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Nobel prize-winning dna pioneer stripped of titles for his views on race.

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Nobel Prize-winning DNA scientist James Watson has voiced his views in a TV programme he was partaking in which has landed him in hot water.

 

What are we to make of this then? he can hardly be dismissed as a knuckle dragger can he?

 

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Nobel+Prize-winning+DNA+scientist+James+Watson&tbm=nws&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwictYe4xOrfAhXTUxUIHePHDaYQ_AUICigB&biw=1366&bih=652&dpr=1

Edited by Hots on

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Just political correctness gone mad is it?

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Titles? You mean the three honorary positions at an American laboratory.

He is 90 and lives in a nursing home after a car crash in November.

 

Since he was in his eighties, he has been accused of homophobic, racist and sexist views which he apparently repeated in a recent interview.

 

He most certainly is not a "...knuckle dragger...", but he is certainly is a very old man whose isolation reflects some of the homophobic, racist and sexist views associated with  generations past.

 

 

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He has extremest views which most of us do not agree with.  And ------

 

Angel1.

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It depends what he is being stripped of. If it was a general scientific honour for his discoveries, I would be very concerned.

If it is a lab or school that don't want home as their public face, then that's up to them to decide.

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Human characteristics, including IQ test aptitude are largely determined by environmental influences. Other genes are part of that environment, along with food, training, books, the net, parental indoctrination etc etc.

I wonder if he would have gotten into quite so much hot water if he had quipped that Black Africans are prepared by their genetic ancestry more likely to do well in athletic pursuits ?

Anyone who watches the big IQ test analogue, the Olympic Games can readily see the truth of that one.

Anyway, the thing is to recognise our similarities, and one of those is we know how to learn things, even complex languages and how to survive in hostile landscapes.

I hope that someone will soon learn how to save whatever our children’s children will have left of this once excellent planet.

I say Watson has earned the right to a well cushioned retirement, and to voice his thoughts.

Think of all the innocent people DNA technology has freed and guilty ones it has helped to identify.

A true scientific hero.
 
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2 hours ago, I1L2T3 said:

Just political correctness gone mad is it?

Oscar Wilde — ’Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.’
 

 

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3 minutes ago, frigate said:
Human characteristics, including IQ test aptitude are largely determined by environmental influences. Other genes are part of that environment, along with food, training, books, the net, parental indoctrination etc etc.

I wonder if he would have gotten into quite so much hot water if he had quipped that Black Africans are prepared by their genetic ancestry more likely to do well in athletic pursuits ?

Anyone who watches the big IQ test analogue, the Olympic Games can readily see the truth of that one.

Anyway, the thing is to recognise our similarities, and one of those is we know how to learn things, even complex languages and how to survive in hostile landscapes.

I hope that someone will soon learn how to save whatever our children’s children will have left of this once excellent planet.

I say Watson has earned the right to a well cushioned retirement, and to voice his thoughts.

Think of all the innocent people DNA technology has freed and guilty ones it has helped to identify.

A true scientific hero.
 
10
 
 

 

Oscar Wilde — ’Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.’
 

 

He’s entirely free to voice his thoughts.

 

If his thoughts are racist then he will unfortunately have to pay the consequences.

 

That is how it works

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PC is going too far.
Of course we should acknowledge everyone as
having equal rights while entitled to equal
treatment.
But, why is it OK to say the Chinese, as a race,
have a marginally higher average IQ but not
to say some groups are below average?

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He's not a paragon, with only perfect thoughts and opinions.  He had some good scientific theories which turned out to be backed up by the emerging techniques of scanning electron microscopy and X-ray crystallography, but none of this makes him a more valid person than anybody else, nor does it make the rest of his thoughts and opinions more valid than anybody else's.

 

His opinions are pretty standard for people born in a time when racism was much less challenged than it is now, but he clearly lacks the political understanding to know when to keep his mouth shut, which is rather to his detriment.  He's out of tune with current understanding and thinking on this, that's all. 

I know I'm not perfect, but then I'm not put on a pedestal by those who don't actually understand that judging people on a single set of opinions has no bearing whatsoever on their opinions on literally anything else.

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43 minutes ago, frigate said:

PC is going too far.
Of course we should acknowledge everyone as
having equal rights while entitled to equal
treatment.
But, why is it OK to say the Chinese, as a race,
have a marginally higher average IQ but not
to say some groups are below average?

You can say it but because of the questionable science around the concept of IQ testing it’s best not to infer too much from IQ testing trends.

 

Especially so if it helps reinforce the idea (rooted in our colonial and slave trading past) that some races are superior to others.

 

As for political correctness gone too far please feel entirely free to express what ever your own views are. Nobody is stopping you.

31 minutes ago, medusa said:

He's not a paragon, with only perfect thoughts and opinions.  He had some good scientific theories which turned out to be backed up by the emerging techniques of scanning electron microscopy and X-ray crystallography, but none of this makes him a more valid person than anybody else, nor does it make the rest of his thoughts and opinions more valid than anybody else's.

 

His opinions are pretty standard for people born in a time when racism was much less challenged than it is now, but he clearly lacks the political understanding to know when to keep his mouth shut, which is rather to his detriment.  He's out of tune with current understanding and thinking on this, that's all. 

I know I'm not perfect, but then I'm not put on a pedestal by those who don't actually understand that judging people on a single set of opinions has no bearing whatsoever on their opinions on literally anything else.

The curious thing is that his rigorous and excellent approach to the advancement of science did not stop him holding predudiced non-scientific personal views that it appears were based on his personal experience with black employees.

 

 

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30 minutes ago, I1L2T3 said:

 

The curious thing is that his rigorous and excellent approach to the advancement of science did not stop him holding predudiced non-scientific personal views that it appears were based on his personal experience with black employees.

 

 

His rigorous and excellent approach to science may have never applied to anything else apart from one molecule in his entire working life.  One could work on one molecule irrelevant of prejudices, biases and personal hatreds. 

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16 minutes ago, medusa said:

His rigorous and excellent approach to science may have never applied to anything else apart from one molecule in his entire working life.  One could work on one molecule irrelevant of prejudices, biases and personal hatreds. 

Yes that is true. It’s who I guess a good scientist can also have powerful religious views.

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