@MsMelChen
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VP @strategyrisks | Board + co-founder @IdeasB2 | Board @envprogress | 🇸🇬 🇺🇸 🇬🇧 | ✍️ The Spectator & elsewhere | Email: [email protected]
London, England
Joined April 2010
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One day, I hope @MrWinMarshall will no longer be defined by or asked about his cancelation from his band;
and that the experience of leaving something he loved so much in order to be free, would be the least interesting thing about him.
Until that day.. 👇
Nothing says “I have my cake and I’m eating it too” quite like detonating a functional marriage, upending your kids’ lives, and entering the post-35 dating market on the advice of multi-millionaire podcast hosts and actresses who face zero consequences for the toxic bile they spout.
There is a special place in hell for the women who get obscenely rich telling other women the most catastrophically self-destructive advice imaginable under the guise of female empowerment.
Imagine, for a moment, that all major newspaper and broadcast outlets refrained from euphemisms and selective framing in their coverage of urban disorder.
Imagine if they refused to gatekeep certain causal patterns outside the Overton window of respectable discussion.
Just imagine what the political consequences would be if they'd stop the mass gaslighting for once.
What's standing between you and paradise is the traitorous media class. That a growing minority of people have been able to see past it is largely thanks to @X and the rise of independent and startup media
The mainstream media are fuming. Marine Le Pen, head of France’s most popular party, National Rally, is exploiting the French riots for her political advantage, the media grouse. Le Pen and her right-hand man, Jordan Bardella, portray the riots as the confirmation of everything they have been warning about for years, especially regarding Third World immigration. This is a ruse, complains the press and its establishment sources, a mere rhetorical trick.
A front-page article in today’s New York Times quotes a political scientist at Paris’s Sciences Po: “The picture of France emerging this morning, in light of all the destruction, plays well into their hands.”
The Wall Street Journal sounds the same note today: “The social instability over the weekend absolutely plays into Le Pen’s campaign that the establishment has delivered chaos,” said Mujtaba Rahman, from the risk analysis firm Eurasia Group.
Even the papers’ headlines echo each other: “France’s Far Right Seizes the Moment as Rioting Stuns the Country” (New York Times); “Marine Le Pen Seizes on French Chaos to Present Herself as Leader in Waiting” (Wall Street Journal).
It is necessary to deconstruct these far-right narratives; thankfully, the press is there to help us. The violence “perfectly aligned with the image the National Rally has long painted of a France divided into two and battling for survival,” a political science professor at the University of Nice, Côte d’Azur told the New York Times.
The Wall Street Journal writes that the “far-right” Le Pen has “cast” France as a nation adrift, “buffeted by waves of immigration and lawlessness that have torn at the country’s social fabric.”
It is mere coincidence that that image of a divided, degraded France constructed by the National Rally and the violence on the streets seem to align. That alignment does not mean that the National Rally was right, just that its demagogy was opportune.
But the waves of hate-filled destruction crashing over France’s once great cities validate Le Pen and Bardella’s diagnosis of France’s demographic catastrophe, not as narrative but as empirical fact. The Wall Street Journal again tries to dismiss Le Pen’s prognostications as a rhetorical maneuver: “Le Pen’s anti-immigration stance...gives her another way to frame the unrest. Le Pen has cast the unrest as the work of far-left radicals allied with youths from France’s banlieues, the poor urban outskirts where much of the country’s minority Muslim population resides.” How else would the Journal “cast” the “unrest?” As the work of lavender harvesters from Provence?
The elite effort at euphemism is by now desperate: “The looting drew attention to a segment of the population—specifically young people from certain neighborhoods, some of whom are from immigrant backgrounds,” pollster Adélaïde Zulfikarpasic told the Journal. “And that hits the themes at the heart of National Rally’s rhetoric.”
A conversation on German public media station ZDF yesterday between the ever-pinched and purse-lipped anchor Marietta Slomka and a French academic in Bonn referred delicately to the “decades-long problem” of poverty, concentration, and “integration” in the Plattenbauten (the concrete slab housing projects) around Paris. The problem is not “integration,” which suggests a failing in the host country, however, it is large-scale Third World immigration, which has turned many of these projects into no-go zones. And now that local anarchy is spreading.
