Academia, Free Speech, International

The Royal Society Moves to Expel Musk Over His Political Views

Founded in 1660, the Royal Society is one of the most prominent scientific organizations in the world with associations to such luminaries as Sir Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin. Despite that proud history, British scientists are pushing to politicize the society and expel Elon Musk because they disagree with his political views. It is not simply anti-intellectual but self-destructive for a society committed to the pursuit of scientific knowledge.

Few individuals in history have had a more pronounced impact on scientific and technological advances than Musk. His work on Space X alone has reshaped space technology. The upcoming mission to rescue the stranded scientists only highlights his transformative role and that of his company.

However, more than 2,700 scientists have signed an open letter that cited his public attacks on figures such as Anthony Fauci. They also noted that ‘The situation is rendered more serious because ‘Mr. Musk now occupies a position within a Trump administration in the USA that has over the past several weeks engaged in an assault on scientific research in the US that has fallen foul of federal courts.’”

It is unclear what cases are being referenced, since there have been several rulings against efforts to enjoin DOGE and Musk. More importantly, such litigation has only just begun.  Whether the challengers or the Administration have “fallen foul” is yet to be determined.

Others made it clear that they simply disagree with Musk’s views.

Professor Dorothy Bishop, a University of Oxford psychologist, resigned earlier from the society, stating “I just feel far more comfortable to be dissociated from an institution that continues to honour this disreputable man.”

Others accused Musk of spreading “disinformation,” a much-abused category in the United Kingdom as a basis for censorship.

Many of these scientists seem selective in their outrage. I do not recall the Royal Society rushing to the defense of the many scientists who were fired or silenced over their dissenting views on COVID-19.

That includes the lab theory that led to scientists being denounced as conspiracy theorists or racists. Now, federal agencies agree that the theory is legitimate and indeed favored by some offices.

Some experts questioned the efficacy of surgical masks, the scientific support for the six-foot rule and the necessity of shutting down schools. The government has now admitted that many of these objections were valid and that it did not have hard science to support some of the policies. While other allies in the West did not shut down their schools, we never had any substantive debate due to the efforts of this alliance of academic, media and government figures.

Not only did millions die from the pandemic, but the United States is still struggling with the educational and mental health consequences of shutting down all our public schools. That is the true cost of censorship when the government works with the media to stifle scientific debate and public disclosures.

There is an alternative. The Royal Society could confine its review to the scientific contributions of figures like Musk. The subjectivity of this criticism should be antithetical to a scientific organization. Science is ideally a field that transcends political, social, and religious divisions. Few figures in history have advanced the cause of space travel and green technology as Musk.

I hope the Royal Society will decline to engage in such political exclusions, but I am hardly hopeful. However, in carrying out this expulsion, they will do far more harm to their society than to Elon Musk.

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”

419 thoughts on “The Royal Society Moves to Expel Musk Over His Political Views”

  1. Wokeness corrupts everything it touches, including the minds of some shallow and envious scientists. Musk deserves a Nobel prize for the work he has done.

  2. “There’s a lot more to being a good thinker than having a high IQ.” I think this group of pompous Europeans proves the point.
    There’s something going on in Europe, I think there’s a false sense of comfort and security. I think we Americans (who they dislike) have created that feeling. It might be time for America to withdraw a bit, let Europe feel and deal with their threats without the Calvary and its dollars. We’ve got four years to make some impactful corrections at home for Americans, let’s not get sidetracked. Elon Musk doesn’t need the approval of European elite, history will note his contributions.

    1. Not to be picky but Cavalry are horse soldiers and Calvary was the hill on which Christ was crucified. I suspect your spellchecker is suborning your thoughts.
      I agree with your conclusions however.

  3. ” . . . an open letter that cited [Musk’s] public attacks on figures such as Anthony Fauci . . .”

    Can’t have that. After all, when you attack (the megalomaniacal) Fauci, you are attacking science itself.

    Just ask him.

  4. Solid decision by the Society. The fact you’re out shilling against it proves how damaging the decision is to the people you flak for, Turls.

    Party on!!

