Their first coordinated campaign against Mr. Neidenbach targeted his Facebook page. Facebook capitulated, temporarily blocking his page and banning Mr. Neidenbach – for the “crime” of promoting biotechnology. His page was soon reinstated, but their success only served to embolden the activists.
Their most recent tactic is to try to get Mr. Neidenbach fired from his school, so they have accused him of stealing from his students and mocking people with intellectual disabilities. Of course, neither of these are true, but that hardly matters. As a “public figure” – a middle school teacher with a blog – people can say whatever they want about him with no consequence. That’s why Medium blogger Ena Valikov is allowed to call him “Walmart trash” and a Nazi.
Then, the trolls took it to another level: They targeted his family. That’s when Mr. Neidenbach decided to call it quits. Nothing was worth risking the happiness and safety of his family. To appease his critics, he unpublished his Facebook page. But it didn’t work. The cyberbullies told him they would continue their attempt to destroy him, so he republished it. He’s a brave man.
Amazingly, Mr. Neidenbach’s experience is hardly unique. The reputation of the aforementioned Dr. Kevin Folta was so thoroughly tarnished online, that the New York Times repeated the allegations against him, insinuating that he was working as a public relations agent on behalf of biotechnology firms. In response, Dr. Folta filed a defamation suit against the author, Eric Lipton, and the New York Times. More.
Point taken. However, one is surprised – at this late date – by the surprise Berezow hints at in reporting that the “New York Times repeated the allegations against.” the man. One should really not be surprised by anything that the Times does in its death throes.
But actually, the whole story fits a pattern. It is the post-modernism mob’s war with reality. And the mob means business, even if the scientists don’t. That is very much the latter group’s mistake.
The post-modern mob unleashed by university arts faculties today has no future except for seizing control of functional institutions and rendering them functionless, except to sustain the mob. The historical pattern is common. What’s less common is the failure to realize what is at stake.
See also: Biology is real, if not popular: Lone scientist squares off with social justice warriors. Wouldn’t it be nice if big science boffins recognized that the squall of toxic snowflakes reported here (future leaders?) are a much more serious threat to science than whatever Florida parents want. If not, others will need to dig out the snow shovel but the results will not be pretty.
Biology prof Bret Weinstein’s persecutors face sanctions from Evergreen State College
Jordan Peterson — Do the Stitches Hold? I was surprised by the extent to which Peterson understands that the post-modern aversion to objectivity, which is killing the social sciences, is seeping into the harder sciences as well, offering the same promise: Social peace in exchange for intellectual suicide.
and
The multiverse is science’s assisted suicide