Thread by @soychicka

So.

@Joi never bothered to finish his college degree, but he was put in charge of MIT's Media Lab.

I'm sorry, but there should be a few standards for heading a university department:

1) have a degree
2) don't have longstanding relationships with pedophiles

1) Not having a college degree while heading up a college department shows a lack of respect for the education others have worked for.

It shows that you don't think you're subject to the same rules as everyone else.

I mean, SERIOUSLY.

2) Here's the deal:

Anyone who has a relationship with a serial predator either is not perceptive or is tolerant of that behaviour.

After that person is convicted of said behaviour, and you choose to continue to engage with them and to elevate their profile in ANY way,

YOU HELP THEM PERPETUATE THE CYCLE OF ABUSE.

YOU are just as responsible for any abuse that occurs from that point forward as they are.

YOU help it happen.

And when it goes public that said enabler has continued to enable predation, anyone who continues to support them,
- not calling their judgement into question,
- not calling for them to take a leave of absence while things are investigated at MINIMUM

You are building the cultural framework to allow others to continue enabling this abuse.

And please, read this carefully:

Jeffrey Epstein continued to abuse underage girls while Joi Ito took his money.

Jeffrey Epstein continued to recruit women to recruit "girls" for him to abuse while Joi Ito took his money.

Epstein brought one of his recruiters to MIT, WHILE Epstein was on parole.

And after someone was convicted once, and then additional allegations come out that not only did Epstein start trafficking girls as early as the early 1990s...

but he BOUGHT an 11 year old girl that was kidnapped from Connecticut in 1993 when her mother couldn't pay the ransom

And he and his minions were involved in the architecting of the Pizzagate narrative to drive those victims back into the woodwork - applying an understanding of social media dynamics, a key focus of the Media lab -

knowing that has been in the public sphere for 3yrs:

When you sign a letter supporting them going forward, you exhibit the type of unacceptable judgement for any position of power in society

Even if - no - ESPECIALLY IF you don't know the depth of all of the details of their involvement before you sign.

Had you taken the time to make a reasoned judgement on this issue, had you made an effort to look at the publicly available facts with the same rigor you purport to apply to academic pursuits...

you wouldn't have signed that letter.

And that brings your professional judgement into question as well.

Unless you signed the letter as Ito's "friend," which carries a whole NEW slew of issues.

So, now that you know all of this, please take some time away from sharing your opinions on social media - because right now, you don't understand the depth and gravity of your willful blindness and/or eagerness to perpetuate a system where, even if women are believed,

accountability for those enabling their abuse is pushed to the side, because SCIENCE. Because WE NEED PROGRESS.

Because DAMN THE TORPEDOES, FULL STEAM AHEAD and you need that injection of cash to GO GO GO.

Because here is what that letter you signed said:

YOU ARE AN IMPORTANT PERSON, and
victims are NOT important people.

Sure, what happened to you sucks, but WE'RE MOVING ON.
Don't be so negative. PROGRESS!

Because you didn't take the time to fully investigate what your signature meant - how many fancy people permitted Epstein to continue with his 'recreational pursuits' because SCIENTIFIC PHILANTHROPY...

you enabled the perpetuation of that.

And, equally as wrong - there are those of us out here who have vision, but we also have ethics that prevent us from engaging with systems where ignorance can be bought at a price.

Your permissivity ensures we don't get a seat at the table - not because we're unqualified, but because we're unwilling to sit down to dinner with a serial child rapist.

And that exclusion through inclusion of predators is what makes the system GO GO GO!

So, yeah.

You're culpable.

You can't be trusted.
There will not be any sympathy for you in the short term.

You want to keep your seat at the table?
Prove that you understand what you have done.

Not in platitudes or apologies.

Use your brain to formulate first an understanding of the impact of your behaviour - you know how long you knew Epstein was there for: figure out the percentage of culpability you need to own: how many victims were ignored because HE FUNDS SCIENCE

Model the dynamics of the permissivity of sexual abuse and the tolerance thereof in academia, in government, in business -

wherever predators are in power.

What models best reflect the patterns of cultural dynamics and cognition that led you to your behaviour?

More importantly, model what approach(es) will help to eradicate the unhealthy academic culture of sticking by your guy, so we can secure resources to make that change happen

We're going to be undergoing a significant cultural shift in the next few years, where many predators in positions of power - as well as those who abuse their power to protect those predators - will be exposed.

Some may undergo their own personal reckoning with what they have done in advance, come to terms with and publicly acknowledge their role in complicity, like:

thanks to the social capital you extended, predators like Epstein were able to rape a 14yo girl for, say, 7 minutes.

And to those who don't engage in that reckoning proactively?

We'll do it for you.
And you will not be welcome to engage with students in the vaulted halls of academia, nor the marble halls of governance.

We will strip you of your power.
We will strip you of your privilege.

Your expertise will be outweighed by your lack of fitness to treat other human beings with respect and dignity.

Those who have promoted you in the past will know that continuing to do so now will be at a cost to their own position.

As it should be.

And those vacated positions of honor that permit academic pursuits will be filled by those with both

the capacity to exhibit subject matter expertise, AND

the legitimacy to wield the power over others based on the merits of their work, not on androcentric patronage schemes.

The pseudomeritocratic ouroboros perpetuating predatory behaviour through ideological and pseudointellectual onanism is about to forcibly be sliced through its pale, exposed, gluttonously distended belly.

IOW: we're breaking up your academic circle jerk, and your positions will be given to those who didn't get a chance when you were busy fapping off with sexual predators.

To those who can be trusted by ALL students and citizens to honor the principle of "first, do no harm."

And some may feel obligated, I guess, to continue fellating your disgraced heroes - but this is the generation that will learn to keep pedophile and other predators' dicks out of our collective orifices.

And bank accounts.

You can have that, or you can have respect.
Choose.

But in the meantime, until you've decided?

Shut up.

Stay off social media. Sorry, but the value of your 'expertise' right about now is nil.

It only serves to show that you're going on about your business as usual, while your judgement has been shown to be shite.

Sit down tomorrow, and think deep thoughts.

Write out what you knew and when. Who lied to you, and what you overlooked. How much financial/promotional support you secured through Epstein, knowingly or unknowingly...

Make the same queries of those you've collaborated with.

It's time for a reckoning.

So please, get to it.