4 ms·

Using James Watson as an example is an interesting choice. When I think of James Watson, I think of someone who a) stole his major work (the one thing for whic

Using James Watson as an example is an interesting choice. When I think of James Watson, I think of someone who a) stole his major work (the one thing for which he is famous) from a woman without giving credit, and b) has been almost-literally cancelled for being consistently racist, also by his colleague-science-nerds who consistently report that they don't like him. Not someone that I want to celebrate for being a 'fierce nerd'.

educationcto 5y ago
What an example to choose the same week that Paul is out defending Antonio Garcia Martinez's sexism on Twitter.
- zip1234 5y ago
  I didn't see it as defending sexism. It was more pointing out the hypocrisy of Apple for firing Martinez while selling and promoting 'Beats by Dre'. In both cases the creative works were well-known before the hire/acquisition.
  - The5thElephant 5y ago
    Which is a poor critique considering Martinez would be working directly with other Apple employees while Dre is barely involved with Apple as far as I know. The issue isn't the creative work alone, the issue is the impact on fellow employees and the working environment.
  - deanCommie 5y ago
    Pointing out that hypocrisy is a strategy some took with criticizing Apple, but it's not the direction PG chose. [1] He said nothing about Dre, focusing entirely on saying "He's a good guy, actually", which is the epitome of the strategy taken by men historically to defend other shitty men. That's not "defending sexism" per se, but it is excusing sexism because of the content of someone's character. "Sure he said sexist things but he is not sexist". It does not pass even the most baseline level of scrutiny. I think it's also worth saying here that the comparison to Dre is super irrelevant: 1) Musicians may write lyrics in the first person, but the general default for all musical content is it's "fictional", and not representive of their personal views on the matter. It's artistic license with ideas - occasionally problematic. That is not the case with "autobiographies", which is what Antonio's book was purported to be. 2) Dre has taken complete ownership of all of his past indiscretions and apologized for them [2]. Antonio double down. [1] https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1392756490138791937 https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1392756490138791937 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Dre#Violence_against_women https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Dre#Violence_against_women
FeteCommuniste 5y ago
Interestingly, Rosalind Franklin herself may have been something of a "fierce nerd": > From the outset, Franklin and Wilkins simply did not get on. Wilkins was quiet and hated arguments; Franklin was forceful and thrived on intellectual debate. Her friend Norma Sutherland recalled: “Her manner was brusque and at times confrontational – she aroused quite a lot of hostility among the people she talked to, and she seemed quite insensitive to this.” https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/jun/23/sexism-in-science-did-watson-and-crick-really-steal-rosalind-franklins-data https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/jun/23/sexism-in-sc...
bobcostas55 5y ago
The idea that Watson "stole" his major work from Franklin is absurd. Franklin was on a completely different track and thought Watson & Crick's approach was a dead end.
- teachingassist 5y ago
  Wikipedia quotes Watson implicating himself in his own book: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Watson#Interactions_with_Rosalind_Franklin_and_Raymond_Gosling,_and_use_of_their_DNA_data https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Watson#Interactions_with...

educationcto 5y ago

What an example to choose the same week that Paul is out defending Antonio Garcia Martinez's sexism on Twitter.

zip1234 5y ago
I didn't see it as defending sexism. It was more pointing out the hypocrisy of Apple for firing Martinez while selling and promoting 'Beats by Dre'. In both cases the creative works were well-known before the hire/acquisition.
- The5thElephant 5y ago
  Which is a poor critique considering Martinez would be working directly with other Apple employees while Dre is barely involved with Apple as far as I know. The issue isn't the creative work alone, the issue is the impact on fellow employees and the working environment.
- deanCommie 5y ago
  Pointing out that hypocrisy is a strategy some took with criticizing Apple, but it's not the direction PG chose. [1] He said nothing about Dre, focusing entirely on saying "He's a good guy, actually", which is the epitome of the strategy taken by men historically to defend other shitty men. That's not "defending sexism" per se, but it is excusing sexism because of the content of someone's character. "Sure he said sexist things but he is not sexist". It does not pass even the most baseline level of scrutiny. I think it's also worth saying here that the comparison to Dre is super irrelevant: 1) Musicians may write lyrics in the first person, but the general default for all musical content is it's "fictional", and not representive of their personal views on the matter. It's artistic license with ideas - occasionally problematic. That is not the case with "autobiographies", which is what Antonio's book was purported to be. 2) Dre has taken complete ownership of all of his past indiscretions and apologized for them [2]. Antonio double down. [1] https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1392756490138791937 https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1392756490138791937 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Dre#Violence_against_women https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Dre#Violence_against_women

FeteCommuniste 5y ago

Interestingly, Rosalind Franklin herself may have been something of a "fierce nerd": > From the outset, Franklin and Wilkins simply did not get on. Wilkins was quiet and hated arguments; Franklin was forceful and thrived on intellectual debate. Her friend Norma Sutherland recalled: “Her manner was brusque and at times confrontational – she aroused quite a lot of hostility among the people she talked to, and she seemed quite insensitive to this.” https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/jun/23/sexism-in-science-did-watson-and-crick-really-steal-rosalind-franklins-data https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/jun/23/sexism-in-sc...

bobcostas55 5y ago

The idea that Watson "stole" his major work from Franklin is absurd. Franklin was on a completely different track and thought Watson & Crick's approach was a dead end.

teachingassist 5y ago
Wikipedia quotes Watson implicating himself in his own book: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Watson#Interactions_with_Rosalind_Franklin_and_Raymond_Gosling,_and_use_of_their_DNA_data https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Watson#Interactions_with...