The Oxford Scientist Trying to Cancel Elon Musk
An Oxford scientist has resigned from the Royal Society in an attempt to get Elon Musk kicked out of the prestigious science body over his support for free speech, climate scepticism and opposition to wokeness
The Telegraph has more.
As some of science’s most eminent figures gather to celebrate the Royal Society’s 362nd anniversary today, one of their number is likely to dominate conversation despite being several thousand miles away.
Elon Musk, the billionaire Tesla chief, is facing an attempt to oust him – having enraged a section of the Society with his scepticism about vaccines and man-made climate change and his controversial political views which they believe could bring the institution into disrepute.
The row hit the headlines this week when Dorothy Bishop, an Oxford University professor, revealed she had resigned as a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in protest at Musk’s continued membership of the organisation.
Highlighting the Society’s code of conduct, which requires fellows to treat each other with courtesy, she said: “I’m not going to be polite and nice to Elon Musk.”
In the supposedly sedate, objective and calculated world of science, this is about as close to High Noon as you will get.
But not every FRS approves of Bishop’s decision, and some have told the Telegraph, anonymously, that they support Musk’s fellowship (bestowed on the entrepreneur in 2018 for his technological achievements, most notably in space travel and electric vehicle development).
They will not voice their support in public, they say, for fear of being ostracised – not least due to the unpopularity of defending Musk’s position on climate change.
They also believe the Society – the world’s oldest scientific academy which boasts Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Stephen Hawking among its former members – should stay out of politics.
But, again, they are aware that a majority of fellows have been appalled by Musk’s support of Donald Trump and, in particular, his pronouncements condemning the Labour Government here in the U.K.
During the riots in the summer, the tycoon wrote on Twitter, the platform he owns and has rebranded as X, that civil war was “inevitable” in the U.K., and has since criticised Prime Minister Keir Starmer repeatedly – on everything from immigration policy to freedom of speech.
“It just felt having him in the Royal Society (RS) seemed such a contradiction of all the values of the Royal Society [and] I didn’t really want to have anything to do with it,” Bishop wrote on her blog on Monday in an attempt to explain her decision to quit.
“I just started to think, you know, the Royal Society seemed to be set up to make it very, very difficult to ever get somebody to resign or to actually get thrown out, and given all I know about Musk, it felt grubby, to be honest.”
The RS code of conduct says fellows should have “a spirit of openness, courtesy and cooperation”, “uphold the reputation of the Society” and “not engage in…discrimination, harassment or bullying.”
Bishop, however, is only prepared to extend courtesy so far: “What I said to [RS president, Sir Adrian Smith, and executive director, Dame Julie Maxton] was, ‘I’m not going to be polite and nice to Elon Musk, I’m afraid, so I can’t keep to the code of conduct.’”
The Oxford academic lists Musk’s crimes as “using social media for political propaganda… battling what he sees as the ‘woke mind virus’ and attacks on free speech.’”
Among other offences, Bishop listed Musk’s tweets on climate change:
“In 2023 Musk played down the seriousness of climate change, and, in 2024, participated in a bizarre interview with Donald Trump, which dismayed climate experts,” Bishop wrote.
She added: “Any pleasure I may take in the distinction of the honour of an FRS is diminished by the fact it is shared with someone who appears to be modelling himself on a Bond villain, a man who has immeasurable wealth and power which he will use to threaten scientists who disagree with him.”
The question of Musk’s continued fellowship of the Society first arose in August, when 74 fellows wrote to the institution, asking whether he was “a fit and proper person to hold the considerable honour of being a fellow of the Royal Society.”
The Society is understood to have taken legal advice in the wake of this letter. But Bishop claims “the lawyer determined that Musk hadn’t breached the code of conduct.”
Bishop states that signatories “were unhappy with this response” and pointed to a 2022 Musk tweet – “My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci” – which they said was “antivaxx”, anti-LGBTQ, and put Anthony Fauci, the immunologist who headed America’s Covid taskforce under Donald Trump, “at further risk”, following years of attacks from vaccine sceptics.
Worth reading in full.
See more here dailysceptic.org
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Editor’s note: cancel, block, demonise, censor anyone who dares to disagree with you. Well done.
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Terry Shipman
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I would caution Dorothy Bishop to not let the doorknob hit her in the butt on the way out the door.
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