It simultaneously enrages one side against another while claiming it's actions are justified by it's own group, but no other group can act the same.
The accused should be taken to court.
But mobs don't like court, they want a lynching.
And how do you take someone to court for "being an asshole"? If you knew someone who is constantly doing extremely shady things, like screwing over their business partners or repeatedly cheating on their spouses, there's no way to "take someone to court" on those counts. Does that mean their shady dealings should never be exposed?
True justice requires a defence, even if you don't like it.
We cannot seriously talk about Columbus-the-brave-explorer without also talking about his acts of slavery and genocide.
We cannot take Asimov to court. We cannot take Columbus to court. But we can talk about them as real people, and look at their entire history, rather than as a single facet of their lives.
Mobs are still mobs. It's socially justified insanity.
They will remove Asimov books from libraries now, just wait. If we did the same for every author there would zero books left except propaganda from the controlling mob.
Asimov is obviously wrong, but mobs don't want a reasonable solution, they want blood.
They're going to remove all of Asimov's books from libraries now because someone wrote an article about his behavior, despite that behavior being known about for decades, and not exactly uncommon within the community?
Please stop with the pearl-clutching concern trolling. There's no "propaganda from the controlling mob," no one is out for blood, no one is burning books en masse because mob justice.
When you write "undisclosed accusations", you mean that in addition to the disclosed ones, right? https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/01/23/complainant-u... describes Faïza Harbi's accusations.
> It would take almost a year before Harbi, with the help of MIT’s investigators, said she came to understand that Lewin’s interest in her was not motivated by empathy, and that their first conversations included inappropriate language. Shortly after contacting her, Harbi said, Lewin quickly moved their friendship into uncomfortable territory, and she was pushed to participate in online sexual role-playing and send naked pictures and videos of herself. After about 10 months, Harbi said, she resumed self-mutilating after seven years of not doing so.
> I wish to register that I disagree in the strongest possible terms with MIT’s decision to remove Prof. Lewin’s lectures from OpenCourseWare—thereby forcing the tens of thousands of students around the world who were watching these legendary lectures to hunt for ripped copies on BitTorrent.
Since those lectures are online, from multiple sources, I don't think that objection has much weight. Indeed, comment #3 points out one source (other comments point out other sources), and Scott Aaronson in comment #5 says it would be acceptable for MIT to host them on YouTube.
> If MIT no longer wants the videos hosted “in its name,” they could upload them to YouTube right now. They could even add a disclaimer at the beginning like, “These lectures by Walter Lewin are being provided for educational purposes. Lewin is speaking as an individual, and is no longer endorsed by MIT.”
I see little difference between MIT hosting them and Lewin hosting them on YouTube, and a cursory reading of Scott Aaronson's other comments suggests that Aaronson is okay so long as the videos are available, and there is a discussion forum. From comment #92:
> So maybe finding a separate entity to host the lectures and discussion boards really is the best solution, and I hope that happens soon.
If it were real, why is Lovecraft still on library shelves? Lovecraft is sure to go first.
If it were real, can you point out any of them?
Many things in the past have been legal that shouldn't have been. And many people have gotten away with wrong things, like Asimov.
So you think we should ignore the historical truth, the people he harmed? I absolutely disagree.
We can't even talk about the harms people caused without "mobs" getting mad about the conversation.