Search Results for: Dorian Abbot

Yascha Mounk: Dorian Abbot’s cancellation is novel—and dangerous

I’ve written a few posts about my Chicago colleague Dorian Abbot, who got in trouble here on campus for making YouTube videos criticizing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. College members demanded punishment, but that didn’t occur because the University of Chicago considers Abbot’s videos free speech, and we don’t punish that. Abbot continued his … Continue reading Yascha Mounk: Dorian Abbot’s cancellation is novel—and dangerous

UC Prof Dorian Abbot canceled for a prestigious lecture at MIT after criticizing diversity initiatives

I’ve written about Dorian Abbot—an associate professor in our Geophysical Sciences Department—twice before. The first time was in November of last year when Abbot came under fire for posting YouTube videos that weren’t in line with the Zeitgeist. As I said at the time: The (associate) professor is Dr. Dorian Abbot in our Department of Geophysical … Continue reading UC Prof Dorian Abbot canceled for a prestigious lecture at MIT after criticizing diversity initiatives

Academic Freedom Alliance calls out MIT for canceling Dorian Abbot lecture (and a poll)

Yesterday I reported on the unconscionable deplatforming of University of Chicago professor Dorian Abbot, who was scheduled to give a prestigious invited lecture at MIT on October 21. The topic of his lecture was to be  “climate and the potential for life on other planets”. Abbot was to be the Carlson Lecturer in MIT’s Department … Continue reading Academic Freedom Alliance calls out MIT for canceling Dorian Abbot lecture (and a poll)

New paper on “cancel culture in science”

This paper written by four chemists just appeared in Nachrichten aus der Chemie (“Chemistry News”), the news outlet outlet of the German Chemical Society. It’s in English, and free online, so you should be able to open the paper by clicking the screenshot below. It’s a call for scientists to resist ideological pressures that may distort … Continue reading New paper on “cancel culture in science”

MIT proposes its own free-expression statement

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has no special reputation as a “free-speech” school—not like the University of Chicago, which may be the only college in America that even has a reputation for open speech and inquiry. FIRE has listed 203 colleges in descending order of free-speech adherence, and though Chicago is #1, I doubt … Continue reading MIT proposes its own free-expression statement

MIT President and Provost respond (lamely) to Abbotgate, say free speech at their school is alive and well, and apologize to students rather than Abbot

Here we see two college administrators trying to pretend that they were not committing an act of speech suppression when they disinvited a speaker, Dorian Abbot, who had made ideologically incorrect statements before he was invited to speak. An anonymous comment gave me the link to the public statement below by MIT’s President L. Rafael … Continue reading MIT President and Provost respond (lamely) to Abbotgate, say free speech at their school is alive and well, and apologize to students rather than Abbot

Is Cancel Culture coming for you?

Lee Jussim is a professor, social psychologist, and chair of the Psychology Department at Rutgers. We’ve met him spoofing wokeness before, though one spoof was removed by Psychology Today, the place where he blogs.  Cancellation has thus been on his mind, and his latest piece at Psychology Today (click on the title screenshot below) is … Continue reading Is Cancel Culture coming for you?

What on earth is “cancel culture”?

In a new piece in the Dailiy Beast, authors Komi German and Greg Lukianoff define what they mean by cancel culture (the best definition I’ve yet seen), show how pervasive cancel culture is (and worsening), and identify the Perpetrators of Cancellation. There is, however, one flaw connected with identifying the perps. Both authors work for … Continue reading What on earth is “cancel culture”?