On August 2, famed atheist biologist Richard Dawkins tweeted,

My Facebook page has been deleted for no apparent reason, and we have not received a response through @meta or @facebook for a resolution. https://t.co/PX40tmn0Ah
Was it something I said?— Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) August 2, 2024

The ban hammer?

Dawkins and a number of others believe that Facebook’s ban hammer fell on his questions about Imane Khalif competing in the women’s division boxing at the 2024 Olympics instead of the men’s division:

Dawkins’s tweet?:

The tweet, captured above as an image, no longer seems to be online (anyway, I can’t find it). But it certainly reflects something that might trigger Facebook’s guardians.

When I checked on August 10, the page Dawkins linked to seems to have been restored. It is still up and the last entry was made on August 12.

Litigation?

I had asked for clarification at his X account and received a return post from A.Friend saying “They reinstated after threats of litigation.”

Whether or not that’s official, it’s certainly plausible. Dawkins is one of the most media-embedded figures associated with science. Shutting down his right to make conventional, widely shared observations would make the future of open discussion at Facebook a little too obvious. Worse, litigation gets people prodding all kinds of bone piles that the corporation would prefer not to prod. Maybe the price of restoring Dawkins’s account was: no further public discussion? Who knows?

Straws in the wind

The controversies around apparent males invading women’s sports are complex but they can be summed up: Historically, women’s sports were developed so that women could compete against each other to be the best they could be. But under pressure, the International Olympic Committee did away with sex tests “in the last century,” enabling persons with one or another rare genetic abnormality to identify as women.

This was a rather important concession, as it turned out. Today, entrants in many sports, Olympic or otherwise, who “identify as” women tend to win handily over women. By contrast, very few people “identify as” men in order to compete against men. Particularly not in, say, sports like boxing — the sport that hosted the greatest amount of controversy at this Olympiad.

Significantly, evolutionary biologists like Dawkins have a hard time taking seriously claims that humans, as primate mammals are not sex binary — and some of them have suffered for it. Colin Wright has been ejected from that field — despite his stalwart support of all things Darwinian — for insisting on a biology-based approach to the question. He has been providing useful commentary on various claims about alleged non-binary individuals at his X account, for example,

BREAKING: Dr. Georges Cazorla, who played a crucial role in developing a rigorous training program to prepare Khelif for the Paris Olympics, confirms claims that Khelif has XY chromosomes and high testosterone.

My latest below https://t.co/NsbnkQozP1— Colin Wright (@SwipeWright) August 11, 2024

Media, including popular science media, are very much on board with doing away with sex testing. Their ecstatic response to the new order is significant. Canada’s government broadcaster, the CBC, attributed lingering doubts to misinformation. Scientific American informed its readers that sex testing is flawed science. At Vox, we can learn that testing “has roots in Nazi Germany. And there is the curious, overwhelming silence of prominent women who claim to be feminists, even as sports titles fall to those who “identify as” women.

Some ask, if it’s wrong to test for sex, why do they still test for drugs? Why weigh athletes? Well, that’s a good question and the answer is probably: The culture warriors haven’t got round to making those things issues yet. When they do, we can pretty much guess what will happen.

No, that smoke in the sky is not your imagination

Stepping back and looking at the big picture, science — when it gets in the way of Woke culture — is beginning to get the same treatment as religion: ignored, mocked, rewritten, and eventually attacked.

Thus the evolutionary biologists may be learning a hard lesson. As Darwinian evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne — who would certainly be Canceled for his widely known sex binary views if he were not emeritus already — offers, “There’s a general debate to be had about these boxers anyway since, last I heard, people were arguing about every aspect of the two is subject to dispute.”

Subject to dispute indeed, if the science is what matters. But see above: The Woke have preemptively ended the discussion.

What’s really interesting is that the Woke-a-lympics also made a point of dumping conventional respect for religion:

The mockery of The Last Supper has been defended in legacy mainstream media, amid pious assurances that it is a misunderstood “message of love.” for which da Vinci’s masterpiece is not even the “inspiration.” That’s their story and they are sticking to it.

Missing the point

Some have groused that Olympiad XXXIII would never have dared insult Islam in the same way. But they are missing the point. It wasn’t fear of Christianity that prevented that sort of display at previous Olympiads; it was good sense and good taste. Those are not Woke values and they are being deconstructed all around us.

At this very same Olympiad, respect for XX vs. XY genetics went visibly into the wastebasket along with respect for the Last Supper. Science is a threat to the ascendant Woke point of view because, like religion, it makes demands of the adherent. Following the evidence is fundamentally the same sort requirement as imitating the lives of the saints.

Some ask rhetorically what the “Woke” point of view is. Ah yes, what is the meaning of is?

For now, how about this: It is the Newspeak approach to reality in which every effort is made to reshape reality in our minds so as to maintain the illusions and the power of a Woke elite and those who enable it. Apart from that, you can learn more about Wokeness through the cries of people getting Canceled who never expected to be. Commonly, those people didn’t understand that things like math and science are no longer valued as they once were, as arbiters of truth. The only arbiter of truth is what the Woke currently want.

No, it won’t blow over soon

Don’t think it will all just blow over soon, as we hear pundits predict. It is now deeply entrenched. I was young in an era when the goal of landing a man on the moon and bringing him back safely was met. Fifty years later, I live in an era where astronauts are stranded at a space station, perhaps indefinitely — with little public attention — and an endless “hot-take” chain of excuses is deemed an appropriate response. That’s where we are, culturally.

One thing’s for sure: Science no longer has a seat at the High Table. I hope readers will think through the implications of that and what it portends for all of us.