If naming a deliberate attack on Western civilization by those who feel only resentment and envy earns one the title of far-right extremist or racist, so be it. The mayhem in France is not rhetoric, it is reality. And the National Rally’s law enforcement and deportation proposals are precisely what France and the rest of Europe need today.
There's a large Vietnamese community in France 🇫🇷. Vietnam was a French colony that was ruled more directly and for longer than Algeria in many respects.
Vietnamese kids top the French education rankings, have some of the lowest unemployment of any immigrant group, and somehow managed not to set Paris on fire.
Weird how some use “colonial trauma” as a reason to succeed and others treat it as a reason to riot
American-Egyptian activist Eman Mabrouk celebrates the riots in France: ''I think burn it all down, stop sucking European Master's dicks, liberation isn't going to be pretty, it's going to cost blood, it's going to cost lives.''
Really cool how this third world bio-weapon somehow gets a piece of paper calling her American even as she agitates for race war against white people. 70,000 Instagram likes!
Also really fucking cool that so-called ''Australian'' citizen Dr. Mo Mustafa - widely known as the "Beast from the Middle East'' - collaborated with her on this Instagram reel. He calls himself an Australian for the benefits of the passport while endorsing videos like this which call for explicit race war against Europeans.
Western immigration policy has been a catastrophe for decades, how the fuck did these people get passports when they hate us this much.
Relevant post about postcolonialism and why it's cynical nonsense:
xitter.cf/MsMelChen/status/19787…
Can somebody name me a country whose leaders have touted postcolonial theory and rhetoric in its nascent state, that is actually successful today?
The lessons for Gaza are in history: every attempt at grounding your founding ethos in grievance never works out.
As the European powers withdrew from their colonies in the early part of the 20th century, those leaders in Africa and South Asia that drew heavily on postcolonial theory to critique colonial legacies in order to usurp power and shape their national identities and policies, were not as successful as those who didn't.
Why were the Four Asian Tigers (Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and South Korea) so successful in achieving high levels of development and economic growth?
It's because they all prioritized the economy over other social issues. Two of them - HK and Singapore - did not shit all over their colonial legacy and instead, built on it.
When Deng Xiaopeng decided to pivot and bring China into modernity, he focused on market reforms and an overall drive to develop its export economy and rapid industrialization. It's only now that you hear murmurings of stirring up ghosts of the Opium War and "Western humiliation."
By contrast, social and economic issues were always on the forefront in India and deployed cynically for power grabs, and so developmentally, it lagged behind.
Take it from Lee Kuan Yew on the British:
"the British left institutions behind them, including in Singapore. We had the rule of law, we had statutes, we had the English language and we were wise enough not to change any of that. They have helped us to grow. Their institutions were already working. What I did was to make sure that we did not subvert the institutions but reinforced them."
The playbook is so transparent and it's been tried and tested. Postcolonial theory is a CANCER for the well-being and prosperity of the truly marginalized people. It retards development in so many ways, including and most importantly, in hacking the collective psyche.
In the 1950s and early 1960s, when Singapore was still a young and vulnerable state, Lee Kuan Yew faced a serious communist threat.
“United front” organizations had infiltrated trade unions, student groups, cultural associations, and political parties. Their methods were classically Leninist - they worked inside legal institutions, exploited both real and manufactured grievances, posed as democrats in public while recruiting quietly in private, and steadily eroded institutions in order to seize power and impose a totalitarian system.
Lee dealt with the communist threat by detaining suspected communists and their united front leaders without trial under the Internal Security Act and publicly exposed their subversive tactics; he secured merger with anti-communist Malaya to place internal security under stronger control (which further centralized power).
This is relevant to what's happening today in the West where you have open democratic systems, free association, free speech, and grievance politics which creates the perfect ecosystem for a disciplined united front operation to thrive.
This is what @AsraNomani has found - networks of socialist, communist, Trotskyist, and anti-capitalist organizations coordinating protests across Europe, amplified by external actors with ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
They don't identify loudly as communists. Instead, they embed in unions, student groups, NGOs, media, and political parties; they amplify grievances such as public spending, austerity, climate, Israel, while directing them toward systemic overthrow; and they use the host society’s own rules and institutions against it until the balance of power shifts.
