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Woke hoax: The anonymous professor who wasn’t

#1
C C Offline
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/04/style...-hoax.html

EXCERPTS: An anonymous anthropology professor remained outspoken about fairness in academia even as she suffered for months with coronavirus. “This person was a scientist who got Covid because they’d been forced to teach,” said Michael Eisen, a fly geneticist at the University of California, Berkeley, who had interacted on Twitter with the professor for years. [...] He said that he had continued to exchange messages with the person running the account through June and that this person frequently discussed a difficult recovery.

Then BethAnn McLaughlin, another Twitter connection, announced on July 31 that the anonymous professor had died from complications of the virus. Just a few days later, both the account of the anonymous professor and of Ms. McLaughlin were suspended for Twitter policies that, among other things, bar the coordination of fake accounts. The same day, Gerardo Gonzalez, a spokesman for Arizona State University, where the anonymous Twitter user was supposedly a professor, described the anonymous account as a “hoax.”

[...] Among scientists and academics, the shock of mourning was already laced with suspicion. Enough of them had unpleasant interactions with the combative account and were troubled by its inconsistencies and seeming about-turns. ... ‘On Tuesday, Ms. McLaughlin gave a statement to The New York Times through her lawyer. “I take full responsibility for my involvement in creating the @sciencing_bi Twitter account,” it said. “My actions are inexcusable. I apologize without reservation to all the people I hurt.”

The anonymous account, @Sciencing_Bi, was an active participant in the corner of Science Twitter that frequently discusses issues of sexual misconduct in the sciences. It claimed on at least one occasion to have grown up in Alabama, to have “fled the south because of their oppression of queer folk,” and to have attended Catholic school. The account began to pointedly make reference to being Native American and, earlier this year, began to identify as Hopi. [...] Since 2016, it has posted often about issues around social justice in the sciences, with a focus on activism and research about sexual harassment.

“There are millions who want to be us,” said Jacqueline Keeler, a writer and the editor of Pollen Nation, a Native-led magazine. “These people are centering themselves in our issues, they are heading Native American departments, they are telling Native students what they can and can’t study — it’s to protect their own position. And so it does change our ability to advocate for ourselves when we are constantly being replaced by frauds, white people or other people of different backgrounds pretending to be us.”

[...] Ms. McLaughlin first began to make waves among those concerned about sexual harassment in the sciences in May 2018. She wrote and circulated a petition that month calling for the National Academy of Sciences to revoke the membership of those who had been punished for sexual harassment, retaliation and assault. ... In November 2018, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab awarded its Disobedience Award to Ms. McLaughlin; Tarana Burke, a founder of the #MeToo movement; and Sherry Marts, who left academia after being harassed by a colleague in her graduate lab. The award recognizes “ethical, nonviolent acts of disobedience” and comes with $250,000, which that year was split among the three recipients... (MORE - details)
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#2
Syne Offline
The same Michael Eisen from the worm joke story? I wonder if the reaction to that had anything to do with his hand in this hoax.
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#3
C C Offline
(Aug 5, 2020 06:54 AM)Syne Wrote: The same Michael Eisen from the worm joke story? I wonder if the reaction to that had anything to do with his hand in this hoax.


With respect to who fanned the flames a lot with the worm joke, there is the trivial coincidence of Ahna Skop being part Cherokee.{*} Whereas BethAnn McLaughlin was faking Hopi heritage via her anonymous identity. The former won a "Diversity, Equality and Inclusion" award in 2018, whereas the latter won an award for "ethical, nonviolent acts of disobedience" in 2018.

Buddies or professional colleagues wise, a light search didn't uncover Skop and McLaughlin having interacted significantly with each other or at all prior to these different incidents that Eisen is associated with. Also, one might expect Skop to be as outraged by what McLaughlin did as Keeler -- but who knows with these scientists sometimes.

For those wondering: Eisen was one of many who interacted with the @Sciencing_Bi account, and on his own eventually realized it was McLaughlin herself: Afterward, Mr. Eisen began to search for any evidence that @Sciencing_Bi had been a real person. He could not find any. “The combination of the weird things that were happening on the call and looking at the tweets and seeing how much they circled BethAnn, it just became obvious to me,” he said. “‘Oh, this is BethAnn.’”

- - - footnote - - -

{*} Worm Joke Causes Science Twitter Flame War Over Accusations of Sexism and Racism: In the resulting threads, Dr. Skop—who identifies as “part Eastern Band Cherokee” and “disabled with EDS”—and others consistently failed to publicly respond to Black scientists like herpetologist Chelsea Connor, who tried to point out that this was a ridiculous conflation. In a private communication Connor shared with The Daily Beast, Skop doubled down, arguing that as she had previously been harmed by entrenched sexism, her concerns regarding the worm joke were justified.
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#4
C C Offline
Q: What's the gist of such incidents as these, in terms of cynical enjoyment?

It's an example of how even scientists are exploiting social justice issues for their own personal gain. To the point of even using fake accounts to portray themselves as receiving praise from persons of relevant ethnic/gender/orientation backgrounds. It may help funding in the course of scoring informal virtue points and receiving publicity -- as well as awards and promotions for pretentiously acting like "they care", giving lectures, promoting and organizing events, and exhibiting righteous indignation about this and that.

Back in the old days, this would be publicly looking and sounding morally pious and crusader-like in the context of religion for opportunistic reasons. That it continues in a secular and potentially atheistic context illustrates how these impulses spring from a deeper precursor in the human psyche, as well as practical, manipulative circumstances of everyday life.

The cities where the angriest, disruptive and radical protests take place are arguably those where a past procession of appointed officials have profitably made promises, superficially put on airs, and thrown token money at untested or half-tested projects that apparently haven't succeeded much (i.e., they just emotionally "appear good" as satisfactory political responses). This para-religious, compassionate "preacher act" and the polarizing agendas that nuke rivals also deflect criticism from them on the rare occasions where journalists and minority/feminist leaders call them to account. I.e., similar to the Biden controversies of past racism, sexual misconduct, and mental health tactically fading into the background: "I would vote for Joe Biden if he boiled babies and ate them!".

This is certainly not to say that non-robotic voters in the swing states have a choice on the other side as far as character and class go, either. Many of the frustrated may stay at home or not mail-in votes. Those who don't are more like, say, the pragmatic horror wonks with regard to Lovecraft. The latter luxury is a disappearing option during a period when idealists are dominating the streets. Idealism which usually isn't even internally consistent with itself, but still demands meticulous perfection for the rest.
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#5
Syne Offline
(Aug 5, 2020 09:43 PM)C C Wrote: Back in the old days, this would be publicly looking and sounding morally pious and crusader-like in the context of religion for opportunistic reasons. That it continues in a secular and potentially atheistic context illustrates how these impulses spring from a deeper precursor in the human psyche, as well as practical, manipulative circumstances of everyday life. 
People always seem to have a need to fill the hole left by religion/God.

Quote:Idealism which usually isn't even internally consistent with itself, but still demands meticulous perfection for the rest. [/color]
I've noticed a lot of that internal inconsistency. Luck for most, they lack the competency to realize it.
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