An edit war with Nazi fanboys

PLUS: More of WIRED's best longreads from this week.

View this email in your browser  |  Manage newsletter subscriptions  09.26.21 Some people crochet in their leisure time. Some bake choux pastry or play disc golf. Ksenia Coffman has a higher-stakes hobby: She fights Nazi fanboys on Wikipedia. Coffman, who was born in Soviet-era Moscow and lives in Silicon Valley, didn't plan to spend six years of her life edit-warring about World War II. But when she first started contributing to the site, she was shocked by what she saw. Many of the articles about Nazi commanders and military heroes were written from a strangely empathetic point of view—as though their tactical brilliance and valor in battle could exist separately from the horrors they inflicted on the world. Coffman resolved to correct the record. And she kept correcting it, tens of thousands of times. She has since become one of the most prolific users on English-language Wikipedia, a solid member of the top 1,000. Her enemies have accused her of vandalism, McCarthyism, and "deletionist zeal." But Coffman doesn't mind the barbed words. In fact, she proudly links to them on her User page. Noam Cohen, a regular contributor to WIRED, tells the story of Coffman's war. At the heart of this conflict, he writes, is a question that society can never quite seem to resolve: "Do we let the old bronze statues stand in our boulevards, or do we put them in a museum someplace, or do we melt them down?" Anthony Lydgate | Senior Editor, WIRED   One Woman's Mission to Rewrite Nazi History on Wikipedia BY NOAM COHEN | 14-MINUTE READ Ksenia Coffman's fellow editors have called her a vandal and a McCarthyist. She just wants them to stop glorifying fascists—and start citing better sources.   'The Internet Remains Undefeated' Must Be Defeated BY ZAK JASON | 6-MINUTE READ The classic comment and caption has become a meme in its own right. Harmless as it may seem, a close study reveals dark undertones.   First-Generation College Grads Face More Hurdles in the Job Market BY JON MARCUS | 8-MINUTE READ Students whose parents didn't go to college often work instead of joining extracurricular activities, and can lag peers on skills like résumé writing.   In a Tiny Arctic Town, Food Is Getting Harder to Come By BY DEVI LOCKWOOD | 13-MINUTE READ For her new book, Devi Lockwood traveled around the world gathering stories of how people are being directly affected by a warming planet.   Environmental Law Is Getting in the Way of Climate Action BY ELEANOR CUMMINS | 7-MINUTE READ The path forward requires a new understanding of our burning world.   Could the Moon Actually Crash Toward Earth? BY RHETT ALLAIN | 8-MINUTE READ The trailer for the film Moonfall shows our satellite getting too close for comfort. Here are the physics of what it would take to push the moon out of orbit GET WIRED Flash Sale: Get WIRED for just $10 $5. Get the print edition and exclusive subscriber-only content. You can't see into the future, but you can subscribe to WIRED. Subscribe now.         This e-mail was sent to you by WIRED. To ensure delivery to your inbox (not bulk or junk folders), please add our e-mail address, wired@newsletters.wired.com, to your address book.   View our Privacy Policy Unsubscribe or manage your newsletter subscriptions   Copyright © Condé Nast 2021. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.