Lee Kuan Yew argued that once the organizational capacity and ideological resolve exist, soft societies that treat every riot as purely organic or as an earnest and sincere expression of political will, will be in for a rude awakening.
This is the map of the organized communist subversion and it's probably just the tip of the iceberg:
HOT OFF THE PRESSES. CHAOS INC. is growing. Who is behind the protests in France and Europe?
I was just on @FoxBusiness to talk to the amazing @dagenmcdowell about the findings of my new reporting at @FoxNews Digital:
🔴🟢 101 organizations in the "red-green" alliance across 9 counties are fomenting and amplifying the protests in France and Europe (up from 54 orgs yesterday)
🔴🟢 Only 1 in 3 student or youth; the rest are adults
🔴🟢 They plan “Acte II” on Saturday OCTOBER 24 with protests across France
🔴🟢 The protests are being amplified by the network in the US funded by Neville Roy Singham, the American communist tycoon living in Shanghai supporting the Chinese Communist Party.
READ HERE:
foxnews.com/world/global-cha…
For this reporting, I name names so that the myth of "student protests" can be pierced. Let me know of any organizations that I missed. Of course, I will reveal any ties, if any, of these organizations to governments from Russia to the Islamic Republic of Iran and China -- wherever the reporting takes us.
WHO'S WHO IN THE EXPANDING GLOBAL 'CHAOS INC.' NETWORK (101)
ACTE II, OCT. 24 – NEW (14)
🔴 Coordination régionale Bloquons tout Île-de-France — Île-de-France Regional "Block Everything" Coordination – PROTEST COORDINATION: Regional "Block Everything" organization behind the platform promoting "Acte II."
🔴 Peuple RÉVOLTÉ – People in Revolt — PROTEST COLLECTIVE: Organization helping operate the "Acte II" platform.
🔴 Maintenant! – Now! — PROTEST MOVEMENT: Civic movement participating in the "Acte II" platform.
🔴 Indignons-nous, Bloquons tout – Let’s Get Indignant, Block Everything — DIRECT ACTION: Protest collective promoting "Acte II."
🔴 Coordination nationale lycéenne – National High School Students’ Coordination — STUDENT/YOUTH: New national high-school coordination calling students into the streets Oct. 24 for "Acte II."
Angoulême, France
🔴 NPA Charente – New Anticapitalist Party–Charente (NPA 16) — REVOLUTIONARY SOCIALIST: Local NPA chapter mobilizing for Acte II.
🔴 Action Antifasciste 16 — ANTIFASCIST: Collaborator on the Angoulême Acte II announcement.
🔴 Maison des Peuples et de la Paix – House of Peoples and Peace — ACTIVIST: Angoulême organization collaborating on the Acte II call.
🔴 Fanfare en lutte d'Angoulême – Angoulême Marching Band in Struggle — ACTIVIST: Local activist collective collaborating on Acte II.
🔴 Révolution Permanente Angoulême — Permanent Revolution–Angoulême – REVOLUTIONARY SOCIALIST: Local chapter of Révolution Permanente, collaborating on the Oct. 24 mobilization.
🔴 Organisation de Solidarité Trans (OST) Angoulême — Trans Solidarity Organization–Angoulême – ACTIVIST / SOLIDARITY: Local organization listed as an Acte II collaborator.
Caen, France
🔴 Caen Antifa Squad — ANTIFASCIST: Collaborator on an "ACTE II — 24 OCTOBRE" announcement.
🔴 Caen en Lutte — Caen in Struggle – PROTEST COLLECTIVE: Local organization collaborating on Acte II.
🔴 Solidarité Étudiante 14 — Student Solidarity 14 – STUDENT: Calvados student organization collaborating on the Oct. 24 mobilization.
NOV. 20 INTERNATIONAL NETWORK
Belgium (3)
🔴 Comac — MARXIST/SOCIALIST YOUTH: Belgian youth organization associated with the Workers' Party.
🔴 RedFox — SOCIALIST YOUTH: Belgian socialist youth organization.
🔴 Vrede — ANTI-WAR: Belgian organization publishing and promoting the International Youth Strike manifesto.
France (1)
🔴 Mouvement National Lycéen — STUDENT/YOUTH: French high-school organization identified in the European Nov. 20 coalition.
