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When finally you surrender to us, it must be of your own free will. We do not destroy the heretic because he resists us: so long as he resists us we never destroy him. We convert him, we capture his inner mind, we reshape him. We burn all evil and all illusion out of him; we bring him over to our side, not in appearance, but genuinely, heart and soul. We make him one of ourselves before we kill him. It is intolerable to us that an erroneous thought should exist anywhere in the world, however secret and powerless it may be. Even in the instant of death we cannot permit any deviation. In the old days the heretic walked to the stake still a heretic, proclaiming his heresy, exulting in it. Even the victim of the Russian purges could carry rebellion locked up in his skull as he walked down the passage waiting for the bullet. But we make the brain perfect before we blow it out.
The command of the old despotisms was Thou Shalt Not. The command of the totalitarians was Thou Shalt. Our command is Thou Art. No one whom we bring to this place ever stands out against us. Everyone is washed clean.
~~~1984 by George Orwell
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Scientist Matt Taylor was sacrificed to the mob over a shirt, scientist Sir Tim Hunt and his wife have been banished over a silly remark.
As jokes go, Sir Tim Hunt’s brief standup routine about women in science last week must rank as one of the worst acts of academic self-harm in history. As he reveals to the Observer, reaction to his remarks about the alleged lachrymose tendencies of female researchers has virtually finished off the 72-year-old Nobel laureate’s career as a senior scientific adviser.
What he said was wrong, he acknowledges, but the price he and his wife have had to pay for his mistakes has been extreme and unfair. “I have been hung out to dry,” says Hunt.
His wife, Professor Mary Collins, one of Britain’s most senior immunologists, is similarly indignant. She believes that University College London – where both scientists had posts – has acted in “an utterly unacceptable” way in pressuring both researchers and in failing to support their causes.
Certainly the speed of the dispatch of Hunt – who won the 2001 Nobel prize in physiology for his work on cell division – from his various academic posts is startling. In many cases this was done without him even being asked for his version of events, he says. The story shows, if nothing else, that the world of science can be every bit as brutal as that of politics.
What has happened to Hunt has nothing to do with actual science. It is UnGood Think all the way down.
After Today was broadcast, and while Hunt was still flying back, Collins was called by University College London. She is a professor and a former dean there, while Hunt was an honorary researcher.
“I was told by a senior that Tim had to resign immediately or be sacked – though I was told it would be treated as a low-key affair. Tim duly emailed his resignation when he got home. The university promptly announced his resignation on its website and started tweeting that they had got rid of him. Essentially, they had hung both of us out to dry. They certainly did not treat it as a low-key affair. I got no warning about the announcement and no offer of help, even though I have worked there for nearly 20 years. It has done me lasting damage. What they did was unacceptable.”
The story appeared in newspapers round the world under headlines that said that Hunt had been sacked by UCL for sexism. Worse was to follow. The European Research Council (ERC) – Hunt served on its science committee – decided to force him to stand down in view of his resignation from UCL. “That really hurt. I had spent years helping to set it up. I gave up working in the lab to help promote European science for the ERC.”
At the same time, their house was doorstepped by reporters, says Collins. “One of them said that his paper had found my ex-husband. […]
Hunt is under no illusions about the consequences. “I am finished,” he says. “I had hoped to do a lot more to help promote science in this country and in Europe, but I cannot see how that can happen. I have become toxic. I have been hung to dry by academic institutes who have not even bothered to ask me for my side of affairs.”
Nor has Collins fared well. “My relations with University College have been badly tarnished,” she adds. “They have let Tim and I down badly. They cared only for their reputation and not about wellbeing of their staff.”
The Social Justice Warriors Brownshirts look to books like 1984 not as a cautionary tale, but as a How-To book.
I have a tiny shard of pity for the SJWs, knowing that the time will come when they take the ride in the tumbrel.
But it is a tiny, tiny shard.
So they fired him over hurt feelings, right? Doesn’t that prove whatever point he was trying to make about women in science?
Greetings:
So, that bit of hippy-dippy wit and wisdom, “you have not converted someone because you have silenced him” or some such has like totally and irretrievably expired ???
You know, somebody – China, Singapore, Russia – is going to take advantage of this and start hiring all the people like Matt Taylor, Brendan Eich, Tim Hunt, etc. that have been declared persona non grata in the West.
**** “When Tim is not travelling for work, he does all the shopping and the cooking,” says Collins. “He is actually a great cook. Our daughters both prefer his meals to mine. And he is certainly not an old dinosaur. He just says silly things now and again.”
Sitting on a sofa with his wife, Hunt tries to explain why he made the remarks that got him into trouble while Collins groans in despair as he outlines his behaviour. Hunt had been invited to the world conference of science journalists in Seoul and had been asked to speak at a meeting about women in science. His brief remarks contained 39 words that have subsequently come to haunt him.