    1. And who’s he “flak for”? Got a conspiracy theory you want to introduce today? Come on, run it by these rabid muppets.

    3. Until today, I never heard of the Royal Society. So how would that be damaging to “the people you flak for?” Common sense does not seem to be your strong point.

    4. Love when my cretin magat trolls sit up in their Russian seats and foam at the mouth!!

      So awesome!!!

    5. And look! Turd magat tommy is even mixing attendance taking in with his paranoid episodes of blaming all things on Elvis bug!! What a mondo loser.

      Hilarious.

  5. I have a sneaking suspicion that Musk could not give a rats arse about this pompous decree.. I am such a traditionalist but so many of these organizations have lost all relevance.

    1. The once respected magazine, “Scientific American”, went down the same path and is now a woke garbage publication, with falling subscription numbers.

    2. “so many of these organizations have lost all relevance.”

      Yep. The Royal Society has apparently transformed itself from an organization executing a mission to recognize true scientific achievement, to a sleazy trade union for bureaucrats who masquerade as scientists, and who view Musk as a “scab”…

  6. Are the “political” sciences part of the Royal Society? It would seem they are relying on an “Appeal to Authority” logical fallacy to justify the expulsion.

  7. I believe this is the same society that denied the man who discovered a reliable way to determine longitude his rightful pride bc it didn’t fit their consensus view. I highly recommend the little book Longitude by Sobel that tells the story.

  10. The UK Elites, Globalist, the US Elites etc are upset their plans of the Globalist, two class system/control was exposed and their corruption and out right stealing $$$$, via US AID/Ukraine funding etc was taken away from them. Musk/Doge/Trump are exposing them. So they are MAD and they are going after Musk.

      2. I’m certain that sounded more clever bouncing around inside your head. In the future, perhaps try saying it out loud first and you may save yourself the embarrassment.

        1. “sounded more clever bouncing around inside your head”

          I believe that is a function of the massive volume of empty cranial space producing highly distorted echoes…

      3. Congratulations! Your CNN/MSNBC inculcation is complete. You have now reached Projection.

      4. Wally, must be hard to keep writing these without getting paid by a USAID NGO, quality of writing has definitely gone down. Maybe that’s why you’ve ditched your other handles on this site?

  11. It amazes me how upset such people are when fraud, abuse and criminal misconduct is discovered. “Yes! We want fraud and mismanagement of our money! Yes! We are okay shen billions of dollars are unaccounted for. Yes! We want Venezuelan gangs terrorizing our communities’

    The fentanyl deaths per day in the United States is equivalent to a Jumbo Jet crash per day. It is gutting our cities and small towns. Destroying our youth.

    Someone suggested that the irrational anger towards Elon Musk is like being angry at your bank when you can’t pay your bills.

    2. E.M., my first thought was that DOGE found and cut some DEI funding going to the Society.

  12. 🤔 Hmmm. Sir Isaac Newton, you say. Expel the most important Rocket Scientist in our lifetime. Worth $400+ billion. I’m no genius, but I believe the Royal Society might want to consider Newton’s Third Law of Motion before they decide:

    For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

    1. We bring them in when they contribute to science, kick them out when they contribute to political science.
      Burn his robe. (It’s British; surely they have robes.)

      1. Draw and quartering sounds like the appropriate sentence. Let the crows pick out his eyes.

  13. My guess, ill informed as it may be, is that the Royal Society’s decline started when they started bring in social sciences, like psychology (masters in political science here).

    My other guess is that they need him more than he needs them. That’s what we social scientists basically do – guess

  14. It’s always a bad idea to allow ad-hominem, tribalistic politics to creep into science, but that has been happening already to a considerable extent. The social sciences have been completely captured. Not nearly as much in the physical sciences. Serious attempts to invade medicine and mathematics are ongoing but facing strong resistance.

    Now, the task is to de-politicize the scientific community, and restore norms of merit, open-mindedness, and healthy skepticism. Nations that can uphold these atmospherics will come out on top in the 21st century.

    1. Even $0.01 doled out by government is a political calculation. As long as government funds scientific pursuits, politics will be involved. There is no way around it.