Germany (6)
🔴 Schulstreik gegen Wehrpflicht — STUDENT/"ANTI-CONSCRIPTION": German school-strike network mobilizing for Nov. 20.
🔴 Die Falken — SOCIALIST YOUTH: German socialist youth organization involved in the international organizing process.
🔴 Linksjugend ['solid] — SOCIALIST YOUTH: Youth organization associated with Die Linke.
🔴 DIE LINKE.SDS — SOCIALIST STUDENT: German socialist university organization.
🔴 Socialist German Workers Youth, (SDAJ) — COMMUNIST YOUTH: Socialist German Workers Youth.
Sozialistische Organisation Solidarität — SOCIALIST: German socialist organization mobilizing around Nov. 20.
Ireland (1)
🔴 Militant Left — SOCIALIST: Irish socialist organization promoting the international mobilization.
Italy (4)
🔴 Rete della Conoscenza — LEFT-WING STUDENT: Italian student network helping build the international strike.
🔴 Unione degli Studenti — STUDENT: Italian high-school student organization promoting Nov. 20.
🔴 Coordinamento Universitario — STUDENT: Italian university network promoting the strike.
🔴 CGIL — LABOR: Italian labor confederation whose Nov. 20 general strike converges with the student mobilization.
Spain (1)
🔴 Sindicato de Estudiantes — SOCIALIST STUDENT: Spanish student organization identified in the international network.
United Kingdom (9)
🔴 Counterfire — REVOLUTIONARY SOCIALIST / ANTI-WAR: Promoting the Nov. 20 international strike.
🔴 Left Unity — SOCIALIST: Promoting the wider European mobilization.
🔴 International Youth Strike — INTERNATIONAL YOUTH / ANTI-CAPITALIST COALITION: The coordinating coalition behind the Nov. 20 strike says student and youth organizations across Europe are organizing demonstrations, walkouts, assemblies, blockades and occupations. Its manifesto says exploitation, climate breakdown and war are the "essence of capitalism," calls NATO an instrument of "imperial interests" that "should be dissolved," and demands "radical system change."
🔴 North West Pensioners Association — ACTIVIST: Organizational supporter of the Nov. 20 actions.
🔴 Socialist Party — TROTSKYIST: Socialist party promoting the international strike.
🔴 Socialist Students — SOCIALIST STUDENT: British organizer advocating a "socialist future."
🔴 Stop the War Coalition — ANTI-WAR: Promoting Nov. 20 student mobilization.
🔴 Universities and Colleges Union @ucunion — The largest trade union and professional association for academics, lecturers, trainers, researchers & academic-related staff in UK "Further Education" and "Higher Education."
🔴 Young Greens — YOUTH / GREEN: British youth organization identified among supporters.
Amplifiers (8)
🔴 CODEPINK — U.S. ANTI-WAR / ACTIVIST ORGANIZATION: The U.S. organization has explicitly connected the French protests to its own planned Washington mobilization. "From France to the United States, the message is clear," CODEPINK said, before promoting its Nov. 10-12 "Taxpayer Uprising" demanding that federal spending go toward education, healthcare and housing rather than the military.
🔴 Committee for a Workers' International (CWI) — TROTSKYIST / SOCIALIST: An international socialist organization whose national affiliates include Britain's Socialist Party and Ireland's Militant Left. Its international website is promoting the Nov. 20 youth walkout under the campaign slogan "Fight for our future not their wars."
🔴 International Socialist Alternative (ISA) — REVOLUTIONARY SOCIALIST: The international socialist organization says "Capitalism means war" and that it "wholeheartedly" supports the Nov. 20 strike. ISA says its members have helped organize Germany's anti-conscription school strikes and describes imperialism as the "highest stage of capitalism."
🔴 Party for Socialism and Liberation–Houston — MARXIST-LENINIST / U.S. CHAPTER: The Houston chapter of the U.S. Party for Socialism and Liberation is amplifying the French protest movement.
🔴 Progressive International — TRANSNATIONAL LEFT NETWORK: The international organization explicitly grouped the current protests in France, Spain, India and Albania in an Oct. 16 briefing and asked how the "new rebellions" could acquire organized political power. Most significantly, it said: "These are the forces that the Progressive International is working to support and connect."
