The Netherlands: 43% of 372 surveyed scientists got intimidated after public appearance

Palinurus

The Living Force
Source: Experts often intimidated after public appearance, including by own colleagues

Saturday, August 21, 2021 - 17:15

Experts often intimidated after public appearance, including by own colleagues


Increasingly more experts have become hesitant to do public appearances. Often experts are intimidated after speaking on a topic in public, including sometimes from their own colleagues, Trouw reported [behind paywall].

“Their social safety has been tested while they are contributing to debates on important scientific questions”, president of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) Ineke Sluiter said. “But also, the debate itself and democratic values are being tested, if researchers retreat and censor themselves. That’s what we see happening now.”

Around 43 percent of experts were intimidated after a public appearance in the past five years, a survey by ScienceGuide (in Dutch) showed. The negative reactions not only come from anonymous trolls but also from students, colleagues and employers.

Especially for young researchers who are just starting their career can such messages push them to stay silent. “Personally, I feel pretty safe”, Americanism professor Sara Polak said. “I have a fixed position and good colleagues. But for young researchers that not do yet have a fixed contract intimidation can be devastating.”

“It is part of the job of researchers to make their discoveries public. But if they do that they get reactions from their colleagues, such as ‘You were really outspoken’.”

One researcher in the ScienceGuide survey said they faced death threats after publishing a scientific paper that sparked controversy.

The work of female scientists is more often discredited based on their gender, than the scientific work of their male colleagues, the survey showed. Around 85 percent of researchers who reported gender discrimination were women. “Since it is no longer explicitly written in my social media accounts that I am a woman and there is no picture of myself, there have been fewer negative reactions”, one female researcher said.

Sluiter hoped that in the future there will be overarching guidelines for how to handle the intimidation of experts. Certain universities have already implemented measures but overall rules have not yet been established.

Other coverage in Dutch:
'Wetenschappers steeds vaker geïntimideerd'
 
Interesting, but frustratingly vague. It would be useful to know if there's any particular scientific fields or positions that are punished with academic mobbing. My guess would be - climatology that pushes back against the carbon cult; immunology, virology, and epidemiology that runs counter to covidianism; social science that dunks on the oppression olympiad, gender nonsense, etc.

I could also see the exact reverse being true when it comes to online "trolls", which is frequently code for citizen pushback against the credentialed expert class serving as propagandists for elite social engineering initiatives.
 
I could also see the exact reverse being true when it comes to online "trolls", which is frequently code for citizen pushback against the credentialed expert class serving as propagandists for elite social engineering initiatives.
exactly the examples given in the news item,
eugenics is science nowadays
 
Interesting, but frustratingly vague. It would be useful to know if there's any particular scientific fields or positions that are punished with academic mobbing.
I checked the report on the ScienceGuide website, which as previously mentioned is in Dutch of course, and found a statistic of the subjects the intimidated scientists made public appearances on. From high to low these were in the following fields of expertise:

racism - 31%
covid policies/management - 19%
(im)migration - 19%
climate/biodiversity - 17%
religion - 16%
colonial history - 15%
gender identity - 12%
interior politics - 11%
international political conflicts - 11%
vaccines - 10%
terrorism - 7%
economics - 6%
European union - 6%
abortion - 3%
food - 3%
other - 40%

The report then states:

More important than the topic on which a scientist speaks out is the person of that scientist himself. Two thirds of the respondents who have experienced intimidation indicate that the intimidating reactions relate to their personal characteristics. For example, a third indicated that they had been disqualified on the basis of political preference - even when they did not express a political opinion. Several respondents reported that this even involved only a perceived political affiliation.

"Talking about my research topic is seen as 'left-wing' by definition and directly vilified solely for that reason and as such," says one participating researcher. "What was noticeable was that the messages had relatively little to do with my statements or point of view," writes another. "Talking about the topic of 'vaccination' and being a member of a national body was apparently enough to call my integrity into question."

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
 
I checked the report on the ScienceGuide website, which as previously mentioned is in Dutch of course, and found a statistic of the subjects the intimidated scientists made public appearances on. From high to low these were in the following fields of expertise:
Thanks for the translation.
"Talking about my research topic is seen as 'left-wing' by definition and directly vilified solely for that reason and as such," says one participating researcher. "What was noticeable was that the messages had relatively little to do with my statements or point of view," writes another. "Talking about the topic of 'vaccination' and being a member of a national body was apparently enough to call my integrity into question."
Sounds to me like this is mostly the hyperpoliticized expert class whining that their nonsense is increasingly rejected by the population at large. Claiming that they aren't operating from a place of left/cosmopolitan/establishment bias, and that their research is not motivated by a desire to advance the interests of the powerful, is a high level of context denial.
 
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