Dana Sondergaard attended the debate at UCL yesterday, and she recorded a video of Lawrence Krauss packing up his things and leaving because the gender segregation he’d objected to was still being enforced. It’s a public post on Facebook.
“No!” he says, making the “no” gesture with his hands. “No gender segregation or I’m out of here.”
I don’t understand why Krauss agreed to it in the first place. He’s not a debater. Or does he just suffer from “smart guy syndrome” and think that, because debating is spoken, it’s just like giving a lecture and that therefore he’d do fine? It’s not as if he had any reason to expect he’d be in a battle of facts and science with Tzortsis. It’s more about rhetorical tricks and timing. A self-convinced liar actually has an advantage over an honest person because they’re not bound by facts; the whole deception regarding the staging of the event is illustration enough.
What an egregious display of anachronistic, sexist bigotry. And this in a venerable and supposedly respected place of learning. I initially assumed that it was elsewhere, rather than in 21st century Europe, and was shocked to hear that it was in UCL.
Presumably, these archaically-minded idiots wouldn’t be allowed to get away with any kind of segregation based on skin colour would they? So, why is this sexist nonsense tolerated in a free thinking, liberal society?
Oh yes, I forgot. We’re frightened of offending Islam aren’t we? And we will continue to allow this degrading idiocy as long we pander to dangerous and medieval ideologies.
I read that the seating was still segregated; the bigots who ordered it just rearranged things so it wasn’t blatantly obvious.
What if Mr. Krauss had suggested the following form of segregation: on religious lines with Atheists in front, Jews and Christians in the middle, and Muslims in the back… I can just hear the screams!
Now there’s a good point.
The chap Krauss is sitting next to is named Yusuf Chambers. You can read him here, in conversation with Zakir Naik…
Me, I have a high tolerance for unorthodox opinions. Not comfortable with seeing guys who want people to be flogged and stoned to death for their lifestyles admitted into mainstream discourse unchallenged, though.
Yeah, I’m somewhat surprised that when he decided to stay, he didn’t use his first few minutes of time to do something just like what you suggest and reorganize the audience. “Everyone please stand up. Thank you. Now, sorry to you folks in the first row, I know you booked your tickets early to get a good seat, but could you please move to the side. Okay, great. Now I’d like to invite the women who were required to sit in the back to come down and sit in the front.”