Jon Pike @runthinkwrite

Professor of Philosophy @OU_Philosophy. Political philosophy and the ethics and metaphysics of sport. @OU_GCRN (RT ≠ endorsement, all views personal, obvs.) open.ac.uk/people/jep34 Hove UK Joined May 2011

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Professor Alice Sullivan @ProfAliceS

3 hours ago

More than 100 academics have urged the University of Oxford to reinstate a lecture series that was cancelled after protests from trans activists. In the letter, published in The Times on Thursday, they wrote: “It appears that the university proctors authorised and facilitated protests inside the lecture theatre and did nothing to remove miscreants." thetimes.com/uk/education/a…

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Professor Alice Sullivan @ProfAliceS

3 hours ago

Full letter in support of Michael Foran here. Academics who would like to add their names can do so (Orcid ID required). tinyurl.com/yc2rh32u

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Mara Yamauchi @mara_yamauchi

12 hours ago

This looks absolutely superb!! Team Women - join here! 👇@natty_ice2010 got cancelled for speaking up for fairness for women. She now leads this club with @xx_xyathletics from @JenniferSey. Brilliant! 👌👏💪💜🤍💚#XX

Jennifer Sey @JenniferSey

13 hours ago

Our athletes took 2 of the top 5 spots at the Steamboat Springs Marathon over the weekend. And our team member won in the masters division. You can join here: xx-xyathletics.com/pages/team-wom…

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Jon Pike @runthinkwrite

12 hours ago

@mary_leng @guglielmomeardi That's encouraging. Maybe we have a duty to explain best practice in protesting against us. 🤨

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Jon Pike @runthinkwrite

a day ago

Proposal: Revive, as the standard, the old (left wing?) practice of *leafleting* a big meeting. 2 sides of A4, presenting your critique, of the platform, of the speakers, of the lecture series, whatever, with a contact number. Hand it out to arrivals. Attendees can take it or not. Read it or not. (Most will) You get your voice heard, in your own words. The speakers get to speak, but not unchallenged. You're not reliant on a chair taking hostile/challenging questions. You might persuade a few people. It takes more work, but is fundamentally better than hectoring and disrupting.

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Sex Matters @SexMattersOrg

22 hours ago

🎊 It’s five years since @MForstater’s tribunal win established that gender-critical beliefs are #WorthyOfRespect. It’s the most important free-speech win of the past decade. It’s been cited in many legal cases, and protected many people from unlawful belief discrimination. x.com/MForstater/sta…

Maya Forstater @MForstater

8 months ago

A cancelled class photo! With some of the people who have used the Forstater judgment and some friends!

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Aletheia @Aletheia_70

2 days ago

Quick thoughts on the disruption & cancellation of @michaelpforan's lectures: -This was not simply a protest. Protest is legitimate. Disruption of others' right to be heard is not (cf. Karl Popper). -While the students are likely to have violated University conduct policies, the final responsibility lies with those providing security. Reports from those who were present suggest those who disrupted the lecture were admitted despite being recognised. Again maybe OK. This isn't the local pub. But the disruption should have been dealt with much more quickly. -Like @dfkodsi I was initial disappointed at the cancellation. Feels like giving in. Have since found out more about further threats. -This is against a background of more or less constant threats and disruption of events with a sex realist of sex-based rights. For over a decade now. -Extensive attempts are being made to suggest that only half a dozen people were present. Video (and reports) suggest just over 30. But so what if it was 1,000 or just one. The audience deserve to be able to listen and discuss without having that sabotaged. thetimes.com/uk/education/a…

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Jon Pike @runthinkwrite

a day ago

@OxSoc Yes, there is that hitch.