🔴 Stop ReArm Europe — ANTI-WAR / ANTI-MILITARIZATION COALITION: A European coalition calling for demonstrations and actions around Nov. 20 under the slogan "Welfare, not Warfare." It says it supports students "refusing" militarization and calls on social movements, unions, civil-society groups, political organizations and parliamentarians to mobilize around the student strike.
🔴 teleSUR English — INTERNATIONAL MEDIA AMPLIFIER: The international media outlet amplified the French demonstrations with Oct. 17 coverage of clashes, fires and arrests in Paris, Lyon and other cities. This is evidence of international amplification.
🔴 World BEYOND War — INTERNATIONAL ANTI-WAR: A global organization that describes itself as a movement to "end war" and says it is part of the Stop ReArm Europe campaign. It is explicitly promoting the Nov. 20 International Youth Strike and urging supporters to "join this resistance."
FRANCE — ORIGINAL NETWORK (54)
🔴 Organisation communiste révolutionnaire — REVOLUTIONARY COMMUNIST: Communist organization involved in protests.
🔴 Parti communiste français — COMMUNIST: French Communist Party whose leaders and activists joined the demonstrations.
🔴 Parti des Indigènes de la République — DECOLONIAL: Political organization that defends the student revolt.
🔴 Parti de l'égalité socialiste — TROTSKYIST: Socialist organization advocating workers' action committees.
🔴 Revolutionary Communist Group — COMMUNIST: British organization that connects the French protests to capitalism, imperialism and Palestine.
🔴 Révolution Permanente — TROTSKYIST: Revolutionary socialist organization promoting student-worker mobilization.
🔴 World Socialist Web Site — TROTSKYIST MEDIA: Socialist outlet framing the French protests around capitalism, austerity and militarization.
Palestine-solidarity organizations
🔴 Union juive française pour la paix — PALESTINE SOLIDARITY: French Jewish organization that publicizes support for the protesting students.
🔴 Urgence Palestine — PALESTINE SOLIDARITY: French Palestine organization that amplified protest-related material.
Labor and professional organizations
🔴 CGT Éduc'action — LABOR: CGT's education-sector organization.
🔴 CFDT Éducation Formation Recherche Publiques — LABOR: Education and research union supporting the student movement.
🔴 CGT — LABOR: Major French labor confederation involved in the October mobilizations.
🔴 CNT — ANARCHO-SYNDICALIST: Revolutionary-syndicalist union that declared students were "right to revolt."
🔴 Confédération paysanne — FARMERS' UNION: Called agricultural workers into the Oct. 17 mobilization.
🔴 FSU — LABOR: Education and public-sector union federation.
🔴 FNEC FP-FO — LABOR: Force Ouvrière's education federation.
🔴 Force Ouvrière — LABOR: National labor confederation.
🔴 SUD éducation — LABOR: Left-wing education union.
🔴 SNES-FSU — LABOR: Secondary-school personnel union.
🔴 Union syndicale Solidaires — LABOR: Left-wing labor federation.
🔴 UNSA — LABOR: National autonomous trade-union federation.
Advocacy, environmental and protest organizations
🔴 Amnesty International France — HUMAN RIGHTS: Reported on police treatment of minors during the demonstrations.
🔴 ATTAC France — ECONOMIC JUSTICE: Connected the mobilization to austerity and economic policy.
Coordination nationale du mouvement du 26 septembre — PROTEST NETWORK: Mobilization network that encouraged participation in Oct. 17.
🔴 Extinction Rebellion — ENVIRONMENTAL: Environmental direct-action movement appearing in the protest ecosystem.
🔴 FCPE — PARENTS: National parents' federation that called members to demonstrate.
🔴 Gilets jaunes — Yellow Vests: Decentralized protest movement whose Oct. 17 mobilization converged with the students.
🔴 Intersyndicale nationale VTC — PROFESSIONAL / LABOR: Private-hire drivers' coalition promoting participation.
🔴 Les Soulèvements de la Terre — RADICAL ENVIRONMENTAL: Movement that celebrated the student revolt and called for antifascist mobilization.
🔴 Ligue des droits de l'Homme — HUMAN RIGHTS: Supported students and criticized police repression.
