I have been Dorian Abbot-ized: that is, a presentation in which I was going to participate with two other faculty, scheduled for this Friday at the University of Amsterdam, has been cancelled by the organizers because of my political views on the war between Israel in Hamas.
And, like Dorian’s case at MIT, our scheduled discussion had nothing to do with either Israel or Palestine. That is, we were deplatformed not for what we were supposed to talk about, but for views Maarten Boudry and I had independently expressed elsewhere—views that were apparently offensive to the organization that cancelled our discussion.
Our discussion was supposed to center on a paper I wrote with Luana Maroja for The Skeptical Inquirer, ‘The ideological subversion of biology“, which dealt with the distortion of six areas of evolutionary biology by well-meaning people whose ideology did not comport with biological reality. It had nothing to do with war in the Middle East.
The organization that deplatformed me and two other professors was Betabreak, a science discussion group at University of Amsterdam. You can reach its website by clicking the banner below.
Everything was fine until we were informed yesterday on WhatsApp that the discussion was cancelled. The organizers didn’t contact me directly, but sent the cancellation to one of my hosts, so I’ve redacted his/her name in the indented message below, which is otherwise exactly as my host received it. “Dr. Boudry” is Maarten Boudry, a Belgian philosopher with whom I collaborated on a paper about religious belief several years ago.
Here is the official cancellation:
Hi NAME REDACTED,
I’m sorry to inform you that unfortunately we will have to cancel the event on Friday. I’m sorry it’s so last minute, but in light of the information from Dr. Boudry, many of the members in the committee did not feel comfortable giving Dr. Coyne and Dr. Boudry a platform given their stances on the Palestine/Israel conflict. Another fear is how it would reflect on us as a committee and that we might be blackballed at UvA/AUC. We understand the irony of this considering this is the very issue that Dr. Coyne wrote his article about, however the group decided we can’t host this event given the current political climate. Again, I’m very sorry that we have put so much time and effort into organizing this for nothing, I’m disappointed as well.
A bit of background: Betabreak had voted to invite me and the other participants previously, but then backed out when they discovered Maarten and my “stances on the Palestine Israel conflict.” (Presumably this is because we are both sympathetic to Israel.) At that point they apparently decided that such a stance was sufficiently unpalatable to disallow us from discussing science in their forum. Betabreak also noted that it was is worried about how they’d look if they hosted the event and whether they’d get “blackballed” at their university.
Note that Betabreak is a “science discussion platform,” and that’s what we were going to do: discuss evolutionary biology and the way it’s misconstrued by the public.
But enough—one of the main purposes of this post is to solicit reader reaction to what happened. I thus ask readers to give their honest reaction to the deplatforming above. Be aware that some comments might be picked up and quoted by the press in the Netherlands, so I ask you to be civil and rational (no profanity!)
Thanks!
Oh, here is the poster put out by Betabreak advertising the now-cancelled event.
It’s infuriating. You have my sympathies.
Well, it’s not the first time young people of Europe turned their backs on people defending Jewish existence. One might suggest they study how that turned out last time, but clearly they are uninterested in any history that does not confirm their existing biases. And that does not bode well for science, either.
Night is falling and a new dark age looms. We who are alive today will not live long enough to see the dawn, if there ever is a dawn.
“We understand the irony of this . . . .” Well, now, isn’t that a comfort?
In theory, nobody should ever be de-platformed, whatever their position. I found the de-platforming in this case to be especially troublesome because I am an evolutionary psychologist with the same concerns expressed in the 2023 Coyne-Maroja article. But I would also argue against the de-platforming of people whose views I disagreed with.
As I understand the situation from the betabreak.org posting, there was a clear and present danger of physical violence if the show went on. Whether that is true, I do not know. However, it is the case that, throughout history (including very recent history), students have become physically aggressive and violent when they disagreed with certain ideas. This deeply saddens me, because I think that if there is ever a place where ideas could be discussed civilly, it would be at the university.
Considering the fact that the Netherlands had the worst record in terms of Jews murdered during WWII, I’m not surprised that there is backing there for a group (Hamas) that openly states its goal of exterminating the Jews
We apparently haven’t evolved one whit. I guess it takes simple support of one’s family, friends, and home to bring back the specter of pure evil and ugliness repeating in Europe. Sorry to hear this, Professor. Best to you.
Count me among your new readers who were not aware of your estimable research yesterday, but are today. Many thanks to BetaBreak for popularizing your work!
I find it particularly shocking that this occurred in the Netherlands, the same place it occurred in the same fashion in the early 1930’s. It’s this same cowardice and moral bankruptcy. Replace Zionist now with “speculator” to understand the difference.
Perhaps some American style accountability is in order? Who are the funders and how can they create accountability?
This is ridiculous, and it needs to stop now. Wokeness is the new religion, stifling dissent as well as innovation.
Important paper. Disgraceful deplatforming.