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Mara Yamauchi @mara_yamauchi

2 days ago

Just been told about a trans-identifying man who has run many parkruns over several years, all in the Male category. He has also volunteered a lot. He is v welcome & included. The claim that these men are excluded from parkrun if they can’t run in the Female category is nonsense

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John Maier @johnmaier_

2 days ago

"Trans ideology may have fallen from ideological fashion. But, now embittered and politically isolated, its remaining proponents are likely to become more radical, not less, in their tactics. Universities must not make the mistake of indulging them." On @michaelpforan's troubled lecture series, and the tormented performances student trans activists prepare for such special occasions ... thetimes.com/comment/column…

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Jon Pike @runthinkwrite

2 days ago

Even if you take the view that "'X' is not up for debate", that proposition itself is up for debate. Take Holocaust denial. I think (probably) the facticity of the Holocaust is not up for debate. But the claim that it's not up for debate *is* up for debate. We have to *argue* about what is and isn't up for debate. It's not for stroppy undergraduates to lay down the line.

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William Hague @WilliamJHague

2 days ago

The rest of @michaelpforan's talks should go ahead. Freedom of speech is a fundamental academic freedom and it must be upheld. Equally, legitimate and lawful protest has an important place in university life. The task is to maintain both. Especially at events open to the public like this, it is an important Oxford tradition that any disagreement is expressed in a civil and respectful way.

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Richard Dawkins @RichardDawkins

2 days ago

This unqualified bore says his secondhand opinions are “not up for debate.” Yes they are. At a university all opinions are up for debate. If you cannot defend your opinions rationally, either they are indefensible or you are too stupid to defend them. In either case you have no right to force them on students who have expressed their wish to attend a lecture by doing so. thetimes.com/uk/education/a…

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Jon Pike @runthinkwrite

2 days ago

@WildmanHills No. That was a bit too wild for me.

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Jon Pike @runthinkwrite

2 days ago

(With some others, now famous and nameless, I disrupted a meeting in Oxford in 1985. It was a recruitment 'milkround' introduction at the Randolph Hotel, for Barclays Bank, who were heavily invested in South Africa at the time: they pulled out a year later. ) This was not a *lecture*. Wouldn't have dreamt of it. Student troublemakers can choose better or worse targets.

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Jon Pike @runthinkwrite

2 days ago

Some small things about @UniofOxford lectures: i) They're not compulsory. And so they're not attendance-dependant. If only a handful turn up, then, so what? The lecture proceeds. (I don't think this is likely in the case of MF, but it's irrelevant, anyway) ii) there's *hundreds* of them iii) You don't, generally, lecture 'to a syllabus.' It's Higher Learning. Come, if you're interested. Don't, if you're not. But don't disrupt. Turning up to a lecture is a sign of interest, not of 'complicity' or 'commitment'. The outrage here rests in the threats to students, the time wasting, the entitlement, and the philistinism. These people just don't understand what a university *is*.

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Jon Pike @runthinkwrite

3 days ago

Absolutely. @michaelpforan is the real thing, a genuine academic star - and a little controversial. Knowing this, @UniofOxford picked him out. The least they can do is ensure his lectures are not disrupted.

Akua Reindorf KC @akuareindorf

3 days ago

Yes sure, that's why he was quoted by the Supreme Court in one of their most significant judgments of the century and then got a job at Oxford as an Associate Professor at the age of 31.

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Paul Mason @paulmasonnews

3 days ago

There's a really easy way for students to avoid hearing stuff they don't like: don't go to the lectures. And a way to prevent disruption of academic freedom: kick the perpetrators off campus 👇🏽

Michael Foran @michaelpforan

4 days ago

Due to escalating disruptive protests, I have decided to cancel the remainder of these lectures. This is deeply lamentable, but the disruption has undermined the academic nature of this series. Students shouldn't face bullying or harassment when attending academic events.

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Jon Pike @runthinkwrite

3 days ago

This is a matter for the Vice chancellor of @UniofOxford Prof Irene Tracey, but also for the Chancellor @WilliamJHague. You were elected on an academic freedom platform: let's see some action, Lord Hague.