🔴 Movement Against Racism and for Friendship Between Peoples (MRAP) — ANTIRACIST: Antiracism organization involved in the wider coalition.
🔴 SOS Racisme — ANTIRACIST: Antiracism organization involved in supporting the movement.
International amplifiers
🔴 BreakThrough News — SINGHAM NETWORK / MEDIA: New York-based nonprofit amplifying the French protests internationally.
🔴 Indian Alliance Paris — INTERNATIONAL / DIASPORA: France-based organization connecting French and Indian protest messaging. Partnered with the People's Forum in Manhattan.
"It's not fair that those who work 15 hours a day and save like crazy become (too) rich, while I just do nothing and live off welfare. How’s that fair?”
It is incredibly devastating to the psyche when the cancel mob comes for you
In your darkest hour, the true heroes and villains in your life will emerge with clarity. The villains will outnumber the heroes, overwhelmingly, and you will despair.
At times you will feel as though that knowledge was purchased by the loss of illusions that you’d rather have kept, but in time, those departures reveal themselves as a kind of necessary clearing. You can rebuild a new life and it may not be as glamorous, but it will be pure of heart.
After you are abandoned by a trusted institution and publicly shamed, the headlines and mobs eventually fade. What you are left with is isolation.
People who claimed to be your friends abandon you. Very few will say anything positive about you. People generally pretend you are dead. Others dismiss or worse take credit for your work and try to write you out of history. Vultures swoop in from every direction.
This is what happens when fourth-rate administrators make decisions affecting people’s livelihoods without concern for what they are doing to their lives. These are scientists who were among the best in the world at what they did. They passed up careers in pharma, finance, tech and administration that could have paid them vastly more for their skills.
When I was younger, people in my programs who gave up on science early went on to make fortunes on Wall Street, in biotech, and in Silicon Valley. Those who stayed pursued their passion for the love of it at the cost of millions of dollars.
When an administrator steps in and dismantles that life’s work, far more than a job is erased. Laboratories take years to build, and scientific problems take years to develop and eventually solve. Experiments, research materials, collaborations, and accumulated expertise cannot simply be restarted somewhere else. The field keeps moving while your work is stopped. The time lost is also the time lost that could have been spent making money - that part a court will never be able to figure out because juries are ordinary people not dedicated scientists.
Then comes the gaslighting. People assume it must have been your fault because an institution like MIT or Duke is supposedly so trustworthy and meritorious that it would never do this to someone who was not guilty. Institutional prestige is a substitute for examining the evidence.
I recently attended a meeting on academic freedome at MIT where Dorian Abbot’s name kept coming up as their fallen hero. They cited a cancelled lecture of his at MIT as their rallying cray. It was treated as an institutional catastrophe. It was insane. David was an afterthought among people supposedly concerned about the climate at MIT and self-appointed to change the culture there.
They simply believed MIT’s PR messaging that they have always been focused on merit despite some small missteps like the canceling of a controversial lecture. I had to point out repeatedly that MIT is not the MIT they attended 30–50 years ago. The priorities reflected in its newer hires and leadership have moved far from the scientific excellence they associate with it.
Videos from Paris are radicalizing libs who experienced the BLM riots in cities like LA
“If leaders of the Democratic Party can’t come out and draw a very clean line between right and wrong, I’m out”
Melissa Chen retweeted
France did its best to prevent the riots, say the media. But it dramatically underestimated the number of protesters and failed to send out enough officers and armored vehicles. Behind all those specific failures was, as in the US, the anti-civilization Left's war on the police.
The case of Professor David Sabatini stands as one of the most egregious examples of woke institutional excess, and its fallout extended far beyond the destruction of a single career.
At the Whitehead Institute at MIT, he ran a roughly 40-person lab conducting important work in molecular biology and cell signaling. That research was abruptly terminated, costing numerous students and trainees their ongoing projects and career momentum and resulting in an untold loss of medically significant knowledge - knowledge that had been funded by the public’s taxpayer dollars.
All of that was abruptly canceled when a false accusation of sexual impropriety was taken up by MIT's DEI-infected bureaucracy and a director who was on a feminist crusade to purge a leading scientist for what appears to be the crime of being a white male.
