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We've crossed into the latest and bestest ever Political Correctness Controversy^TM.

It seems Dr. James Watson, celebrated Molecular Biologist who, along with Dr. Francis Crick, helped to unravel the cell's nucleus and shared in the discovery of DNA, who received a share of the Nobel Prize in 1962 for advancing Medicine (NOT the 'Peace' prize, btw; that went to another Molecular Biologist, Dr. Linus Pauling, for his opposition to above-ground nuclear testing) has effectively shat in a punchbowl. In a room seemingly filled with Diplomats and Kings, extraordinary Gentlemen and Ladies, courtiers and courtesans, he's dropped trou and filled 'er up.

Fury at DNA pioneer's theory: Africans are less intelligent than Westerners

Celebrated scientist attacked for race comments: "All our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours - whereas all the testing says not really"

Well, this is devastating news. Dr. Watson has always had some problems with flapping his gums at inopportune moments, and now he's really gotten the attention of every race-baiter and political correctness hound imaginable. I expect this to blow way out of proportion over the next few days. Just look at this...

"The newly formed Equality and Human Rights Commission, successor to the Commission for Racial Equality, said it was studying Dr Watson's remarks " in full".

and

"Anti-racism campaigners called for Dr Watson's remarks to be looked at in the context of racial hatred laws. A spokesman for the 1990 Trust, a black human rights group, said: "It is astonishing that a man of such distinction should make comments that seem to perpetuate racism in this way. It amounts to fuelling bigotry and we would like it to be looked at for grounds of legal complaint."

I find this sentence most telling...

"To many in the scientific community, Watson has long been something of a wild man, and his colleagues tend to hold their collective breath whenever he veers from the script."

Written in 1990, at the dawn of the Political Correctness movement.

Yes, following The Script is now much more important than seeking or reporting any new science. Dr. Watson (for whom I have great respect) unfortunately veered, again, and like many others before him who strayed, will now suffer the damnation from the Keepers of The Script.

It’s fascinating that it seems to even consider a possibility of defending Dr. Watson is, in itself, as heinous an act as the original ‘offense’.

We should, I suppose, just shut down the biological sciences. There’s too much chance that opposing ideologies will grasp at partially-understood research and wring out eugenics, or sociobiology, or…racial biobigotry. Paul Feyerabend suggested in 1970 that a world without science “would be more pleasant than the world we live in today.”

And while we’re at it, let’s shut down the physical sciences as well! Who needs split atoms, or fused ones for that matter? Wouldn’t we all be better off without all this technology? Al, you win; shut down everything. We just needs Mother Earth to take care of us.

Nevermind that 99.9% of all evolutionary paths to date have led directly to extinction. Natural selection isn’t easily trifled with.

But ‘The Script’ should take care of that...right?

All That Said, likely Dr. Watson is full of whatever it is he left in that punchbowl. Shame that he allowed his 79-year-old mouth to run before he thought things through.

Past eras, and all that...

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H/T Dan Collins, PW Pub