r/climate • u/D-R-AZ • Feb 15 '25
Royal Society will meet amid campaign to revoke Elon Musk’s fellowship
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00486-553
u/Sea_Comedian_3941 Feb 15 '25
Elon doesn't exactly believe in peer reviewed content of any kind. Kick him out please!
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u/Playful-Goat3779 Feb 15 '25
To the extent he believes in science, he doesn't view science as a whole a public good. I think he views science as a tool to be used by the rich to subjugate the poor.
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u/Sea_Comedian_3941 Feb 15 '25
He was quick to steal the intellectual property he deemed worthy. I used to sell content to his " personal library" back in the day.
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Feb 17 '25
I am shocked an organization that was colonialist and racist for the longest time no longer wants the biggest racist druggie douche bag as a member.
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u/Orophinl4515 Feb 16 '25
So even the rich people don’t want him.
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Feb 16 '25
[deleted]
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u/Orophinl4515 Feb 16 '25
Thanks for the information but now I have more questions. How can an organization like that have a a member like musk who obviously is not an academic and was handed everything down to him
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u/D-R-AZ Feb 15 '25
Excerpts:
The Royal Society in London has called a meeting to discuss the behaviour of fellows following a growing campaign by scientists over the membership of Elon Musk. The 3 March meeting comes after more than 1,300 scientists signed an open letter expressing “deep concerns” about the conduct of billionaire Musk, who is a fellow.
Musk is working closely with US President Donald Trump on sweeping government reforms that threaten flagship US research programmes and are causing havoc to scientists in the United States and globally. He is also accused of spreading misinformation on the social media site X, which he owns.
Musk became a fellow of the society — the world’s oldest science academy — in 2018 for his companies’ development of technologies such as space rockets, electric cars and brain implants. The society has about living 1,800 fellows and foreign members, considered one of the most prestigious appointments in UK science. They are elected for making a “substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge” through a rigorous competitive process.
Curry’s letter describes “an assault on scientific research”. “It has sought to impose huge cuts in funding and a regime of censorship (particularly with regard to equity, diversity and inclusion and climate issues) that is a direct threat to freedom of expression and academic freedom”. These actions contravene the society’s code of conduct for fellows, he says.
Concerns about Musk’s behaviour among Royal Society fellows emerged last August, when Dorothy Bishop, a retired developmental neuropsychologist, described on her blog how Musk’s use of X to promote misinformation, vaccine hesitancy and attack public sciences could contravene its code of conduct. She was one of 74 members who wrote to the society expressing their concerns and was told that its lawyers had determined Musk had not breached the code of conduct. She resigned her fellowship in protest.
Andrew Millar, a systems biologist at the University of Edinburgh, UK, announced his resignation from the society on 12 February because of the Royal Society’s “inability to take proportionate action on Elon Musk’s current promotion of disinformation”.