“Let me tell you about my trouble with girls. Three things happen when they are in the lab. You fall in love with them, they fall in love with you, and when you criticise them, they cry,” he told delegates.
“I stood up and went mad,” he admits. “I was very nervous and a bit confused but, yes, I made those remarks – which were inexcusable – but I made them in a totally jocular, ironic way. There was some polite applause and that was it, I thought. I thought everything was OK. No one accused me of being a sexist pig.”
Collins clutches her head as Hunt talks. “It was an unbelievably stupid thing to say,” she says. “You can see why it could be taken as offensive if you didn’t know Tim. But really it was just part of his upbringing. He went to a single-sex school in the 1960s. Nevertheless he is not sexist. I am a feminist, and I would not have put up with him if he were sexist.”
Hunt may have meant to be humorous, but his words were not taken as a joke by his audience. One or two began tweeting what he had said and within a few hours he had become the focus of a particularly vicious social media campaign. He was described on Twitter as “a clueless, sexist jerk”; “a misogynist dude scientist”; while one tweet demanded that the Royal Society “kick him out” ****
I count only 37.
baltimore/ferguson/trayvon/alinsky rules
> One or two began tweeting what he had said and within a few hours he had become the focus of a particularly vicious social media campaign. He was described on Twitter as “a clueless, sexist jerk”; “a misogynist dude scientist”; while one tweet demanded that the Royal Society “kick him out” ****
[…] Scientist Tim Hunt subjected to Room 101 [Darleen Click] | protein wisdom. […]
When you criticize them, they ruin your career.
You go, girls!
Yeah. Used to be they just ruined your sex life….
On a more serious note, I wish Hunt had made the University fire him, after which Collins would have resigned in protest.
OT
Anyone still up that can go see it Stacy McCain’s site is online? I’m getting a 404 error page.
Works for me at this time.
proggslam news
Clear Channel runs ad praising Muhammad, refuses ad criticizing Muhammad
the rot runs deep news
Wait, Whut? – Hillary Clinton Calls Ryan Julison To Coordinate Call To Walter Scott Family….
[…] Instapundit has more on the ChiCom OPM hack Instapundit: Hillary the face of Libya campaign (what is really scary is the Chinese have all the really bad stuff about Hillary) Protein Wisdom: We might be focused on the wrong enemy… […]
From the Dept. of Questionable Timing: Bombshell revelation earlier tonight that OPM had outsourced their IT to foreign nationals, including a guy in China who had root access to the machine(s) in question. So, while we should be talking about the downright treasonous incompetence and disregard for national security exhibited by Ms. OPM and her lackeys… that story will be completely flooded out of the news by the Charlotte shooting.
How convenient.
—
Also, I fully expect that after 48hrs or so of “see, whitey is still racist as hell” coverage in all the media — complete with appearances by Sharpton and Obama — we’ll eventually find out that race had nothing to do with it, and the guy shot up the church for entirely different (insane) reasons.
The Commiecrats over here are taking notes….
Bernie Sanders played along with racists America.
Reading what those pathetic Dupes said reminds me of something I read…
‘What are you in for?’ said Winston.
‘Thoughtcrime!’ said Parsons, almost blubbering. The tone of his voice implied at once a complete admission of his guilt and a sort of incredulous horror that such a word could be applied to himself.
He paused opposite Winston and began eagerly appealing to him: ‘You don’t think they’ll shoot me, do you, old chap? They don’t shoot you if you haven’t actually done anything — only thoughts, which you can’t help? I know they give you a fair hearing. Oh, I trust them for that! They’ll know my record, won’t they? You know what kind of chap I was. Not a bad chap in my way. Not brainy, of course, but keen. I tried to do my best for the Party, didn’t I? I’ll get off with five years, don’t you think? Or even ten years? A chap like me could make himself pretty useful in a labour-camp. They wouldn’t shoot me for going off the rails just once?’
‘Are you guilty?’ said Winston.
‘Of course I’m guilty!’ cried Parsons with a servile glance at the telescreen. ‘You don’t think the Party would arrest an innocent man, do you?’ His frog-like face grew calmer, and even took on a slightly sanctimonious expression. ‘Thoughtcrime is a dreadful thing, old man,’ he said sententiously. ‘It’s insidious. It can get hold of you without your even knowing it. Do you know how it got hold of me? In my sleep! Yes, that’s a fact. There I was, working away, trying to do my bit — never knew I had any bad stuff in my mind at all. And then I started talking in my sleep. Do you know what they heard me saying?’
He sank his voice, like someone who is obliged for medical reasons to utter an obscenity.
‘“Down with Big Brother!” Yes, I said that! Said it over and over again, it seems.
Between you and me, old man, I’m glad they got me before it went any further. Do you know what I’m going to say to them when I go up before the tribunal? “Thank you,” I’m going to say, “thank you for saving me before it was too late.”’
[…] If you haven’t, Darleen Click has the gory details here: Scientist Tim Hunt Subjected To Room 101. […]