A professor of climate science who opposed diversity initiatives cries foul over a cancelled lecture.
Dorian S. Abbot, an associate professor of geophysics at the University of Chicago, is speaking out against the cancellation of a lecture he was recently scheduled to give at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He says he’s being punished for his views on higher education’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, which he’s referred to as a top-down “regime”.
“A Canceled Talk, and Questions About Just Who Is Politicizing Science”
C. Flaherty
Inside Higher Ed, 6 October 2021
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/10/06/mit-controversy-over-canceled-lecture
Later, to protest against politicizing science, David Romps resigned as Director of the Berkeley Atmospheric Sciences Center (BASC). He wrote on Twitter:
“Last month, the MIT Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences canceled a science lecture because of the invited scientist’s political views. That scientist does excellent work in areas of interest to BASC...”
https://twitter.com/romps/status/1450139374125862913?s=20
On Twitter, Abbot has been accused of racism. The issue, however, is highly controversial. It is not so clear under which definition of “racism” his views belong, if at all. Abbot’s views, triggering complaints and scandal, were presented in his article
“The Diversity Problem on Campus”
D.S. Abbot & I. Marinovic
Newsweek, 12 August 2021
https://www.newsweek.com/diversity-problem-campus-opinion-1618419
Here, Abbot criticized the current policy of Western universities called DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion). Abbot:
“The words ’diversity, equity and inclusion’ sound just, and are often supported by well-intentioned people, but their effects are the opposite of noble sentiments. Most importantly, ’equity’ does not mean fair and equal treatment. DEI seeks to increase the representation of some groups through discrimination against members of other groups. The underlying premise of DEI is that any statistical difference between group representation on campus and national averages reflects systemic injustice and discrimination by the university itself. The magnitude of the distortions is significant: for some job searches discrimination rises to the level of implicitly or explicitly excluding applicants from certain groups.”
In some cases, politicizing science involves suppressing some scientific investigations (e.g. the race/IQ studies). In the present case, however, because of Abbot’s views on equal treatment, his lecture on the other area — on geophysics — was cancelled.
- Joined
- 05 Nov 06
- Moves
- 142480
@contenchess saidright or wrong
@EintaluJ
Welcome to the website.
Pick a side. Right or Left. 🤔
@contenchess saidOr center.
@EintaluJ
Welcome to the website.
Pick a side. Right or Left. 🤔
@Contenchess
I wish I knew whether I am left or right. Often, the leftists accuse me of being far-right and the right-wing accuse me of being Marxist.
@eintaluj saidThat makes you right wing.
The aim is to attain the truth and to be in the right position, independently of whether it is right or left.
The left thinks Math is racist and a wrong answer can still be right 🙄
I will need your measurements for your uniform.
Welcome! Can I get you a drink?
@contenchess saidI think it is coincidental that right now the so-called left thinks Math is racism and a wrong answer can still be right.
That makes you right wing.
The left thinks Math is racist and a wrong answer can still be right 🙄
I will need your measurements for your uniform.
Welcome! Can I get you a drink?
I endorse neither the view that we are living on the left edge of the planet nor on the right edge. I am not a flat-earther you know.
I do not drink but I do not advertise it. You can drink as much as you wish, but carefully.
@contenchess saidI disagree that it’s a left or right issue.
@EintaluJ
Welcome to the website.
Pick a side. Right or Left. 🤔
There are issues with diversity and inclusion. Not everyone has equal chances and certainly not everyone is accepted. This is plain for all to see.
However, the drive for diversity and inclusion does seem to go rather far. For example: banning someone for criticising the drive for diversity and inclusion does no justice to diversity and certainly isn’t inclusive.
The “woke” community have a very high regard of their own morals on these subjects and do not tolerate any deviation from those morals. This makes them very tedious to deal with.
The sentiments like: “All white men are abusers”, “if you’re not black you can’t have an opinion on what it’s like being black” and “all white men are guilty for slavery and the consequences of it” are not justifiable or even remotely accurate.
Whether one is on the right or left of the political system doesn’t change that.
What changes is how to deal with the underlying problem.
The right will generally scream: “CANCEL CULTURE!” And argue that it is all rubbish.
The left will see underlying problems and attempt to rectify them.
The far left will see the poverty behind what’s going on and argue to something about poverty.
Educational it is madness to ban people from speaking, because one doesn’t agree with someone’s political views.
@shavixmir
The terms "right", "far-right", "leftist", "Marxist", "neo-Marxist" etc are systematically strangely used. Most of those who have been labelled as "far-right" do not belong to the right-wing or are not "far" or extremist. Most of those who are labelled as "leftist" or "neo-Marxist" are not leftists or Marxists in the classical sense. As well, one could call them as "Christians".
Some forms of egalitarianism are not Marxist. Some forms of egalitarianism include discrimination. This is the case with the policy our physicist was criticizing.
A classical Marxist demands that exploitation should be ended.
Some modern "Marxists" demand that men and women should be exploited equally. This is what a classical Marxist would say about some feminists.
I think that physicist Abbot is in no way a "racist" if this term has to denote something bad. However, I do not care about whether someone calls my view as "right-wing". My view is that the task of the universities is not to recover social injustice done in the past. The task of the elite universities is to do a good science and give the best education for the best. The society needs good experts and does not care whether these experts are Chinese or blacks or whatever.
@eintaluj saidScience has always been politicised it’s what politicians do, they politicise everything.
A professor of climate science who opposed diversity initiatives cries foul over a cancelled lecture.
Dorian S. Abbot, an associate professor of geophysics at the University of Chicago, is speaking out against the cancellation of a lecture he was recently scheduled to give at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He says he’s being punished for his views on higher ed ...[text shortened]... of Abbot’s views on equal treatment, his lecture on the other area — on geophysics — was cancelled.
Racism, homophobia and transphobia etc are real and they impact people’s lives.
However universities should never be places where you must not hear things that you do not like or agree with, they are meant to be physically safe but intellectually scary if they are fulfilling their remit.
@contenchess saidAnti white sentiment? Say it ain’t so dearie 😢😢
@kevcvs57
You forgot to mention anti white sentiment in your list.
Edit...I guess racism would cover that 🤔