There's nothing like rational discussion of the gender self-ID law in the U.K. to bring the crazies out of the woodworks on social media. The talk below by philosopher Kathleen Stock (Sussex) was offered by some pseudonymous person on twitter to me as evidence of her "hatefulness." Watch it to see the disconnect from reality with such people (UPDATE: some folks on twitter tell me that the person who sent this to me was being sarcastic and is a supporter of Prof. Stock; that doesn't change the fact that plenty of people, including some of the folks mentioned below, have been calling her hateful, bigoted and worse--so watch the talk, and decide for yourself):
In this same round of social media insanity, Nathan Oseroff (KCL) libeled philosopher Kathleen Stock (Sussex), and when she responded with appropriate indignation, he made his account, and the libel, private. (Amusingly, some philosophers on twitter are so ignorant that they don't realize "academic freedom" is not a defense to unlawful speech, such as libel.) I learned subsequently that Mr. Oseroff is involved with the APA blog. Given his on-line misconduct, he should be removed from involvement with an organization that purports to represent all members of the profession. Meanwhile, Joshua Stein (Calgary) joined in smearing Professor Stock because she actually objected to Oseroff's libelous stupidity. At least Mr. Stein aptly describes himself as a "troll." (What is it with some folks at Calgary acting like asses on social media?)
The intervention of one Dominic Berry, an historian of science now in the economic history department at UK, is also remarkable. Dr. Berry, whom I've never met or corresponded with, out of the blue tweeted to me as follows (after I commented on Mr. Oseroff's libel of Prof. Stock): “hey Bri, you're not scaring anyone mate. You'll soon fade into insignificance and all that will be left are memories of how awful you were to people. Your conduct on here [i.e., calling out Oseroff's libel] has been utterly shameful. Fortunately I know philosopher is in better hands than yours.” I blocked him, needless to say, but experience shows that normal individuals often think better of their twitter outbursts on reflection. So I e-mailed Dr. Berry as follows regarding his tweet, which I quoted back to him, and asked: "Do you customarily address people you don’t know this way? No one calls me 'Bri,' certainly not people I’ve never met. I’m 55 years old, with a JD and a PhD and twenty-five years of professional experience. Is this how you customarily talk to Mary Morgan or others at LSE? And why would you write to anyone that they will 'fade into insignificance'? We will all fade into insignificance, of course, but why would you say such a thing to another human being? It’s not like you have any actual knowledge about my work or its significance. So I must ask, what got into you?" I concluded, "I hope you will at least have the courtesy to respond to these questions. I don’t respond on twitter to outbursts like yours, but sometimes an e-mail inquiry helps. I hope it does in this case." His response: "Dear Bri, Do not contact me again, we have absolutely nothing to discuss." Some folks, alas, don't know how to cut their losses.
Kevin Bird, a young biologist at Michigan State University, also entered the fray to proclaim the mantra of all New Infantilists: "faculty with social power [should] abstain from using it irresponsibly [sic] in a way that harms early career academics who are expressing their opinion." As I replied: "In the real world, people don't get a pass on posting abusive nonsense about others because they're 'early career academics.' I realize you have self-interested reasons for wishing it were so." Or as someone else put it more amusingly on the same thread: "Oh, just dry your eyes and get a grip."
All these characters bring to mind the Red Guard phenomenon during China's "cultural revolution": righteous frenzy and fury which knows no bounds or constraints. Hopefully they will all remain harmless social media zealots, and not cause actual harms to real people (other than themselves of course).
UPDATE: Reader Paul Smart from London writes:
Oseroff happens to serve as a moderator on the popular message board site Reddit (incidentally, this is proudly stated on the APA website).
He goes by the username "drunkentune"; on the "badphilosophy" subreddit he has the moderator flair "ODIN THE DREAD" (don't ask). Predictably he and his moderator friends there behave like children, making jokes about excessive drinking and frequently banning people from posting for the most trivial of reasons.
Here he is a few months ago in a /r/badphilosophy thread:"Stock was an absolute shit. I want nothing to do with her after the way she behaved to me, a number of nonbinary and trans people I know on twitter, and her absolutely atrocious arguments. Stock's shit is so toxic I'm glad it didn't end up on this subreddit, because she feeds off any criticism, weaving it into her victim narrative. Goddamned quack had nothing to say to me after I handled her with kid gloves other than that I had a beard (and then to misrepresent everything I said). Because of course. Fucking TERF. Fuck Leiter and every other basic-ass academic that did their best to broadcast her propaganda. Okay, done venting, but seriously, philosophers need to stand up and tell bigots in academia that their arguments are FUCKING WEAK."
I was banned there recently for speaking in defense of perspectives such as Dr. Stock's. Oseroff also took the trouble of private messaging me, telling me to "Kindly eat shit".
A very mature individual.
Again, given all this evidence, he has no business being involved with the APA blog.
STILL MORE: Christa Peterson (USC), another member of the Twitter Red Guard, has now compared me to a Nazi, I guess because I came to Prof. Stock's defense against abuse by other members of the Twitter Red Guard mentioned above. Ms. Peterson is sufficiently far gone that she thinks protesting and shining a light on such abusive behavior by irresponsible twitterati is "conduct" that might warrant attention by my employer. When we last met her, Ms. Peterson was denouncing an essay by Prof. Robert Jensen as "dumb as shit," explaining that "you can't be a cis man and a radical feminist." And that's par for the course for Ms. Peterson, who says "Fuck Diane Feinstein", denounced as "shit" this post by feminist philosophers, and refers repeatedly to Prof. Stock as "a noted bigot." Should her university be concerned about her "conduct"? Plainly not.
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