He may once have been a respected biologist, but nobody who’s paying attention thinks he’s been anything but a total crank for at least the last decade.
Somehow just about every single one of the “New Atheists” of 20-30 years ago turned out to be a crank.
There was very much a New Atheist → misogynist transphobia pipeline.
Don’t forget the Islamophobia!
Dogmatic assholes are dogmatic assholes whether they are religious or atheist.
So sad to see. I defended Dawkins for much too long – not his hateful views, but just thought he still had positive things to contribute outside of this, and thought he might come round eventually.
But he seems blinded by bigotry and cares neither about being accurate, nor on the effect he is having on people’s lives and wider society.
“Engineer syndrome”, as the (rather unfairly named) saying is. That is, Dawkins knows he’s smart and informed about some specialized aspects of the study of evolutionary biology via genetics experiments, so he assumes that means he’s smart and informed about everything.
It will be interesting to see if he’s made any remarks that make him liable for damages in Khelif’s lawsuit.
ETA: Correction: not a civil lawsuit apparently, a complaint filed with the Paris Prosecutor’s Office in pursuit of a criminal investigation of online harassment.