Jan 29, 2022 • 54M

Episode 100: The Wrath At Khan

Stephen Jay Gould was such a dick

Jan 29, 2022

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Journalists Katie Herzog and Jesse Singal scour the internet for its craziest, silliest, most sociopathic content, part of an obsessive and ill-conceived attempt to extract kernels of meaning and humanity from a landscape of endless raging dumpster fires.

After Jesse presents Katie with two equally moral solutions to the goat roblems that have been plaguing her, the hosts discuss the recent brouhaha surrounding E.O. Wilson, Scientific American, and Razib Khan. In addition, Stephen Jay Gould was such a dick. To discuss this episode with other premium subscribers, click here. (Thank you to @metorotem for the episode title.)

Show notes/Links:

Goats:

Katie Herzog @kittypurrzog

This goat situation has stopped being cute. The white one (de Leche) was shivering this morning and the brown one (Dulce) won’t let me take its collar off. Are domestic goats ok in the wild? Should I find them a home? This is way too much responsibility for a podcaster.

Ted @schaeffbaby

@kittypurrzog @jessesingal I am a listener, and i raise goats. If we can figure out a way to get them to Pennsylvania- I will adopt them.

Just some guy; a little annoying @iamwhoisme

@schaeffbaby @kittypurrzog @jessesingal Ignore this offer. I'm a listener and I braise goats. If we can figure out how to get them to NYC I'll slow cook them in a pan with butter, thyme, rosemary, red wine, and chicken stock.

Reliable Spoon @reliable_spoon

@jessesingal Chose your fighter

WilsonKhanghazi:

E.O. Wilson obit: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/27/science/eo-wilson-dead.html

Two good books on this sort of thing by Alice Dreger and Stephen Pinker:

https://www.amazon.com/Galileos-Middle-Finger-Heretics-Activists/dp/0143108115

https://www.amazon.com/Blank-Slate-Modern-Denial-Nature/dp/0142003344

E.O. Wilson letter quoted here:

https://spectatorworld.com/newsletter/misremembering-e-o-wilson/

The disastrous Scientific American article:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-complicated-legacy-of-e-o-wilson/

No need to, like, quote:

Monica McLemore PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN #EndowedProf @mclemoremr

I purposively didn’t quote his work so you could read it for yourself. I talked about citational practices and why they matter. My method matched my critique. His work should speak for itself and others can interpret it, thanks for supporting my point.

Shan Kothari @ShanKothari

@meghas @mclemoremr @sciam glad to agree with much of what this piece says about race + science as a whole, but I wish it would actually quote Wilson's own words so we could see for ourselves as it is, it just seems like a network of loose associations

Good takedown:

https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=6202

Even Turkheimer isn’t having it:

https://www.twitter.com/ent3c/status/1476626271090233346

Razib’s (and others’) rebuttal:

Razib Khan's Unsupervised Learning

Setting the record straight: open letter on E.O. Wilson's legacy

A personal note When E. O. Wilson died at the age of 92 last month, I mourned because his death was the destruction of a library. Many younger biologists who focus on mastering new statistical and computational methods lack the organismic knowledge that older generations accrued. Knowledge-loss is real, no matter how fondly we cling to our modern expecta…

a year ago · 148 likes · 75 comments · Razib Khan

The Gawker article:

http://tktk.gawker.com/new-times-op-ed-writer-has-a-colorful-past-with-racist-169218784

His TakiMag stuff:

http://takimag.com/contributor/razibkhan/130

His Unz stuff:

https://www.unz.com/author/razib-khan/

Grant:

http://990s.foundationcenter.org/990pf_pdf_archive/207/207181582/207181582_200912_990PF.pdf#page=16

More accusations:

https://evolutionnews.org/2019/05/geneticist-razib-khan-a-darwinist-and-the-alt-right/

Here’s where “quadroon Jews” was:

https://www.unz.com/gnxp/how-ashkenazi-jewish-are-you/

Khan on eugenics:

https://www.razib.com/wordpress/2012/11/11/eugenics-the-100-year-cycle/

Khan in Discover forever ago:

https://www.discovermagazine.com/health/why-race-as-a-biological-construct-matters

2000 VDARE letter with race/IQ stuff:

https://vdare.com/letters/vdare-khan-letter-and-sailer-reply-america-s-imported-caste-system

People mad/repentant/etc.:

Dr. Juniper L. Simonis (they/them) @JuniperLSimonis

@hopihoekstra @sciam @razibkhan this "note" is so appalling you were clearly aware of RK's beliefs you're not sorry, you're sorry you got caught

Hopi Hoekstra @hopihoekstra

Many were incensed by the @sciam Op-Ed piece about the late EO Wilson. Here is a rebuttal letter (led by @razibkhan* on which I am a signatory) to set the record straight: razib.substack.com/p/setting-the-… *Note: I don’t always agree with @razibkhan, but I do here.

Hopi Hoekstra @hopihoekstra

Two of us (@hopihoekstra & @CorrieMoreau) have decided to remove our names from this @sciam rebuttal, despite the fact we feel strongly that it does not portray EO Wilson accurately. We acknowledge that science still has a lot of work to do to overcome racism, exclusion & bias.

Hopi Hoekstra @hopihoekstra

Many were incensed by the @sciam Op-Ed piece about the late EO Wilson. Here is a rebuttal letter (led by @razibkhan* on which I am a signatory) to set the record straight: https://t.co/UEasTR09fF *Note: I don’t always agree with @razibkhan, but I do here. https://t.co/OGOA81OUPF

Good rundown:

eigenrobot @eigenrobot

thomas Lin i condemn you to a career in journalism for your crimes. may god grant you mercy. you shall have none from me

Thomas Lin @7homaslin

Surprised to learn that the author of the EO Wilson rebuttal has a history of writing for alt-right publications. Sadly, while Wilson is worthy of defense, this is the last person you’d want defending him. https://t.co/krNYC3a3kw

Nuanced discussion of guilt-by-association and McCarthyism:

https://archive.is/R0m6D

Aaaaaand it’s gone:

Jesse Singal @jessesingal

oh well

REPENT, MOTHERFUCKER!:

Jesse Singal @jessesingal

Bolnick's crime was writing a thoughtful thread about the dangerous, inhumane nature of guilt-by-association tactics. This is very, very cultlike, and you can't get mad at the rest of us -- the ones not addicted to to firing/blacklisting -- for wanting to be shielded from it.

Khan encouraged people to stay civil and keep the focus on Wilson, then went back to genetics and living his life:

Razib 🥥 Khan @razibkhan

@hopihoekstra @CorrieMoreau @sciam just seeing all these replies. if you value my voice please don't be uncivil. what's done is done. let's move on. for me the worst thing is we are forgetting a great man, which was the whole point

nytimes.comE.O. Wilson, a Pioneer of Evolutionary Biology, Dies at 92A Harvard professor for 46 years, he was an expert on insects and explored how natural selection and other forces could influence animal behavior. He then applied his research to humans.

Razib 🥥 Khan @razibkhan

everyone talking about russian/eastern european history annoys me because most (99%) of the people don't care about except in an instrumental manner for current discourse it's interesting and important in and of itself

He also went on the podcast Urbane Cowboys to discuss the whole affair:

Image: CAMBRIDGE, MA - APRIL 17: Biologist, naturalist and writer E.O. (Ed) Wilson in his Harvard office in the Museum of Comparative Zoology. (Photo by Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

Blocked and Reported

Episode 100: The Wrath At Khan

Stephen Jay Gould was such a dick

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