MOVING TO FRONT FROM YESTERDAY: UPDATED
As Professor Alice Sullivan (Sociology, UCL) notes on Twitter, Dr. Berry (LSE) was sufficiently outraged by the OBE awarded to Professor Stock, that he has announced on Twitter that he will not tolerate anyone even "following" Nigel Warburton on Twitter, since Dr. Warburton (host of the great PhilosophyBites podcast) had the audacity to interview Professor Stock*:
While this display certainly makes Dr. Berry look like an intolerant nut, I disagree with Professor Sullivan that this is a matter for his employer. Until this behavior crosses over from Twitter ranting to workplace misconduct, the LSE should stay out of it.
ADDENDUM: Amusingly, Dr. Warburton has gained many followers since Dr. Berry's ultimatum.
ANOTHER: Dr. Berry's "infantile and illiberal" attitude has prompted a rare serious rebuke from the funniest academic on Twitter!
UPDATE: On Twitter, Colin Wight points out to me that the unhinged Dr. Berry has gone beyond purging his Twitter following, making clear that he will not confine his intolerance of those with differing and lawful views to Twitter, but will bring it into the workplace. (By "transphobe," he means people, like Professor Stock, who think biological sex, rather than "gender identity," should form the basis for legal protections for women.) So Professor Sullivan was correct: LSE needs to speak to this maniac. Zealots like this are a threat to the integrity of the academy.
(For those who can't see the Twitter link, here is what Dominic Berry writes: "Being a keyboard warrior isn't enough...I also hope these statements show transphobes, even polite clever ones, they aren't welcome anywhere near where I work. At all. Zero."
ANOTHER: Nigel Warburton points out that LSE has a rather good code about free speech. It's plain that Dr. Berry rejects its principles and has now made a public threat to put that rejection into practice in his workplace at the LSE.
*Nigel Warburton tells me that he actually did the interview with Professor Stock about her work in aesthetics, and that David Edmonds did the interview with Professor Stock about gender identity. So either Dr. Berry is very strongly opposed to Professor Stock's views on fiction or he is shunning the wrong person!
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