Some commentary on that whole “eugenics would work” idea:

While Richard Dawkins is a noted biologist, his science on eugenics is bad. We turned magnificent wolves into pure breed dogs with severe genetic defects causing joint and heart problems and cancer. In fact, many Cavalier spaniels develop mitral valve and neurological disorders.

— Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) February 16, 2020

https://twitter.com/4everNeverTrump/status/1229051965176287237

This is what I’m saying. What kind of “eu”? “Works” in what sense? Dawkins didn’t say.

Please do explain what you mean by the word “work”. The humanities will be here waiting, quietly.

— Nathan Withers-Mercieca (@nathanmercieca) February 16, 2020

Maybe it is a humanities thing to be careful with words and define your terms. Maybe, but ten … Read the rest

Clean-up on aisle 3.

A comment responding to Richard Dawkins’s comment here and cross-posted to his site.

Hermann Steinpilz*
Feb 17, 2016 at 5:14 pm

The SJWs keep bringing up Richard’s “Dear Muslima” comment, and keep deliberately misinterpreting it. Because that’s what they do. They lie, and lie, and lie some more. I’m thinking of folk like Adam Lee, who claimed in a piece in The Guardian that Richard was essentially arguing that women in Muslim theocracies have it much worse than women in the West, and that therefore the latter should remain silent about “sexual harassment and physical intimidation”.

I can imagine how infuriating such dishonesty must be to Richard. He should (and probably does) realize that SJWs

So Robyn Blumner has spoken.

Robyn Blumner, in her interview with Hemant Mehta on his podcast says this about Richard Dawkins’ twitter feed (starts at 30:31):

“I think Richard Dawkins is purposefully misunderstood at times as a way to generate clicks on some bloggers’ page. It’s because his name brings page views and eyes so why not generate a lot of heat around something that is pretty tame if you really unpack it.”

No, his name doesn’t “bring page views.” That’s nonsense. She must be confusing the Dawkins fame that sells tickets to conferences with the mention of his name on a blog. The two aren’t comparable. Dawkins sells tickets to events because people want to be in his … Read the rest

Massimo Pigliucci has interesting thoughts on the Dawkins trainwreck today.

One has to do with what kind of scientist or intellectual Dawkins is, which is something I’ve been wishing someone would point out ever since the merger. Massimo is well placed to say it, being a former biologist and current philosopher.

A few years later, when I was a full professor, but still at the University of Tennessee, I actually taught a graduate seminar on the Gould-Dawkins rivalry, and that’s where I learned something that still few people seem to realize. You see, Dawkins is often portrayed in the media as “a leading evolutionary biologist.” But if by that one means an active research scientist who has actually made major

Today’s installment of wit and insight from TwitterDawkins – another insightful retweet.

Nadine Feiler ‏@nadine_feiler 8 hours ago
@RichardDawkins @thunderf00t @Sargon_of_Akkad Change of mind ;)

… Read the rest

An item that Dawkins retweeted this morning:

Yes, that’s right, Richard, feminists get upset by a tits and ass shirt worn by the talking head for a big exciting space event, and they don’t get upset by women being shot in the head on the street.

Except no it’s not. It’s not right, it’s a lying crock of shit, and you’re a mean bullying ideologue for repeating this kind of thing.

Not to mention how fucking callous it is to use that photo to make a cheap and dishonest point about feminism.

… Read the rest

Dan Fincke made excellent points in a public post on Facebook sharing a public post by Julia Galef about the Dawkins-NECSS disruption.

1. Dawkins is not just any speaker, he was to be the keynote and he’s got outsized influence in the movement. With greater power comes greater responsibility. Endorsing him to speak is to effectively continue to endorse him as the de facto face of our movement. It is worse when someone of his stature does something like this.

2. Dawkins is also not just any speaker because he is building off his academic stature in gaining his reputation and outsized influence. Standards are different for a professional activist like, say, David Silverman, and a professional. Professionals are expected

Dawkins’s Twitter is of course full of his retweets of people raging at the “witch hunt” against him. (And yet he goes on pretending to be unaware that many of his 1.34 million followers will harass anyone he targets on Twitter. He remembers them when they’re raging at the witch hunt, but not when they’re harassing Chanty Binx.)

A sample, with account names left off to simplify.

@NECSS Shameful display of intolerance and ignorance on your part, in your treatment of @RichardDawkins. Ridiculous overreaction to satire.

@JackSyit @RichardDawkins I agree. He’s a liberal feminist who abhors racism and sexism. But he’s brutally honest & many hate that.

.@RichardDawkins #cologne rapes and enormous problems of Muslim world but “feminists” and Islamists

Steven Novella has written the blog post he said he would write, explaining the decision to withdraw Dawkins’s invitation to speak at the NECSS conference in May.

NECSS is run by the New York City Skeptics and the New England Skeptical Society, both non-profit organizations. NECSS has its own executive committee, consisting of members of both organizations. There has been much speculation about who is making the decisions for NECSS – it is this committee. I will just say that there were a range of opinions on this matter within the committee, and we came to the best decisions we could, given that range of opinions. When I refer to “we” in this article, I am not speaking for every

The Independent has reported on Dawkins’s latest excellent adventure.

