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Comment on BLM, Thomson Reuters, and the Price of Dissent

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Dupe: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29823289

And also a dishonest portrayal of the chain of events:

He was sent to Human Resources and Diversity & Inclusion for the chance to reform his thoughts. He refused—so they fired him.

There was a bit more to the story than that, unfortunately. First he published a dubiously argued 12,000-word "rant" (using the article's own term). True, he may have been unfairly attacked for it. But if you just read the thing - on the face of it, it was plainly just poorly reasoned (and arguably, inflammatory).

Then came the final "self-immolating" gesture - which was to violate an explicit request by the company not to use company communications (including email) to discuss these matters. And not to just to email a handful of close colleagues, but apparently a mass, unsolicited mailing:

https://kriegman.substack.com/p/email-for-which-i-was-fired

Maybe he's right in some of his other arguments (e.g. maybe books like Race Cars really are poisoning the country). But to pain this episode simply as a matter of "dissent" and a lone scientist's brave defense of the truth is, in itself -- wildly misleading.

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