The court found that the relationship was consensual and the accusations that destroyed his career came only after he ended it and moved on romantically - buyer's remorse, in other words.
After five years of litigation, discovery and trial, a Boston jury has just awarded Professor David Sabatini $6 million in his defamation case against Kristin Knouse, finding that she defamed him and interfered with his career. The jury also rejected her counterclaims of coercion, harassment, and a hostile work environment.
But all of this is just the first step. Many people who were involved need to be held accountable. The institutions must make this right.
MIT, Whitehead, and HHMI still have questions to answer about their own handling. Investigations must look into the director of Whitehead who perpetrated this witch hunt. @NIH and @NSF should now act on the jury’s findings. Restore @DMSabatini's eligibility for federal grants. The institutional investigations that led to his removal and the later debarment effort were based on claims that a jury has now rejected as defamatory. There is no more reason to treat him as radioactive.
And last but not least, bless you, @BillAckman. When almost no one in science, academia, or media would touch this case, you acted and supported him, funding his new lab so that his important work on mTOR could continue. Thank you and Dafna at NYU for standing up publicly for due process when it was so costly. I knew many of his students and colleagues who could not speak out in support of him out of fear of retribution and professional ruin. Prof. Sabatini has said that you saved his life. It is not a hyperbolic statement.
Also, for every one of him, there are other men whose lives have been ruined this way. For things to change, high costs on the accuser must be imposed.
cc @DrJBhattacharya @regardthefrost
Dear President Kornbluth and Chairman Gorenberg,
Yesterday, as I am sure you are aware, a Boston jury unanimously found that @MIT professor Kristin Knouse defamed David Sabatini, falsely accused him of rape and sexual harassment, and tortuously interfered with his contractual arrangements including his tenure at MIT.
MIT and its tenure review committee relied on Professor Knouse’s statements when it took away David’s tenure and terminated him.
MIT's policies explicitly prohibit harassment, retaliation, and fabrication of claims. Falsely accusing a colleague of rape and sexual harassment and pushing for his termination under false pretenses are clearly violations of MIT policy.
In light of the unanimous findings of the jury after five years of discovery, many legal motions and countermotions by both parties, and a three-week trial in Suffolk County Superior Court in Boston:
Is MIT going to take away Knouse’s tenure and terminate her?
If not, why not?
Is MIT going to restore David’s tenure, and apologize for firing him?
If not, why not?
In light of what has transpired in this grave miscarriage of justice, MIT has the opportunity and the obligation to right a serious wrong here.
At a minimum, the public deserves transparency into what actions MIT is taking in this case as taxpayers are major funders of MIT.
Sincerely,
Bill Ackman
@SnoozyWeiss was the first to write about his case for The Free Press before the Boston Globe's Spotlight team took it on
Here's her latest:
thefp.com/p/david-sabatini-l…
Here's the NY Post's (no paywall) coverage:
nypost.com/2026/10/18/us-new…
They told us it was just conscientious students who wanted more funding for education and smaller class sizes.
But what are the odds that there was not a single Asian face in these ‘better schools’ protests?
Zero.
How dare the Right *checks notes* notice things plainly, identify patterns, and use deductive reasoning
Aline started working at age 12.
Over the next three decades she built La Barrique, a restaurant in Paris’s 10th arrondissement, from scratch. She cooked, served, and became part of the neighborhood.
On October 17, rioters broke in, destroyed the place, punched her in the face, and set the building on fire.
By morning her restaurant was ashes. 34 years of work, vaporized in a single night.
Obviously, Aline is an immigrant, one who went to work every day, contributed to the economy and served her community.
One of liberalism's fatal flaws is the fear of drawing distinctions. Distinctions between men and women. Distinctions between cultures. Distinctions between countries.
Because apparently noticing any differences means that you are violating your commitment to equality; it means that you are discriminating, and in the hierarchy of evils in the liberal world, there is no worse sin.
This is literally baked in to the French national motto:
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
Égalité means equality, specifically social or political equality.
Which means that drawing any distinctions is the same as discrimination.
But this is completely untethered from reality because these distinctions are REAL. And if you craft and enact policies that ignore these distinctions, the chickens (ok since this is France, the Gallic rooster) will come home to roost.
