On Fri, Dec 6, 2024 at 4:30 PM Russell Standish <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Fri, Dec 06, 2024 at 10:39:11AM -0500, Terren Suydam wrote: > > > > To me, he seems to be going out of his way to avoid addressing the heart > of the > > matter - does he still hold that belief? > > If he still held that belief - and acted upon it - then he wouldn't > have been sanctioned for a comment made 30 years ago, but rather for > something he said and did in more recent times. > > As for sanctioning someone for something they might believe but never > acted upon - we don't have "thought crimes", for good reason. > > I'm tempted to agree with JC that the apology was unnecessary, and had > little effect to change the outcome. But it probably helped save his > reputation amongst more moderate people, perhaps for whom a lack of > comment or apology is considered tantamount to an admission of guilt. > Russell, you and others here keep dismissing that email based on how long ago he wrote it, and how old he was, and so easily accept his assertion that it "does not accurately represent my views, then or now." Not even *then*? That doesn't pass the smell test - why would someone take such a reputational risk in order to say "I think it is true that blacks are more stupid than whites" if they didn't really believe it? Having evidence that someone holds racist beliefs - which that old email surely counts as - is important even in the absence of evidence of acting on those beliefs, and you don't have to invoke thought police to get there. I'm sure you're aware that acting on prejudiced views is possible without producing damning emails - it's often about *not *acting when one ought to. For instance, *not* hiring someone who is qualified. I'm not saying he should be cancelled. I'm only calling out that his apology fell flat, and I can understand why the kinds of bureaucrats that decide who gets funded and who doesn't wouldn't feel like Bostrom has done enough to settle the issue. *And* that the excesses of wokeism shouldn't stop us from expecting better of people who make these kinds of mistakes - especially when they're in positions of privilege and power. > -- > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Dr Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) > Principal, High Performance Coders [email protected] > http://www.hpcoders.com.au > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/Z1Ns5DGdzjB71xF2%40zen. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/CAMy3ZA9zgTUTL1TRZRESz5%2BUGqFJKG8eOwHMdocumuoWSck0Bw%40mail.gmail.com.
