I've been thinking a bit about why I'm so unimpressed by the arguments about how terrible "academic silencing" is, and I've got some thoughts 1/n
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10/n Often, FINDING these people is quite hard, because THEY HAVE BEEN SILENCED. They have little power, and their voices regularly go unheard despite often having really important things to say
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11/n But instead of trying to push up the powerless, we get people arguing that Scott Atlas, one of the most powerful medical professionals in the world for much of 2020, was a victim of "silencing"
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12/n Any narrative that talks about silencing but focuses on some of the most famous scientists globally is, to my mind, more about generating media attention than it is about academic integrity
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13/n To a great extent, that's because they are defending the powerful from scrutiny, instead of trying to make space for the powerless to have a voice
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14/n When you defend a powerful professor, his friends and colleagues will join you When you defend a post-doc who's been kicked out of a lab for blowing the whistle, you have to fight the powerful people who silenced them with no support
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15/n If we really care about the sanctity of open debate, we should be stopping attacks that punch down, not the rare occasion when a tenured professor's colleagues are mean to them in a way that has no real impact on their career
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16/n And look, I'm not writing any of this on my own behalf. I have by no possible definition of the word been "silenced" But I know plenty of people who kind of have
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17/n Some of them are public, not all of them want to be, but if you want examples
@hertzpodcast has covered this sort of issue numerous times. It's prevalent, and it is a problemShow this thread
End of conversation
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But they do exist, esp in the humanities where silencing and enforcement of particular philosophical leanings are rife. I've helped dozens of graduate students in this position, & was a victim of it myself. And I'm not right wing. I'm from the left.
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