Academia, Free Speech, Politics

Baylor Professor Calls for Prosecution of Criticism of Fauci and Other Scientists as Hate Crime

Physicist Richard P. Feynman once said “Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt.” Feynman’s statement captures how science depends upon constant questioning and challenging of assumptions. Yet, what is healthy debate to some is criminal dissent to others. Dr. Peter Hotez, a professor of pediatrics and molecular virology at Baylor College of Medicine is calling for federal hate-crime protections to be extended to cover criticism of Dr. Anthony Fauci and other scientists. The frequent MSNBC and CNN guest wants Congress to expand hate crimes to “scientists currently targeted by far-right extremism in the United States.”

In a July 28 paper in Plos Biology titled “Mounting Antiscience Aggression in the United States,” Hotez encourages Congress to focus on the “band of ultraconservative members of the US Congress and other public officials with far-right leanings are waging organized and seemingly well-coordinated attacks against prominent US biological scientists.”

Hotez insists that it is not enough to support such science but to criminalize attacks on their research. This suggestion is just one of a number of ideas briefly put forward to support scientists but it is the most chilling.  Referring Nazi and fascist movements in history, Hotez argues that good science requires cracking down on the right.  He concludes:

“As Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel once pointed out, neutrality or silence favors the oppressor. We must take steps to protect our scientists and take swift and positive action to counter the growing wave of far-right antiscience aggression. Not taking action is a tacit endorsement, and a guarantee that the integrity and productivity of science in the United States will be eroded or lose ground.”

The federal hate crime laws focus on basis of a person’s characteristics of race, religion, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity. We have seen calls for adding professions like police officers, which I also opposed.  As with police officers, the inclusion of such professions would have a direct and inimical impact on free speech in our society. Indeed, it would create a slippery slope as other professions demand inclusion from reporters to ministers to physicians.  Hate crimes would quickly apply to a wide array of people due to their occupations.

What is most striking about the article of Hotez is its lack of analytical balance. He rages against the right without even acknowledging how social media companies have already enforced a massive censorship program that bars even reporting the results of public clinical trials or repeating CDC positions on vaccinations. For a year, Big Tech has been censoring those who wanted to discuss the origins of pandemic and those who suggested the lab theory were attacked as right-wing conspiracy theorists.  It was not until Biden admitted that the virus may have originated in the Wuhan lab that social media suddenly changed its position. Facebook only recently announced that people on its platform will be able to discuss the origins of Covid-19 after censoring any such discussion.

Many of us have criticized the hateful rhetoric on both sides of our politics. However, there remain important debates over not just the underlying science relation to Covid-19 but the implications for such science for public policies. Criminalizing aspects of that debate would ratchet up the threats against those with dissenting views, including some scientists. That would harm not just free speech but science in the long run.

76 thoughts on “Baylor Professor Calls for Prosecution of Criticism of Fauci and Other Scientists as Hate Crime”

  1. Hate Crime Laws are unconstitutional BS to begin with. Laws exist for actual criminal offenses. Hate Crime laws are Thought Policing

    1. How does one find out and post how much Fouch-ey grant money the ‘good’ Dr HateCrime has squandered over the years ?

  2. So Alex Jones has been right about everything after all? Wow.

    Oh and watch this. Nobel Prize winner who invented the PCR test that Falsie is always going on about..See what he thinks about the lying bureaucrat

    2. Fauci is not the origin of our guidelines, and as Mullis says, is not a research scientist on top of the details. He’s a doctor who’s a spokesman and as such knows more than Joe Blow. Remember, he managed to mostly stay on the right side of Trump his entire presidency, an accomplishment for someone who is primarily political, not scientific.

      By the way, Mullis was a believer in astrology, and died before the covid-19 pandemic, so as leader of a movement? Try again.

  3. Dr. Peter Hotez, a professor of pediatrics and molecular virology at Baylor College of Medicine is calling for federal hate-crime protections to be extended to cover criticism of Dr. Anthony Fauci and other scientists.

    What kind of professor seeks to squelch criticism of other scientists?

    What is science?

    Science is making observations – developing a hypothesis based upon those observations – then conducting experiments to verify the hypothesis is valid.

    Then others come along and attempt to poke holes in your hypothesis.

