MORE  ON  BIGOTRY  FROM  ABiasedView

More from ABiasedView including a challenge from Red Porphyry referring back to how the issue of bigotry began with attacks by listees on John Fagan's spiritual philosophy.

Red writes:  "As to the issue of religious bigotry, it is a well-known fact in the U.S. that the current head of the public effort to sequence the human genome, Dr. Francis Collins, is a "born-again" fundamentalist Protestant given to both "speaking in tongues" and the holding of a firm belief in miracles (the suspension of natural physical laws by a supernatural being).

"Such beliefs are as inconsistent and incompatible with Western science as Dr. Fagan's belief in the possibility of levitation through Transcendental Meditation.  Dr. Collins, however, is not publicly ridiculed for his "interesting" religious ideas.  No attempt is made to conjure in the mind an image of Collins sweating perfusely in a seersucker suit, waving a black-leather-covered Bible around (and
periodically banging it sharply with his hand) while "speaking in (truly unintelligible) tongues" (laba-luba--laba-laba-luba) in order to miraculously cure people of a myriad of diseases "in the name of JEEESUS".

"On the contrary, in the U.S. he is considered to be a towering intellect in the field of human genetics. That may indeed be true, yet with respect to religion, sauce for the goose should be sauce for the gander, no?"

As Jo Cummins commented previously, "Prof. John Fagan was an outstanding chemistry student at the University of Washington (I taught biology and genetics at that University at that time and was awe struck by his ability). He later was an outstanding graduate student at Cornell  and a leading cancer researcher at The National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. His religion and personal philosophy should not be an issue, indeed, the Ag Bio View report was simply hate literature."

Gordon Couger - the guy who claimed Greenpeace had murdered a sailor, it turns out, runs a food business in Mississippi. It makes granola bars and energy bars with soybeans.  He got prominently into the biotech debate by saying GMOs were safe, his clients did not care, and  all
opposition was bullsh*t.  His quotes got picked up widely, including in the NY Times; consumer activists targeted him; stores like Whole Foods started to drop his product line, and about 6 weeks after his first public statement, he announced his company was going GM-free, even though there was no reason!  A bitter man to judge by this:

from Prakash's AgBioView:

Subj: Greenpeace
From: "Gordon Couger" <gcouger@couger.com>

I challenge Lord Melchett to come to southwest Oklahoma and protect us from the evils of genetically modified crops.

I think he would have to be held without bail to protect his life. And he would not get a free pass from the courts. I also think the DA, Judge court clerk and bailiff all have vacations scheduled so it would be some time early next summer before a trial could be scheduled.

Why does he always protect places near the city where he has a lot of supporters?

Gordon
Gordon Couger gcouger@couger.com
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Subj: Re: Are Pro-Biotech Scientists Bigots?
From: Red Porphyry <porphyry@vnet.net>

Malcolm,

While the exclamations of some anti-GM activists that "all pro-biotech scientists are racists and bigots" certainly paints the situation with too broad a brushstroke, there is little doubt that AGBIOVIEW criticisms of the scientific competence of the staff of Genetic ID and particularly
its founder, Dr. John Fagan, *did*, in fact, amount to little more than character assassination and religious bigotry.  Dr. Fagan was repeatedly described on AGBIOVIEW in such a manner as to conjure in the mind the image of Fagan wearing saffron-colored robes, surrounded by clouds of
incense while muttering ancient Sanskrit phrases designed to levitate him several feet above the ground. In other words, an insane religious fanatic incapable of scientific competency.

Regarding the issue of scientific competency, Genetic ID's analysis of the tortilla shells in question did turn out to be spot on, and the assertion by a Japanese company that Genetic ID's analysis of their product was erroneous turned out to be a red herring, due to a clever switch of product lots (the other testing labs were given a different lot than the one Genetic ID was given). Enuf said.

As to the issue of religious bigotry, it is a well-known fact in the U.S. that the current head of the public effort to sequence the human genome, Dr. Francis Collins, is a "born-again" fundamentalist Protestant given to both "speaking in tongues" and the holding of a firm belief in miracles (the suspension of natural physical laws by a supernatural being). Such beliefs are as inconsistent and incompatible with Western science as Dr. Fagan's belief in the possibility of levitation through Transcendental Meditation. Dr. Collins, however, is not publicly ridiculed for his "interesting" religious ideas. No attempt is made to conjure in the mind an image of Collins sweating perfusely in a seersucker suit, waving a black-leather-covered Bible around (and periodically banging it sharply
with his hand) while "speaking in (truly unintelligible) tongues" (laba-luba--laba-laba-luba) in order to miraculously cure people of a myriad of diseases "in the name of JEEESUS". On the contrary, in the U.S. he is considered to be a towering intellect in the field of human genetics. That may indeed be true, yet with respect to religion, sauce for the goose should be sauce for the gander, no?

As to the issue of racism, U.S. scientists are an integral part of a culture that is still highly  racially-aware, if no longer crudely racist.  Race still very much matters here, though not to the degree it once did.

Therefore, it's no shock (well, no shock for an American, anyway) to believe that pro-biotech scientists, at least in the U.S., are indeed very much "racially aware", while at the same time not "crudely racist".  Anti-GM activists are also "racially aware", in their own way. It's all part of being an American.

Finally, as to anti-GM activists being "on the ropes", we just had an election for President in the U.S. in which the Green Party candidate received almost three million votes and threw the electoral process into (still-ongoing) chaos and possibly into a full-blown Constitutional crisis as a result. In so doing, he also succeeded in fully revealing to the American people the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of both major U.S. political parties. They now function merely as money-generating machines for fueling the naked and ruthless ambition for power of U.S. political candidates'. The actions of both Bush and Gore and their respective political operatives since November 7 bear this out. Anti-GM activists are thus hardly "on the ropes", at least not at this point in time.

Red
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>Subj: Re:Are Pro-Biotech Scientists Bigots?; From: Malcolm Livingstone
<Malcolm.Livingstone@pi.csiro.au>

Well now the anti-GM activists are obviously getting desperate. I can't believe that they are now accusing us of racism and bigotry.