Someone using the name of an editor at the APA Blog wrote to inform me that Nathan Oseroff was suspended as an editor of the APA Blog last Friday by Lead Editor Skye Cleary for his misconduct. Recall that this misconduct included:
1. Abusing his moderator privileges to post a comment on the APA Blog attacking philosopher Kathleen Stock, even though the comment violated blog guidelines; Dr. Cleary apologized to Professor Stock and removed the comment.
2. Abusing his moderator privileges to promote his own point of view about Professor Stock at the expense of philosopher Dan Kaufman (Missouri State).
3. Taking to twitter and reddit to repeatedly insult and abuse Professor Stock and any philosophers who share her views.
4. Defaming Professor Stock on twitter by accusing her, falsely, of directing "hate" at her students and faculty colleagues, behavior which would be manifestly unprofessional if it had actually occurred.
I commend Dr. Cleary for taking this step. Mr. Oseroff is in his late 20s; he is an adult, who is legally and morally responsible for his conduct. The integrity of the APA Blog requires that he be held to account.
[I have removed the lengthy comments of the blog editor I had originally posted, which I now have some reason to doubt the reliability of. My apologies--more soon.]
UPDATE: My reason for doubt: the Korean contained in the original letter from the purported blog editor did not say what its author claimed it said; instead it referred to "TERF scum" among other unpleasantness. On the other hand, prior to posting the above, I did write to Dr. Cleary as follows: " Someone else involved with the APA Blog told me that you did suspend Mr. Oseroff this past Friday, which I had expected you would after Prof. Piggliucci vouched for your integrity and good judgment. I am going to post about this later today. If there is anything you want to say for the record, I am happy to quote you. If you would rather not say anything, that's fine, I of course would understand. Thank you for your attention to this." Dr. Cleary replied that she had nothing further to say about the suspension at this time.
A FURTHER UPDATE: The alleged APA blog editor who wrote me yesterday and with whom I corresponded at length over the last 24 hours was in fact impersonating one of the other female editors of the blog (using her name in the e-mail, as well as identifying details). As it happens, this is a crime in Illinois--https://codes.findlaw.com/il/chapter-720-criminal-offenses/il-st-sect-720-5-17-2.html--and the matter will be turned over to law enforcement tomorrow (and I will personally reach out to some folks I know at the prosecutor's office about it, though tracing the criminal actor may be difficult--I will offer a $500 reward to anyone with information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the perpetrator). My best guess as to what transpired is the following: Oseroff was, as noted, suspended for his misconduct towards Professor Stock and those the maniacs call "TERFs," and so one crazed trans activist decided to get revenge by posing as an editor of the APA blog, writing a lengthy account of (alleged) recent events at the APA Blog involving Oseroff, sneaking in a bit of Korean (under the guise of a Korean "proverb" relevant to the matter) that in reality insulted me and "TERFs", and asking me to post it while protecting their anonymity. I suggested the imposter cut the last paragraph, which had the Korean, but the imposter resisted, though proposing a slight revision. The imposter accepted some other editing suggestions, clearly eager to get this posted (if only for a few minutes, as an astute Korean reader almost immediately alerted me to the possible fraud). In the process, the imposter has injured me, the actual APA Blog editor, and maybe Oseroff. Let this be a warning to Professor Stock and her other supporters in academic philosophy that some of these people are really nuts and will go to great lengths to make mischief.
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