I think it is becoming more clear how the recent flare up in the atheist wars is going to play out. The social justice atheists are using the Buzzfeed article to systematically deplatform Lawrence Krauss. I think their objective is to ultimately ban Krauss from the atheist/skeptic movement. The problem is that Krauss has deep connections in the atheist movement – people like Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris. What the social justice atheists will demand is that these skeptics, and all skeptic/atheist organizations, cease from promoting Lawrence Krauss.
We’ve already seen one such example:
“As the President of Secular Woman, it is my responsibility to urge [CFI] to prioritize the safety of women over whatever benefit they see in the continued attachment to Lawrence Krauss,” Monette Richards, who is a chapter leader of CFI Northeast Ohio, told Gizmodo. “This article has given them an excellent opportunity: make a break from past leadership practices; remove Krauss from their honorary board; promise to stop inviting him to events.”
“I certainly hope they don’t intend to ignore it and hope everyone forgets,” Richards added. “Because I will work hard to make sure no one does.”
So a hot button issue is going to be whether the CFI/RDF continue to promote Krauss.
We are also starting to see demands such as these:
Hey @thinkincAU, I really hope you’ll be cancelling your upcoming Lawrence Krauss events (or removing him from the lineup) after all the evidence that has come fourth regarding his sexual misconduct. Make your brand about sharing interesting ideas, not platforming creeps.
— emotional support peacock (@JHazzardous) 25 February 2018
UPDATE: Feb 24, 2018 –Seth Andrews was previously endorsed by myself in many of the episodes of the Women Beyond Belief podcast. My endorsement has ended due to Seth’s refusal to stop promoting Lawrence Krauss. I believe the women!
— Women Beyond Belief (@WBBPodcast) 25 February 2018
Does this mean you support @LKrauss1 on accusations of his sexual misconduct? You supported @michaelshermer in the past.
It’s very troublesome that so many people in Physics and Atheist community knew about Lawrence’s issues and warned the women, yet you keep closing your eyes.— Mike the Doctor (@Mikethedochere) 25 February 2018
The movement atheists wouldn’t have these ridiculous problems if they just held sex-segregated conferences.
Ah, I was wondering if the upcoming “Think Inc.” Dawkins/Krauss tour might attract some attention for de-platforming purposes. That’s an Australia/New Zealand tour scheduled to happen in May. These Social Justice types are causing event organisers a world of hurt. I expect atheism-based events to have flat-lined by the end of the year. We’ve already seen a rash of cancellations due to dwindling interest and/or lack of organiser competence. Sam Harris can probably keep doing his own personal chat circuit for now, but the drought is looking fairly severe elsewhere.
I’m putting my money on the SJW atheists. The Atheism+ schism has led to an exodus and further fragmenting of the atheist community, and the old guard is down to the incredibly irrelevant PZ Myers, the old and washed up Dawkins, and the energetic but spiraling-out-of-this Dawkins. Not sure what Jerry Coyne even does anymore.
I think Krauss is done.
Pardon – energetic bu spiraling-out-of-this Harris. He seems to want to run in different circles now.
@Crude: “[Harris] seems to want to run in different circles now.” I’d consider that a wise move, if true. Distance is the only defence.
Hmmm. Dawkins tweeted this today:
Clever. By simply promoting Krauss’s baby after the Buzzfeeding frenzy, I’d say Dawkins is giving the middle finger to the feminists/social justice atheists. But he’s doing it in a way that while they will see it, the mainstream media will not. I’d say the odds of Dawkins dissociating himself from Krauss have grown remarkably low. Unless there is something more to come that the Buzzfeed story, look for Dawkins and Krauss to be doing their show.
Dawkins has been well-invested in Krauss for a long time. He’s not going to ditch Krauss on the basis of shifting public opinion. In any case, I’m not sure that Dawkins realises how much of his atheist base is on board with Social Mob Justice. I doubt he has much appreciation for how hard they can hit his operation, despite his having been de-platformed before. It will be amusing indeed if the Krauss toxicity rubs off on Dawkins, and then entire organisations which bear the Dawkins imprimatur suddenly have to decide which side they are going to take. Buy popcorn now: the show could start at any minute.
Phil Torres’ “Here are what some folks are saying about the recent allegations against Lawrence Krauss” has a long list of quotes of people saying (paraphrased) ‘we all knew about it all along’.
Torres is still collecting quotes: “I will be adding to this list in the coming days.”
View at Medium.com
Darned https prefixes. Either click on the larger words or on:
http://www.medium.com/@philosophytorres/here-are-what-some-folks-are-saying-about-the-recent-allegations-against-lawrence-krauss-e4c444b2d715
*
Clicking on the Phil Torres name showed up his review of Steven Pinker’s new book. The doom-and-gloom beware-everything-is-getting-worse apocalypse-soon Torres reviews the all-is-wonderful-and-everything-whatsoever-is-continually-getting-much-better Pinker.
View at Medium.com
Aargh!
> So a hot button issue is going to be whether the CFI/RDF continue to promote Krauss.
Since an hour ago — ie approx 1435 GMT on 05 March 2018 — the CFI has displayed a Pinned Tweet saying:
It took a while, which indicates the CFI were reluctant, but they finally got around to taking provisional action.
Another one bites the dust..