My Name is Jenna, and I Am the High Priestess of Radical Common Sense, Prophetic Opinions, and Occasionally Outrageous Shenanigans

*Checks to see if Wikipedia bio is updated yet

Regulars to Jenna’s Side may recall a casual postscript I tacked onto a recent substack, explaining how an alert reader had tipped me off to the fact that some diligent Wokepedia editors had gone out of their way to update my profile page. I was no longer a “speaker and author,” as I had been described on the supposedly independent, crowdsourced site for more than a decade; I had been promoted to “conspiracy theorist and disinformation enthusiast.”

*blushes furiously*

That TED talk—one of two, BTW—has gotten nearly 7 million views.

From that post:

I’m half honored (They know me! Right now, they know me!) and half pissed (that they left off a dozen of my books including The War on Ivermectin and Yankee Doodle Soup, that they undercounted my millions of TEDx views by nearly half, and that they chose the word enthusiast. Serena Williams is not a tennis enthusiast. Elon Musk is not a car enthusiast. The term is a subtle dig; the queen of backhanded compliments; shorthand for “She’s not very good but she really seems to enjoy it, bless her heart.” I prefer disinformation master, authority, specialist, or wizard, thanks in advance.).

I updated the page myself—anyone can do it—but there must be an algorithm at work because it immediately reverted to this janky, incomplete mess. If you’re bored, feel free to dive in there and add anything you’d like to my bio. Make me a part-time showgirl, former mermaid, professional stunt double, or spicy mustard enthusiast. Bonus points for coming up with clever titles for dozens of books I didn’t write!

At least a few subscribers had a little spare time to kill, because several tried to update my profile. And just like when I tried, their efforts were instantly rejected and the page reverted to the disinfospiracist deliciousness.

One determined reader, Mike Myhre, persisted, updating my opening bio line to “Jenna McCarthy has been called a conspiracy theorist.” The change was again immediately denied because—and I am not making this up—Mike “had presented a non-neutral point of view.” (Mike documented the exchange here.) When he shared screenshots of the exchange, I was infuriated by the sheer hypocrisy of it all. I found a “there’s an issue with this page” email for Wokepedia and whipped off an email.

***Since I like to read on my phone and hate trying to decipher tiny type on images, I’m going to copy/paste the exact exchange below and link to screenshots for folks who prefer reading that way and like to see the receipts:

SUBJECT: LIBEL: Jenna McCarthy Wikipedia page

Hi,

I am the person mentioned in the subject line; your "editors" have decided that of my 20+ books, two TED talks, countless speaking appearances, radio background, popular substack, and other professional accomplishments, that "conspiracy theorist" is the best and simplest descriptor for me.

THIS IS LIBELOUS. It is demonstrably false and can harm my reputation and my book sales and substack subscriptions. A reader of my work tried to change it to "has been called a conspiracy theorist" and was told--brace yourself--that the change was "less than neutral."

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

Your "commitment to neutrality" is LAUGHABLE. You are the most biased source on the internet and everyone knows it.

Further, much of the info you have is wrong (my TED talk got closer to 7M views, and I did not contribute to the PDR, for two quick examples). Many of my newer books are missing.

The whole thing is absurd and you are a joke. And YES, I will be writing publicly about this.

Within hours, Wokepedia replied, explaining that they simply had described me the way I described myself! (I guess that makes sense coming from a propaganda machine that calls itself an “enclyclopedia” and gets away with it.) Case closed, but by the way, “a user” had nominated my page for deletion anyway, so have a nice day.

Wokepedia’s reply (linked here):

Dear Jenna McCarthy,

The tag of conspiracy theorist appears to be taken from your own website : https://jennamccarthy.com/theory-about-conspiracies/
"Hi. My name is Jenna, and I am a conspiracy theorist."

Nonetheless, the material has been removed. The remaining material does not sustain a claim of notability and as a result a user has nominated the article for deletion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:GNG

Yours sincerely,
Carlos Abayi

Just a vigilant user, perusing random profiles that have been up since before Stranger Things was a thing, suddenly and coincidentally deciding that my profile “cannot sustain a claim of notability” on the very same day I accuse them of libel and promise to make the case public. Seems legit.

Dear Mr. Abayi,

Thank you for your hilarious response, which suggests that while your editors can't do a simple google search to find my latest books or interviews, they CAN read five paragraphs into a four year old *blog post* about how and why the term 'conspiracy theorist' is pejorative but technically shouldn't be, pull a single, facetious sentence from it, and make that my bio. I wonder if you can find where I called myself a "disinformation enthusiast," too. That one I do not recall--but good job wikipedia with your stunning neutrality!

It's wonderful to know that wikipedia has such high editorial standards that they make sure to describe their subjects in their subjects' own words. If I said publicly or in print, which I am sure I have, "I am such an asshole," would that have justified your platform declaring, "Jenna McCarthy is an asshole"?

Actually, not long ago I christened myself the Princess of Pretty Much Everything. I prefer that to author, in fact. Would you kindly update my page before it gets deleted for "lack of reliable, independent sources"? It's right there on the internet.

Thanks in advance,

Jenna

Once again, the “Wokepedia Volunteer Response Team” was quick to reply.

Dear Jenna McCarthy,

As I said, it has been removed.

Yours sincerely,
Carlos Abayi

Disappointingly, they did not change my bio to asshole or POPME, nor did they make any of the apparently not-neutral corrections I suggested to my own page. I’m just a boring old author who has written a few comedic books for children and adults. Oh, and the Physicians’ Desk Reference, first published in 1947 (twenty-two years before I was born) and for which I’ve yet to receive a single royalty check.

Perhaps I should have left well enough alone. In Wokepedia circles, I was in excellent company, alongside fellow disinformation enthusiasts Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, Pierre Kory, Robert Malone, Aseem Malhotra, Joseph Mercola, Sherri Tenpenny, Christiane Northrup, and tragically deceased Rashid Buttar (among probably hundreds more). But I can’t help it; I have zero tolerance for ethical cosplay and even less for sanctimony with a side of self-interest.

The comment section on Mike’s post has heaps of examples of Wokepedia’s habitual practice of warping, tongue-wagging, and weapons-grade whoppers—including the fact that, despite diligently researched attempts at reversal, the site defines homeopathy as pseudoscience (thanks Dana for that share) and that, unbelievably, if you search for “terrain theory,” it takes you to a page titled “germ theory denialism” (props to Greg). Because nothing says neutral like pre-loaded, ultra-processed propaganda.

The terrifying thing is, if you google or ask Alexa literally anything these days—from who was Alexander Hamilton to what is haggis—the source is nearly always Wokepedia. And since the site is clearly controlled or at least funded by thinly veiled government moles, you can rest assured that anything even controversial-adjacent will be filtered through a sieve of state-sanctioned half-truths.

As always, please share why you voted the way you did in the comments. (And yes, I’ll be sending this post to Mr. Abayi, so don’t hold back!) :)

*Aside: What do you guys think about me organizing a class-action lawsuit and getting RFK to represent us (in his spare time hahahaha)? We likely wouldn’t win—it’s extraordinarily hard to prove damages from libel because you have to demonstrate not only that the statements were false and defamatory but that they also caused actual harm, and we all know about correlation-does-not-equal-causation—but we’d definitely get some attention. And if Wokepedia imploded as a result, I wouldn’t even be sad.

I’m not just a conspiracy theorist; I also write books FOR conspiracy theorists! Get your signed copy here.