potential to permanently damage reputation, especially when the accused's account is publicly tied to a real-world identity. As such, unsubstantiated aspersions are a form of personal attack which may lead to the accuser being blocked.

Aspersions make the normal dispute resolution process difficult to go through and may create a chilling effect. Editors are encouraged to work through the normal dispute-resolution process when it comes to legitimate content disputes, such as disagreements on the interpretation or quality of sources.

What to do if you encounter a racist

If you encounter someone you suspect of being a racist or anti-semite, check their contributions. Racists on Wikipedia usually try to advance their ideology. If they really are a racist, you should usually see edits promoting a nationalist or racist perspective. Collect relevant diffs and report them to the administrators' incident noticeboard (or arbitration enforcement if applicable). Make sure the diffs do support a charge of racism or antisemitism.

If an editor is displaying racist imagery on their user page, report it to WP:ANI as a user displaying racist imagery, not as a "racist editor", because there is no room for interpretation in such a case.