18 October 2007

elementary Dr Watson

It is very impertinent and presumtuous of a self-confessed bumpkin to assert that one of the unravellers of the DNA double helix is just a bit thick, but I'm going to.

Now Dr James Watson has once again demonstrated his social ineptness (and had his lecture at the science museum cancelled), for his recent comments (in The Sunday Times) that he was "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours – whereas all the testing says not really". He said there was a natural desire that all human beings should be equal but "people who have to deal with black employees find this not true".

I submit that it is a scientists duty to DEMONSTRATE reality to us regardless of notions of political correctness but Dr Watson here is not demonstrating anything at all; he's just shooting his mouth off (again). He has previously claimed that beauty could be genetically manufactured, saying: "People say it would be terrible if we made all girls pretty. I think it would great."

QED. The man's stupid. Come back Holmes. All is forgiven.

7 comments:

Melanie Rimmer said...

You're not wrong. Even if he believes it, he's thick for saying it publically. But it's not true anyway, and he's just thick.

llewtrah said...

Apparently his autobiography shows he is sexist and racist. How about the different social pressures on minority groups - the pressures that cause them to fail in school or not get the same breaks as the majority group. Where do Asians fit in to his reasoning? My Asian colleagues have scarily clever kids due to making sure the children get a good education and are encouraged at home. Grief, colour is just a case of melanin, not entirely brains.

clodhopper said...

mel: thick as a brick does it.

llewtrah: I've been suspicious of Crick & Watson ever since they failed to credit the woman (sorry..forget her name) who did most of the laboratory slog while they took all the credit.

clodhopper said...

Ahhh! He's just apologised.

"I cannot understand how I could have said what I am quoted as having said," Watson said during an appearance at the Royal Society in London.

"I can certainly understand why people, reading those words, have reacted in the ways that they have."

"To all those who have drawn the inference from my words that Africa, as a continent, is somehow genetically inferior, I can only apologize unreservedly. That is not what I meant. More importantly from my point of view, there is no scientific basis for such a belief," he said.

llewtrah said...

"I cannot understand how I could have said what I am quoted as having said,"

Because he opened mouth and started spouting propaganda before fully engaging brain?

clodhopper said...

Yes, or before engaging the filter that keeps his rather nasty prejudices hidden.

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