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I Led Harvard Medical School, And I Fear What's to Come. My oped in today's New York Times. nytimes.com/2025/04/04/opi… via @nytopinion
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Speech taboos being analyzed by two great linguists over breakfast was the highlight of @TheFIREorg conference for me. Hard for my panel on dissent in medicine and science to compete with euphemisms for feces & other words/slurs! @sapinker @JohnHMcWhorter
Thank God it's Friday. At @TheFIREorg's Soapbox conference, listening to @sapinker and @JohnHMcWhorter discussing speech taboos over breakfast. Incredible conference.
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Jeffrey Flier retweeted
As an academic, I’ve attended more conferences than I can remember. But this one is unique. The Soapbox26 conference of @TheFIREorg is the first focused on free speech. Here’s John Tomasi of @HdxAcademy at a panel on promoting intellectual diversity without compromising merit.
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Jeffrey Flier retweeted
A few snapshots from day one of Soapbox! And this is just the beginning.
Day two is already in full swing, with more conversations, fresh perspectives, and even bigger celebrations of free expression to come!
Day two is already in full swing, with more conversations, fresh perspectives, and even bigger celebrations of free expression to come!
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Wise words from Cass Sunstein on the Blue Tsunami.
open.substack.com/pub/casssunste…
open.substack.com/pub/casssunste…
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Hubris, shallowness, incoherence. Hard to believe she will soon sit in Congress.
The word that comes to mind when hearing @DarializaforNY say—with a straight face, mind you—that she’s a prison abolitionist because she believes it’s actually possible to eliminate crime is: Hubris.
There has *never* been a society (socialist or otherwise) that has eliminated crime or predation. Nor has there ever been a society without some mechanism—formal or informal—in place for punishing criminality.
Crime and violence are problems that have been present in *every* society of which there exists a historical record—in *every* corner of the world.
To take these platitudes seriously is to shrug off the carnage, victimization, and disorder that the prison abolition movement so obviously invites. This is pure evil masquerading as moral superiority.
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Paying outside investigators does not purchase immunity from accountability, Whitehead Institute.
MIT owes the public an honest accounting of what they did to David Sabatini.
In August 2021, Ruth Lehmann, director of the MIT-affiliated Whitehead Institute, sent an announcement that was widely circulated and reported in the press. She said a DEI survey had prompted what she dent investigation that found violations of sexual-harassment policies.
The announcement publicly portrayed Sabatini as a sexual harasser. By pairing his departure with a commitment to DEI, it cast the destruction of his career as a demonstration of Whitehead’s moral leadership.
A jury has now found Knouse liable for defamation and tortious interference, awarded Sabatini nearly $10 million, and rejected her counterclaims.
The tortious-interference finding is central. Sabatini establishing causation from Knouse's actions to his losses was necessary to win.
Under a but-for standard which Sabatini had to overcome, if the same career loss would have occurred independently of Knouse’s wrongful interference, he could not recover damages.
In other words, Sabatini would not have suffered damages but for Knouse's actions according to a court of law.
MIT and Whitehead cannot answer that finding simply by repeating “DEI survey” and “independent investigation.” The sexual harassment and hostile work environment claims were tried and rejected by the court. Paying outside investigators does not purchase immunity from accountability.
They attached a devastating label to Sabatini and presented his departure as evidence of their values despite him being their most productive scientist at the time.
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How misinformation becomes information. Wikipedia. @clairlemon
How Wikipedia Rewrote Zionism
Since October 2023, four-fifths of the encyclopedia’s article on Zionism has been replaced. And work of editors who have been banned from the page remains.
quillette.com/2026/10/30/how…
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Very sad. Fiercely independent Russian news outlet, Novaya Gazeta, will shut down due to actions by the authoritarian Russian state. nytimes.com/2026/10/30/wor…
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Higher Education can only restore trustworthiness through accountability. substack.com/@themissingdat…
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Jeffrey Flier retweeted
Yes, all the actions taken to erase you need to be reversed. They were taken (it is now confirmed by a jury) based on lies and an active campaign to smear you.
These were taken down after the events of August 2021. I think it would be appropriate to have them back up.
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Jeffrey Flier retweeted
Honored to deliver a lecture this Monday at 4pm at @YaleMed - "Open Inquiry in Higher Ed and Medicine: Challenges and Remedies" Sponsored by Office of the Dean and Office of Collaborative Excellence. @cafharvard @HdxAcademy @harvardmed
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John McCutcheon is a great singer-songwriter- multi instrument musician, and his concert tonite in Hartford Conn was amazing. Many songs brought tears to my eyes, others provoked deep thought. A remarkable talent.
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Honored to deliver a lecture this Monday at 4pm at @YaleMed - "Open Inquiry in Higher Ed and Medicine: Challenges and Remedies" Sponsored by Office of the Dean and Office of Collaborative Excellence. @cafharvard @HdxAcademy @harvardmed
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Jeffrey Flier retweeted
“In humanities dissertations, the share of words tied to identity politics and social theory grew tenfold from 1960 to 2025, with a sharp acceleration after 2019. That includes terms such as decolonization, oppression, queer, whiteness, gender, systemic racism & social justice.”
On the American Academy of Sciences and Letters' report on the crisis in the humanities:
washingtontimes.com/news/2026/oct/…
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Not in my house!!!
Some parents are ditching plates and silverware for a “dump dinner,” pouring the meal straight onto a foil-covered table and letting the kids dig in. For these families, it’s less about manners and more about making memories.Community noteThe "dump dinner" is a viral social media trend of staged videos primarily for engagement, not a common family practice. Children in videos often react with alarm rather than requesting it.
thebiglead.com/dump-dinner-vi…
theguardian.com/food/2026/feb/…
newsweek.com/table-dump-din…
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Jeffrey Flier retweeted
This is an abominable tweet. She is *criticizing* these decent men and women for coming together to repel the marauders and protect their city’s shops. But these are exactly the kinds of citizens healthy societies cannot function without.
À Tours, des habitants ont organisé une chaîne humaine de 200 personnes pour témoigner leur solidarité aux…boutiques. Oui, oui. Ils nous ont fait un « soutien aux familles des vitrines » sauf que ce n’était pas du tout sarcastique. Les vitres > nos vies.
Photo : Radio France.
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Bribery of editors to facilitate publication in Cell Press journals? They better get to the bottom of this fast. Trust in science has enough problems without this. @RetractionWatch
Cell Press investigating editor-in-chief accused of soliciting bribes from authors.
scmp.com/news/china/sci…
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Jeffrey Flier retweeted
Incredible that this 5 year nightmare is over. Institutions should admit that they made mistake because, as the jury concluded, they were lied to (defamation) and those lies were weaponized (interference) to get you fired. 3 wks testimony, 2 days deliberation, clear conclusion
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Jeffrey Flier retweeted
@jflier @SashaGusevPosts @WhiteheadInst @MIT @hhmi_science Remember Whitehead claimed privilege to prevent us from obtaining their communications with the HAS investigators. So they claimed that HAS was independent but then also their lawyers. Which is it?
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