Lawrence Krauss is only the latest creep to be exposed in the atheist movement, which has done its best to run out women https://t.co/GheY4NCDTe
— Matthew R Francis (@DrMRFrancis) March 2, 2018
– Physicist and famous atheist Lawrence Krauss was recently accused of sexual harassment by multiple women spanning over a decade. Buzzfeed compiled an expose in late February and the news is still making waves:
– Krauss is well known for his outspoken atheism as part of the 'skeptics' movement, a combination of scientists, humanists, and other activists and professionals that arose in the mid-2000's (primarily drawing from institutions that were male-heavy/centric, so go figure the leadership and results) dedicated to advancing secular science and education.
– One of the women Krauss harassed, Melody Hensley, was just twenty nine years old and ran an Atheist website while volunteering for a non-profit secular group when she met him. She was hoping to build a career in the skeptics movement and Krauss was her idol. He invited her to his hotel room and tried to force himself on her before she got away.
– Krauss insists it was consensual and that they simply decided it wouldn't be appropriate to pursue that avenue any further, but Melody disagrees. “It was definitely predatory. I didn’t want that to happen. It wasn’t consensual.”
– Melody is not alone... Krauss has been accused of groping other women, inviting other women to dinner to prey on them, making misogynistic jokes to students, and "telling an employee at Arizona State University, where he is a tenured professor, that he was going to buy her birth control so she didn’t inconvenience him with maternity leave."
– Krauss has denied all the allegations, citing that people are targetting him for being famous. He called the rpots “false and misleading defamatory allegations.”
– Also, his wife his defending him on twitter, below the cut. It's messy. Beware. (warning: pedophilia defense)
Harassment is not unheard of in the atheist movement. Part of what makes this so devastating is the way predators like Krauss have taken advantage of the community, which Salon reported on:
– Helena Dadabhoy, a blogger and atheist activist, said, "It got rid of the crushing feeling of loneliness I had. When I left Islam, I felt I did an impossible thing." She added that the community led her to meet "former religionists of other religions" and eventually even to connect with other ex-Muslims. "
– Sikivu Hutchinson, founder of the Black Skeptics of Los Angeles, said, "Institutionalized sexual harassment and erasure of the voices and the lived experiences of people of color and women of all ethnicities is something that is absolutely endemic" to the community.
– With the rise of the skeptics movement came what is referred to as "The Great Rift", feminists who wanted to embrace feminism against anti-feminists and people who were afraid feminism would drive away anti-feminists from the movement.
– A massive harassment campaign formed, organized primarily through a forum called Slymepit, targetting anyone who speak up against harassment or for feminism. It can be seen as a precursor to both Gamergate and the alt-right/anti-sjw movement and reactionaries.
– Stephanie Zvan, writer and co-host of Athetists Talk in Minnesota, said, “There were very few people who were willing to stand up for our speech." Men who lead the movement were much more worried about women speaking up than the harassment that followed beforehand.
– Many more details in both reports below.
“We have lost so many opportunities to connect in meaningful ways with this next generation of non-believers," Zvan said, explaining the younger generation that is non-religious affiliated is more racially diverse and gender-balanced. "But it’s not at all what we look like. Not at all. We look like a movement of old white men, because most of the choices we have made were to make the movement more accommodating to old white men."
Lawrence Krauss is a famous atheist and liberal crusader — and, in certain whisper networks, a well-known problem. With women coming forward alleging sexual harassment, will his “skeptic” fanbase believe the evidence?https://t.co/scqunC5hoL
— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) February 23, 2018
part of our story is about how Krauss's star continued to climb, despite the fact that these allegations were sometimes publicly voiced, and despite the fact that two (!) institutions have barred him from their campuses due to sexual harassment complaints https://t.co/Iv1DGWVQ3n
— Azeen Ghorayshi (@azeen) February 22, 2018
And yeah, I’m an atheist. One who always found the organized atheist movement to be evidently religious and white supremacist in nature.
— Chanda Shuri Prescod-Weinstein🙅🏽♀️ 🇧🇧 🙅🏽♀️ (@IBJIYONGI) March 3, 2018
Every time a new atheist tweets to let me know i’ve “lost the plot” and they need to unfollow me, they are replying to a tweet calling out blatant white supremacy.
— Dan Arel (@danarel) March 3, 2018
This is because new atheism has fully evolved into a white supremacist movement.
If you knew about Lawrence Krauss’ behavior and continued to associate with him, work with him, promote him, all while warning some women that they shouldn’t be alone with him, you were complicit in his behavior and helped enable him.
— Dan Arel (@danarel) March 4, 2018
This is Lawrence Krauss's wife calling Jeffrey Epstein having sex with 12 year old girls a "lifestyle." https://t.co/TV0G74Loam
— Yvette (@TheSciBabe) February 27, 2018
Oh my fucking god, I was wrong: IT'S HIS WIFE! Lawrence Krauss's wife started a Twitter account to harass women who pointed out that Krauss harasses women. And she tried to start a hashtag #thankslkrauss. I'm legit dying
— Rebecca “I Demand 280-Character Usernames” Watson (@rebeccawatson) February 24, 2018
Women are coming forward with sexual misconduct accusations against Lawrence Krauss, a famous atheist and public intellectual https://t.co/8QQx6nJW60
— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) February 26, 2018
This is a disingenuous response from @asu on Lawrence Krauss. If there have been no complaints from current students, faculty or staff, it's because the victims have been forced to quit their jobs. #astroSH pic.twitter.com/GnM5e0A47x
— Bryan Gaensler (@SciBry) February 25, 2018
"It's not the whole community, but I'll tell you what, it's a lot of them." This whole show is awesome, but @seriouspod's call-out of the pathetically inadequate response to Krauss from the atheist/skeptical community is must-listen. https://t.co/qCDhtWyNcM
— Steve Shives (@steve_shives) March 1, 2018

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