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I'm curious: from what you say here against thought crimes, do you believe that there is nothing a professor can say that should be grounds for firing? What if a professor expresses clearly anti-semitic, anti-Muslim, anti-black or anti-white views? Would you trust such a professor to teach students from diverse backgrounds? (and objectively evaluate them via grades, reference letters etc). What if a physics teacher in your daughter's high school says he doesn't believe girls can be good at physics. Do you think a person with such views is suitable for this position? What I'm saying is that in some, rare, cases, a person's views do make him or her unsuitable for their jobs. I am not arguing that this is the case with Tim Hunt - just that things are not always black and white.

What if a professor expresses clearly anti-semitic, anti-Muslim, anti-black or anti-white views? Would you trust such a professor to teach students from diverse backgrounds? (and objectively evaluate them via grades, reference letters etc).

What about say anti-theist views? What about anti-creationist views?

What if a physics teacher in your daughter's high school says he doesn't believe girls can be good at physics.

What if the gym teacher in your midget child's high school says he doesn't believe midgets can be good at basketball?

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VoiceOfRa

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The key variable is whether he or she is outspoken or closeted about these views. I've had the misfortune to have a teacher who'd put most neoreactionaries to shame, in beliefs as well as in the associated vices and character flaws. He seemed to come to work just to check out 15-year-olds. We spent our classes getting lectured on far-right politics instead of learning, taking turns getting disparaged by him, goaded into buying the more expensive version of textbooks from him. Girls were graded by the amount of cleavage. I've fought for years to get that man out of education... to no avail, because the parents (yes, the parents of the girls getting sexually harassed) were on his side, as well as the higher-ups in the school system.

Yes, mine is a strange and different country.

The thing is, he was just a singularly horrid creature, morally speaking. He knew his stuff alright, he could have been a good teacher if he at least tried to maintain a facade of professionalism. If he could STFU about his views, not treat everybody with contempt, and bother to teach and generally follow his job description and the law. But I knew the fellow to be too much of a scoundrel for me to aim for that in negotiation.

Not everybody is this rotten to the core, even among those who hold highly objectionable views. Some otherwise professionally valuable people can be negotiated with. We pay you, you remain ideologically neutral when acting in your capacity as an X. A sort of a Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy with extremist beliefs. In the end it's behaviour that's objectionable, not thoughts.

There's something telling me that people who want to fire men like Tim Hunt have never fought battles as hard as this one, otherwise they might have had a better-calibrated sense of outrage.

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Dahlen

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