  15. Musk can join the ranks of Albert Einstein who at first was rejected because he wasn’t their beloved Sir Isaac. In rejecting Einstein, they mirrored the Nazi science establishment in rejecting Einstein due to other undesirable characteristics. The “liberal” thinkers embodied by the Royal Society might, come up with a “scientific reasoning for their censorhip regime, which arrests journalists, opposition advocates, and now ostracizes Musk for some unclear reason such as “he like Trump, so we despise him since Trump must be a fascist/racist/homophobe”. I would much rather have scientists try to understand why the U.K. expelled the Jews in the 14th century, harshly subjected poor Irish tenant farmers to death and disease in the 19th century, rallied around Mosely and murdered Indian Peaceful demonstrators in the 20th century in India. This is just a few of the exemplary actions of Great Britain and it’s scientific community which failed to condemn and speak out against it’s deplorable alliances. Perhaps a theory for understanding why they support in a bloody war, a regime in Ukraine that jails it’s opponents in politics and the press and suspends national elections. Now they seem to have fallen in love with censorship. Perhaps the Royal Society can come up with a theory for incarcerating people at prayer. Perhaps a lot of angry resentment would be averted if the British had not forced Opium on the Chinese citizenry in the 19th century. “Rule Britania-Britania rules the airwaves. England always always always shall be slaves-at least to their angry ignorant violent behavior”. I used to admire England and it’s values. Now, they seem to be part of a horrific and oppressive version of democracy that the world has never seen before.

    1. Because it’s a group of Scientists in a PRIVATE organization that focuses on scientific issues.

  16. The urge to virtue-signal is irresistible for these pipsqueaks. It is all they have left in their crumbling, backwater country.

    1. Whichever member it was of the House of Lords who, back in the 1970s or 1980s, proclaimed the UK to have become “a banana republic without any bananas” may have been slightly premature in his assessment, but he has certainly proven to be prophetic…

  17. Membership in the royal society is similar to the leg lamp in “Christmas Story”. It’s a “MAJOR AWARD”.

    2. “It’s a “MAJOR AWARD”.”

      And the egos of Royal Society members appear to be very “FRAGIL-E”…

  18. “However, more than 2,700 scientists have signed an open letter…” Great minds or big babies?

  19. I’m sorry, but these organizations are taken seriously only by members and those who drool to become members. The large majority of people on this planet looking to have their lives improved could give two hoots about membership. Ask the average citizen about the achievements of Charles Darwin, Isaac Newton and yes, even Elon Musk … and the last thing that will be mentioned, if at all, is membership in this society for which the sole purpose is to be able to say you belong. And the petty emotional action taken by “Professor Dorothy Bishop, a University of Oxford psychologist,” suggests to me that she might want to see a psychologist.

  20. The tense is wrong in the phrase, …the Royal Society “is”…. The correct form is ” was.”

    1. Good move by the Royal Society expelling Musk, who is a megalomaniacal narcissist, much like Trump, who will be gone relatively soon. Then begins the work of reconstructing the Federal government.

      1. And you a poor insignificant nameless anon jealous of what Musk has accomplished. .

      2. DOGE’s success will result in all governments establishing efficiency agencies with power. The elitist gravy train is coming to an unceremonious end. The Dems are risking party suicide in fighting for the status quo.

        1. “The elitist gravy train is coming to an unceremonious end.”

          THIS particular gravy train may be ending, but it won’t be long before new track is laid for another. That, after all, is the essential nature of politicians. No matter what success the DOGE effort yields, we must not become self-congratulatory to the extent that we relax our vigilance one whit.

      4. Really? You guys all loved him, and Trump, and Tulsi, and Lindy Li, and RFK, and so many others when they were on your side. Once they showed any hint of being “facist”, i.e. not being completely 110% on the Flavor-Aid, you all turned against them like rabid dogs. Hell, Whoopi once joked with Trump during one of his many guest appearances on The View that she would gladly be his VP. AFAIK, Trump has never actually changed his views or stances on anything, only what side he declared himself on.

      1. OK, both/all of you Anonymouses: Come up with pen names; it’s not hard.

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