Everyone in academia should be paying attention to this and thinking about how they/we can fight back against these bad faith attacks. As a scholar in an adjacent field targeted by some of these same bad actors, the "if you don't fight back, they'll go away" strategy is just not an option.
Why use made up quotes when you can just quote them and then quote people everyone knows were notorious bigots, saying the same damn things. When Kennedy says that racist ideas progress or are innovated, part of it is they just flip the words around a little. It really is plagiarism.
One way to fight back is to point out that Rufo, et al are plagiarizing from the bigots of the past. Be scholars. Point to the many examples and put them word for word, side by side, in a brutally truthful fashion.
The schools should be doing it too. Something along the lines of "we've reviewed the documents and found the accusations of plagiarism to be without merit." But they're cowards
I wonder if there are lesson learned from physics/astro-physics dealing with less than supported theories al la @astrokatie.com ‘s recent posts on Dark matter?
Correct, and the underlying attack on higher education will come for all fields in time. Any academic who thinks they are safe is asking to learn about Niemöller's observation the hard way.
Even if your field isn't adjacent.
The word McCarthyism comes to mind. Time for #academics#academic#University#Academia
I’m sadly not surprised. I’ve asked lots of disinfo researchers (and read lots of books) for guidance on how to respond when you’re part of a group targeted by disinfo. And have come up empty every time.
This may be one of the more successful templates:
A jury has awarded climate scientist Michael Mann $1 million in a defamation lawsuit he brought against a former scholar and a media personality who lampooned Mann’s work.
We had an issue at the University of Oregon when I was there and decided to keep quiet and let it blow over rather than defending ourselves. As a result, the bad-faith attacks became accepted as the truth, and two years later we were still receiving hate mail and having donors ghost us.