Hunt, revisited.

Returning to the Timothy Hunt narrative, we begin to find ourselves in a position we've seen before: "Just because (x) might not be true doesn't mean it's not happening.  This is a very real thing that someone is experiencing right now, and if you're not personally castigating Tim Hunt for his very misogynistic remarks then you're personally invalidating the experiences of others!" 

I'm glad that people are starting to see on many fronts that the attack on Sir Timothy Hunt for saying something stupid was misguided and led down the path of outrage by someone who has fabricated her career in a stupendous fashion.  It's truly amazing how some people can then find ways to vilify someone just to keep an untenable position going.  During a discussion with someone on the socials for this matter regarding how Tim Hunt has been "hung out to dry" by his colleagues and former support staff for this matter, a person who I respect and admire said "Look at his personnel file.  It's filled with complaints from students that were subsequently dismissed."

I asked this person point blank about where I could find Tim Hunt's personnel file.  I looked hard across the interwebs.  I could find no trace of the personnel file anywhere.  

This leads me to believe a couple of things: 1) finding the file would not occur unless someone in Connie St. Louis' camp found a way to get Tim Hunt doxxed (a web term for publishing the personal information of someone online) or 2) someone at an "alternative" news outlet like Jezebel decided to probe for the matter and either (a) fabricated the story, or (b) managed to obtain documents that had nothing to do with the substance of Connie St. Louis's false narrative and potentially violated journalistic ethics in doing so.  Either way, this is a scary situation.  We've now reached a point in the propagation of this false narrative where people are digging for anything and everything they can find to support the notion that a set of stupid remarks means someone needs to have their entire life ruined--personally and professionally.  

I've said for some time that I believe in the exchange of ideas, no matter how asinine they may be.  I do think that it's entirely appropriate for those who propagate terrible ideas or say stupid things to suffer social consequences for that same speech.  What I do not support and will never support is someone's entire life being wrecked for the sake of punishing them just because you disagree with their views.  That's where society, in its ever vigilant quest to abolish human interaction for the sake of keyboard lunacy, has headed.  Every single abhorrent thought, every contrarian opinion, every non-inclusive term used by a person--even if it's just once--means you must silence the unbeliever.  They must be stamped out.  They must be eliminated for their views.  They must be destroyed because they said something stupid.  

It's a scary world in which we live.