The evolutionary biologist is a controversial figure. He has been criticised for Islamophobia – a term he has described as a ‘non-word’ – on several occasions and last year sparked outrage by comparing who he described as “clock boy” Ahmed Mohamed with a child soldier forced by Isis to behead victims.

The Independent has approached Dawkins for comment.

He also – often – called Ahmed Mohamed “Hoax Boy” – which is even less friendly than “clock boy.”

The International Business Times also reported.

The atheist movement has been accused of being dominated by men often insensitive to women’s concerns. The NECSS decision to disinvite Dawkins as the keynote speaker

David Futrelle covers the story of Dawkins’s passionate defense of relentlessly mocking people we dislike; he covers it with great thoroughness. I read through Dawkins’s numbingly horrible tweets earlier today and didn’t have the stomach to blog about them.

Earlier this month, antifeminist YouTuber Sargon of Akkad — who makes his living pandering to some of the internet’s worst lady haters — posted an animated videoby another antifeminist YouTuber in which an angry Islamist and an angry feminist sing a song explaining that they pretty much believe all the same things. (For some reason, this nonsensical theory is something that a lot of antifeminists have convinced themselves is true.)

The angry Islamist in the video is a familiar

So, this is the fruit of the merger between CFI and Dawkins’s foundation: Dawkins gets to use CFI to add a bit of respectability to his statement on NECSS.

That’s good for him, not so good for them. (Remember the good old days when he used to say that his debating William Lane Craig would look good on WLC’s resumé, not so good on his? This is that.) This ties his Twitter persona to CFI. It ties his ridiculous statement to CFI.

I woke up this morning to see a public announcement that my invitation to speak at NECSS 2016 had been withdrawn by the executive committee. I do not write this out of concern about my appearance or

Richard Dawkins chats with the New Zealand journalist Adam Dudding, starting with the former’s upcoming appearance at Wellington’s Michael Fowler centre during the New Zealand Festival in March.

In 2006, partly inspired by America’s lurch towards “theocracy” under born-again Christian George W Bush, Dawkins finally made his targetting of religion explicit, launching a blistering attack with his book The God Delusion. The book, which has since sold three milllion copies, transformed him from the evolution guy to the atheism guy.

He still writes and talks about science. Once we’re done with this interview he’ll spend the day checking proofs of a revised edition of his 2004 book The Ancestor’s Tale, but these days its his proclivity for

Dawkins this morning, a couple of hours ago.

Richard Dawkins‏@RichardDawkins
Obviously doesn’t apply to vast majority of feminists, among whom I count myself. But the minority are pernicious. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecJUqhm2g08 …

https://youtu.be/ecJUqhm2g08… Read the rest

Hilarity on Twitter today, from a familiar source.

Where it began:

Richard Dawkins ‏@RichardDawkins 5 hours ago
Is trans woman a woman? Purely semantic. If you define by chromosomes, no. If by self-identification, yes. I call her “she” out of courtesy.

Ah you know that’s not going to go well. Not good enough. You’re not allowed to have a “no” anywhere. You’re not allowed to have an “if” anywhere. You’re not allowed to make distinctions.

And then his unfailing clumsiness – to put it politely – makes it all the worse. “Out of courtesy” might as well be “to humor” her.

So, of course, the next tweet was the inevitable

Richard Dawkins ‏@RichardDawkins 5 hours ago
@partimetroll Why?

Mary Elizabeth Williams at Salon says harsh things about Bill Maher and Richard Dawkins on Ahmed Mohamed…harsh, but not obviously false.

Then, full time crap-stirrer Dawkins took time out from retweeting fawning accolades from his fans on Sunday to just, know, ask some questions, posting a link to a YouTube clip from Thomas Talbot claiming Mohamed’s “a fraud” who didn’t invent or build the clock in question.

Ouch. That’s harsh. But you can’t say it’s false, can you – he does spend a lot of time stirring crap (but not full time, so you could say that claim is an exaggeration) and he does retweet fawning accolades from his fans.

But for the great kicker, Dawkins then humble bragged, 

It’s still going on, and getting worse – Dawkins calling Ahmed Mohamed, age 14, a “fraud” on Twitter, and complaining that he was invited to the White House and MIT, and defending the use of Breitbart as a source. He’s trending on Facebook. Multiple news outlets are reporting on his Twitter bullying.

One example of that bullying:

Richard Dawkins ‏@RichardDawkins 3 hours ago
Cool invention.
Send this genius an invitation to the White House.
Brilliant short film, says it all. https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=2&v=kHk_6Vh4Qeo …

This is a senior scientist, a best-selling author, famous and loaded with awards – being sarcastic about the genius of a boy of 14, a brown immigrant boy in Texas.

It’s not a … Read the rest

Dawkins’s display of irritation with Ahmed Mohamed was even worse than I realized, because I missed one tweet. (Or maybe more than one.) I find this one really horrible.

Someone asked what he thought Ahmed’s motives were.

Richard Dawkins ‏@RichardDawkins
@HarryStopes I don’t know. Possibly wanted to be arrested? Police played into his hands? Anyway, now invited to White House, crowdfunded etc

That’s so hateful. It’s reminiscent of the way a bunch of obnoxious people claimed Rebecca Watson said “guys, don’t do that” as part of a cunning plan to become famous and harassed on the internet…only it’s even more so because Ahmed is fourteen years old.

It’s Paul Vale at the Huffington Post who reported on that … Read the rest