So, some interesting content on Almost Diamonds over the past couple of days.
Recently, Bora Zivkovic left his position at SciAm blogging over allegations of sexual assault/harassment. One of the people calling Zivkovic out is an evolutionary biologist named Cristina Wilcox, who wrote a widely-quoted post about the situation.
Zvan wrote a post in which she, in turn, listed allegations that Wilcox had sexually harassed/assaulted others. She reported an email from a friend who said:
And heard from another friend who said:
So far, it's pretty normal. Allegations -- from unnamed sources, but multiple sources, so corroborated in the same sense as the others -- made against a Name in skepticism/science. That's similar to the allegations against Shermer/Krauss/Bora, and by the logic expressed in the posts condemning them, these should be posted far and wide so people can know to protect themselves. But here's where things get interesting.
See, that post isn't there anymore. Instead, Zvan first redacted the specific allegations. Then she redacted almost the entire post. And now it's gone entirely. Instead, we have an apology:
Nary a peep to the arguments that 'even if these allegations are unlikely/possibly false/uncorroborated, we've got to get them out there to protect people' that we heard with Shermer et al. And, in fact, I seem to recall a lot of people asking, "Shouldn't we get Shermer's side?" only to be told that, no, we don't need his side because this is not a court of law, no right to face your accuser or get due process, so it doesn't matter. Seems like that's not always the case now.
(Postscript: I myself, of course, have no idea if these allegations are true or not; I know next to nothing about Wilcox. My point here is rather the hypocrisy in suddenly being interested in talking to alleged sexual harassers, withholding posts until getting both sides, etc., when this was not at all a concern on FtB before).
Recently, Bora Zivkovic left his position at SciAm blogging over allegations of sexual assault/harassment. One of the people calling Zivkovic out is an evolutionary biologist named Cristina Wilcox, who wrote a widely-quoted post about the situation.
Zvan wrote a post in which she, in turn, listed allegations that Wilcox had sexually harassed/assaulted others. She reported an email from a friend who said:
And heard from another friend who said:
So far, it's pretty normal. Allegations -- from unnamed sources, but multiple sources, so corroborated in the same sense as the others -- made against a Name in skepticism/science. That's similar to the allegations against Shermer/Krauss/Bora, and by the logic expressed in the posts condemning them, these should be posted far and wide so people can know to protect themselves. But here's where things get interesting.
See, that post isn't there anymore. Instead, Zvan first redacted the specific allegations. Then she redacted almost the entire post. And now it's gone entirely. Instead, we have an apology:
Nary a peep to the arguments that 'even if these allegations are unlikely/possibly false/uncorroborated, we've got to get them out there to protect people' that we heard with Shermer et al. And, in fact, I seem to recall a lot of people asking, "Shouldn't we get Shermer's side?" only to be told that, no, we don't need his side because this is not a court of law, no right to face your accuser or get due process, so it doesn't matter. Seems like that's not always the case now.
(Postscript: I myself, of course, have no idea if these allegations are true or not; I know next to nothing about Wilcox. My point here is rather the hypocrisy in suddenly being interested in talking to alleged sexual harassers, withholding posts until getting both sides, etc., when this was not at all a concern on FtB before).
Last edited:
