Hacker News Reader

Comment by rbanffy | Hacker News Reader

They lost me when they used the word "Inquisition".

We have a need of unbiased discussion. This is not it.

A quick Google suggests the author was subject to a bit of adverse publicity for tweeting "Dear obese PhD applicants: if you didn't have the willpower to stop eating carbs, you won't have the willpower to do a dissertation #truth" and continues to publish and teach at the same institution after making his excuses and apologies and getting a formal warning.

It's a sad irony indeed if it's people frowning on that comment that's lead him to lecture everyone else on [censorious academic culture] arbitrarily deterring marginalised people from study.

The Author is Autistic. It's likely he didn't realise what we was saying was offensive until after the fact.

And is it a bad thing to let him know it is offensive? If he can't comprehend it naturally, maybe he can at least learn.

I guess you could make a case that people who are diagnosed to lie on the autistic spectrum should get a bit more leeway from the administration with regard to disciplinary action (because it's not really their fault), but what else are you gonna do? Give them a free pass? I don't think that even has much to do with the feared political correctness anymore.

No, but do we let him know by educating him, or should his "lesson" be getting fired from the University or facing disciplinary action that is likely to worsen his condition? Hopefully he will take legal action against the universities policies if it's the latter on the grounds of unfair disability discrimination.

Seems hard to judge which of his statements are caused by his condition and which by him just being a vocal and opinionated person in general - but I guess that's a point in his favor because if that distinction is hard to make, it's probably better to err on the side of free speech instead of trying to figure out what's typical and what's atypical behavior which gets a free pass.

Obese people are marginalized? Aren't they a majority? Also he is in part right - obesity is just a matter of willpower, but that willpower is divided among different tasks.

I speak this as a former obese person. I had BMI of 37 and I need to eat around 1400 calories per day to not gain anything, meaning I didn't win the genetic lottery when it comes to calories.

> They lost me when they used the word "Inquisition".

The article has a single author. His name is Geoffrey Miller.

The article was written, edited, reviewed and approved for publication by, hopefully, different people. Even if it has a single author, it's the result of a cooperative effort.

That isn't quite how English works.

What is actually your point? Does it significantly detract from my conclusion this is not an unbiased discussion?

I didn't quite get your point. It was an article, not a discussion.

Seeing bias (which is also called 'point of view') is fine. It does not invalid the article. You get to add to it - you get to discuss. Why didn't you?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com