If it’s to piss people off and distract from science communication and humanism, he’s doing a bang up job. My completely unsolicited advice for Dawkins is that he should ask himself what his goals really are with Twitter and other social media. It’s a conference saying, “You know what? This guy’s not for us or our audience.” I’m sure Dawkins has plenty of other conferences at which he can speak and I’m sure there are plenty of speakers who are a better fit for NECSS and its members. No one is shutting down his Twitter account. As a result, Dawkins online posts feed into bad stereotypes about aloof, arrogant scientists and, at least in my opinion, do more to set him back as a public intellectual.Īdditionally, no government is stepping in to censor Dawkins or his words. And Twitter is such an open, free-wheeling platform that he winds up alienating audiences for whom he never intended his original messages. Dawkins often acts like a jerk on social media. There’s something more basic and important happening here. Dawkins would certainly like to frame it that way and has been sharing messages like this on Twitter:īut I don’t really buy it. Naturally, this will become part of the broader conversation about self-censorship, and free speech. (Caution from personal experience: If you find it and watch it, the tune will be stuck in your head while you’re making eggs in the morning…in a bad way! And you’ll be flummoxed as you try to figure out why a respected scientist would share such a thing online with his 1.3 million followers.) ![]() That’s why it’s so disappointing to see him engage in such negative, boorish behaviors online, from criticizing Rebecca Watson for speaking out about rampant sexism among skeptics, to attacking “ clock kid,” to his latest - sharing a terribly stupid, juvenile video titled, I kid you not, “Feminists love Islamists.” He’s also written beautifully about the positive influence science and reason can have in our lives, arguing passionately that our scientific understanding of light, for instance, does not “unweave the rainbow,” but only makes it more gorgeous to behold. That’s a good thing.ĭawkins is a gifted writer and speaker and many of us enjoy a greater understanding of biology and evolution thanks to his work. The Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism has dropped Richard Dawkins as its keynote speaker this year.
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