    What Peter Hotez (ie professor of intolerance) demands is a return to the Dark Ages with unquestioning subservience to the word of Dr Anthony Fauci (et al).

    That isn’t science – it’s dogma.

    Perhaps in lieu of federal hate-crime protections the professor of intolerance (ie Peter Hotez) and his ilk would settle for burning the heretics at the stake?

  5. Why is everyone blind to the entire anti constitution leftists?
    At every turn, another leftist crawls out from under the baseboard and spits out autocratic, tyrannical lunacy.?

    This professor is a great example. He wants to silence dissent. He knows he is on the right side of the power dynamic…at this blip of time. But does he advocate the same power be exercised when a different political power is calling the shots? Is he ok with allowing the government this kind of power to be used against him? This is supposed to represent the very pinnacle of scholarly superiority. Yet he is so stupid as to vest within the Government, the power to silence dissent, never considering what would happen if the tables turn. Never considering the clear simple foundation of this great nation. Not only should we allow dissent, non elected people should be forbiden from exercising power that rests outside of the peoples power to hold those people to account.

    The phony theater of follow the science is anything but science. Scientists are by definition incapable of doing risk assessment. After 16 months of mistakes, missteps, and generally horrible messaging, it is clear scientists cant lead.

  6. The Left has tyrannical, Fascist tendencies.

    Exhibit 4,976:

    The Left would seek to punish criticism of Fauci. Fauci, who funded the Wuhan lab studying gain of function in bat coronaviruses at the site of patient 0 in the pandemic, and then claimed there was no way this escaped from the lab or was modified. This was in spite of his having received emails stating the virus had characteristics of gain of function, and was not likely naturally occurring.

    Leftists often view themselves as the elites, including politicians, academics, and Silicon Valley. They want to be in control over the peasantry, dictating what they are allowed to read, watch, and say.

    Conservatives believe in limited government and strong individual rights.

    Hmmmm, which paradigm seems safest from tyranny? Tough one…

    1. Religion (e.g. moral philosophy, its relativistic sibling ethics, its politically congruent cousin law) for people capable of self-moderation, and competing interests to mitigate the progress of others running amuck. Left-wing ideology adopts nominally “secular” religions and reduces the viability of the latter. The left-right, totalitarian-anarchist, nexus is leftist.

      1. Anonymous:

        There is the ruling class, and the peasantry. The ruling class is currently comprised of certain politicians, and Silicon Valley, who closely controls and monitors what the peasants may read, watch, and say. These two entities work closely in alignment.

        Since I am neither of these, to the elites, I am a peasant.

        1. Karen,

          Well you speak like the elite. You use good grammar and have excellent spelling which is more than I can say for the majority of Trumpists on this blog. You had me fooled. You may be a peasant, but you don’t present yourself as one.

          1. Ones education, intelligence is not dictated by socio-economic class.

            I am not an Elite, nor a Trump supporter (donated to Tulsi Gabbard, twice), but I am a peasant.

    3. Problem being that the ‘Conservatives’ (aka Republicans) are just as visibly corrupt as the Democrats (only older). Nobody is going to follow McConnell or that other twit from The South, though the country is dying to have an alternative to the corporate Democrats that Clinton ushered in.

    4. The real villain here is Peter Daszak.

      “Daszak, the president of the New York-based EcoHealth Alliance, was working with Shi [the “bat lady”] on ‘gain of function research,’ which involves genetically manipulating viruses to make them stronger and more contagious.”

      Then, about a year ago, Daszak (and others) published a despicable letter in “The Lancet” that attempted to distract attention away from blaming him, Fauci, and China for the pandemic.

      Daszak was “‘working with the CCP directly​,’ McCaul said, referring to the Chinese Communist Party.

      “​’They asked him to write this report. He got 24 virologists to weigh in on this​,​ and suddenly Dr. Fauci believes in everybody else​,’ he said. “’And the entire scientific community falls for this great hoax that Dr. Peter Daszak perpetrated on the world.​’”​

      https://nypost.com/2021/08/03/fauci-must-testify-before-congress-on-wuhan-lab-research-rep-mccaul/

  7. Dr. Peter Hotez is a subversive of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights and has committed constitutional treason by “…adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort…” as he attempts to nullify the Constitution and deny constitutional rights to Americans, in complete alignment with the restrictions and outcomes of communism as practiced by enemies of the United States, China, North Korea, Cuba, Vietnam and their allies, Russia, Venezuela et al., and is, therefore, a direct and mortal enemy of the Constitution, the United States, and Americans, meriting immediate, commensurate, punitive action for capital crimes against the United States.
    ____________________

    Enough!

