The successful fight by students and faculty at NYU's medical school to prevent confirmed sexual harasser David Sabatini from being hired there is encouraging. But the enemy included alleged feminists
Another valuable comment by Michael Balter on the persisting need to sanction any academic who abuses a position of authority to implement sexual harassment. The recent case of a group of people at NYU's medical school defending the proposed hiring of David Sabatini is perplexing. There is a fine line between mounting a defence of somebody accused of sexual harassment and supporting a person who has been tried and found guilty by properly constituted review bodies. What excuse can there possibly be for ignoring well-considered evidence of sexual harassment and pressing to proceed with an appointment regardless? Fortunately, the unsavory situation that resulted has been resolved by Sabatini's withdrawal of his candidacy, but not — I gather — by any admission of impropriety by that group of defenders at NYU's medical school. I agree that this aspect deserves close scrutiny.
Excellent piece. I first saw this story yesterday on a link tweeted on Jordan Peterson's twitter account to a story praised for its transparency, painting Sabatini as a victim of woke lefty cancel culture and university policy preventing staff having relationships. This throws a totally different light on the story, and provides important detail the other story 'strangely' missed. It is amazing how many women will also rush to defend these men - they are handmaidens in the abuser's grooming sphere. It is tough to be a victim of any form of abuse when the wall of victim-blaming is so high and difficult to navigate. Thank you for shining a light on this story, and counter-balancing the other narratives doing the rounds.
Not surprising to me at all. I've seen this dynamic play out for years, even decades before the MeToo movement. Entire books have been written about it.
I would highly recommend Laura Bate's book, Men Who Hate Women.
The orchestrated counterattack is also not surprising to me. The dark web (4chan, 8chan, Discord), and the not so dark web (Youtube, Facebook, etc.), as well as stealth academic networks have been used to try to attack any woman who reports abuses of authority in an academic or professional setting. These attacks are highly orchestrated and often involve carefully crafted attempts to bring women on as defenders of harassment perpetrators.
The problem does not only come from the "right". Some of the most ardent defenders of sexual harassers promote themselves as being on the left. Scott Aaronson, a computer scientist at the University of Texas at Austin, is an avowed leftist. He has repeatedly tried to argue that feminism and the metoo movement are repressing socially awkward "geniuses" like himself. His blog Shtetl Optimized, has a huge following where other supposed "geniuses" commiserate about the hardships of being awkward "geniuses" and the oppression imposed on said "geniuses" by those who oppose sexual harassment and other authority abuses.
Orchestrated attempts to undermine sexual misconduct investigations are coming from all political persuasions. In some ways, it is those who dress themselves up in the language of the left who are the most dangerous. I noticed this years ago. I suppose I'm still somewhat on the left, but I do not automatically assume that someone who says they are politically left leaning will stand up against authority abuses and sexual misconduct. And I'm also open to those on the right, for example, Chuck Grassley, who stand up against sexual misconduct.
The defense of Sabatini continues, indeed the Director of the NYU Cancer Center is even tweeting about while concurrently attending a conference in Greece this week (May 25,2022).
Jeffrey Flier, former Dean of Harvard Medical School also has tweeted in support of Sabatini.
One wonders whether Sabatini has information that will compromise these institutions, essentially forcing them to support him.
Another valuable comment by Michael Balter on the persisting need to sanction any academic who abuses a position of authority to implement sexual harassment. The recent case of a group of people at NYU's medical school defending the proposed hiring of David Sabatini is perplexing. There is a fine line between mounting a defence of somebody accused of sexual harassment and supporting a person who has been tried and found guilty by properly constituted review bodies. What excuse can there possibly be for ignoring well-considered evidence of sexual harassment and pressing to proceed with an appointment regardless? Fortunately, the unsavory situation that resulted has been resolved by Sabatini's withdrawal of his candidacy, but not — I gather — by any admission of impropriety by that group of defenders at NYU's medical school. I agree that this aspect deserves close scrutiny.
Excellent piece. I first saw this story yesterday on a link tweeted on Jordan Peterson's twitter account to a story praised for its transparency, painting Sabatini as a victim of woke lefty cancel culture and university policy preventing staff having relationships. This throws a totally different light on the story, and provides important detail the other story 'strangely' missed. It is amazing how many women will also rush to defend these men - they are handmaidens in the abuser's grooming sphere. It is tough to be a victim of any form of abuse when the wall of victim-blaming is so high and difficult to navigate. Thank you for shining a light on this story, and counter-balancing the other narratives doing the rounds.
Thanks very much for the kind words. Five right-wing publications have now run very similar articles, it appears to be a coordinated campaign.
Not surprising to me at all. I've seen this dynamic play out for years, even decades before the MeToo movement. Entire books have been written about it.
I would highly recommend Laura Bate's book, Men Who Hate Women.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/sep/02/men-who-hate-women-by-laura-bates-review-fierce-and-eye-opening
The orchestrated counterattack is also not surprising to me. The dark web (4chan, 8chan, Discord), and the not so dark web (Youtube, Facebook, etc.), as well as stealth academic networks have been used to try to attack any woman who reports abuses of authority in an academic or professional setting. These attacks are highly orchestrated and often involve carefully crafted attempts to bring women on as defenders of harassment perpetrators.
The problem does not only come from the "right". Some of the most ardent defenders of sexual harassers promote themselves as being on the left. Scott Aaronson, a computer scientist at the University of Texas at Austin, is an avowed leftist. He has repeatedly tried to argue that feminism and the metoo movement are repressing socially awkward "geniuses" like himself. His blog Shtetl Optimized, has a huge following where other supposed "geniuses" commiserate about the hardships of being awkward "geniuses" and the oppression imposed on said "geniuses" by those who oppose sexual harassment and other authority abuses.
Orchestrated attempts to undermine sexual misconduct investigations are coming from all political persuasions. In some ways, it is those who dress themselves up in the language of the left who are the most dangerous. I noticed this years ago. I suppose I'm still somewhat on the left, but I do not automatically assume that someone who says they are politically left leaning will stand up against authority abuses and sexual misconduct. And I'm also open to those on the right, for example, Chuck Grassley, who stand up against sexual misconduct.
https://apnews.com/article/biden-india-los-angeles-chuck-grassley-dfefd15c6e8a199fb9246df8a6ef5d0a
The defense of Sabatini continues, indeed the Director of the NYU Cancer Center is even tweeting about while concurrently attending a conference in Greece this week (May 25,2022).
Jeffrey Flier, former Dean of Harvard Medical School also has tweeted in support of Sabatini.
One wonders whether Sabatini has information that will compromise these institutions, essentially forcing them to support him.