    “But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

    – Declaration of Independence, 1776
    _____________________________

    “Do one thing every day that scares you.”

    – Eleanor Roosevelt
    ________________

    We don’t want their love.

    We don’t want their respect.

    We want their fear.

  8. OT: Like virtually every important issue, our leftist bloggers deny the truth they do not wish to hear.

    Daleiden claimed viable infants were intentionally delivered and “killed for organ harvesting” bringing money to Pitt “and the Planned Parenthood abortion business it supports.”
    —
    ‘American Horror Story’: Memos show NIH paid university to deliver fetuses intact, remove organs

    Brag about minimizing “warm ischemic time” suggests quick turnaround between abortion and collection, Judicial Watch says.

    The National Institutes of Health approved a $3.2 million grant to the University of Pittsburgh that involved inducing labor on FULL-TERM PREGNANT WOMEN and quickly removing organs from intact fetuses for its tissue bank, according to newly released public records.

    Cont: https://justthenews.com/accountability/watchdogs/american-horror-story-docs-show-nih-paid-university-deliver-babies-intact
    —
    Caps for emphasis are mine.

      1. Anonymous the Stupid, you are intellectually challenged. There are two issues and two different dates. You quote news almost two years old. My quotes are from yesterday’s news. There are also two separate issues. One has to do with the specific actions of Daleiden obtaining his material. The other deals with the newly released information. Maybe one day you will get up to speed.

        Some of you fought against what Deleiden said at the time. I am providing an article about what has been found most recently.

        “‘American Horror Story’: Memos show NIH paid university to deliver fetuses intact, remove organs

        Brag about minimizing “warm ischemic time” suggests quick turnaround between abortion and collection, Judicial Watch says.

        The National Institutes of Health approved a $3.2 million grant to the University of Pittsburgh that involved inducing labor on FULL-TERM PREGNANT WOMEN and quickly removing organs from intact fetuses for its tissue bank, according to newly released public records.”

        https://justthenews.com/accountability/watchdogs/american-horror-story-docs-show-nih-paid-university-deliver-babies-intact August 3 2021

      2. Elective abortion is the premeditated termination of viable human lives for social progress.

        Planned Parent/hood under Cecile and others engaged in the cannibalization of profitable parts for medical progress.

        Nearly a million human lives annually are aborted in America, and millions more globally, in a wicked solution to a purportedly hard problem, under oversight of what are ostensibly human rights-oriented organizations.

        The Pro-Choice religion denies women and men’s dignity and agency, and reduces human life to property.

    2. Gosh Seth, if you read the attached application you will clearly see they need these specimens for kidney research. You would no doubt be heartened to learn they won’t use live vertebrate animals without additional authorization. That is if you don’t consider the specimens they use for their organ harvesting up to 49 weeks in utero to be “live,” “vertebrate,” “animals.” The application does indicate the consent they need to ethically conduct this research has been a bit of a challenge.
      https://www.judicialwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/JW-v-HHS-NIH-July-2021-Records-00642.pdf

      sarc/off

  9. Back to the Dark Ages

    Hotez is channeling Cardinal Bellarmine — the Jesuit intellectual who provided the rationalization for the punishment of Galileo:

    “[T]o want to affirm that the sun really is fixed in the center of the heavens and only revolves around itself (i. e., turns upon its axis ) without traveling from east to west, and that the earth is situated in the third sphere and revolves with great speed around the sun, is a very dangerous thing, not only by irritating all the philosophers and scholastic theologians, but also by injuring our holy faith and rendering the Holy Scriptures false.”

    Today, that “holy faith” is whatever his science “authorities” decree.

  10. Hate Loves Abortion… uh, Cancellation. They are playing with a double-edged scalpel. That said, can they abort the baby, cannibalize her profitable parts, sequester her carbon pollutants, and have her, too?

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