New Zealand academic is CANCELLED for opposing plans to teach Maori creation myth in science classes: Now faces expulsion from country's Royal Society

Fury has erupted after academics in New Zealand were threatened with expulsion from the Royal Society for criticising plans that would see Maori knowledge added to the school curriculum.

Current and former professors at the University of Auckland wrote a letter to the editor of the New Zealand Listener criticising a government working group's plans to give the same weight to Maori mythology as they do to science in the classroom.

The letter was signed by seven professors, including Garth Cooper, a professor of biochemistry and clinical biochemistry at the University of Auckland.

Five members of the Royal Society of New Zealand complained about the letter, saying it caused 'untold harm and hurt', prompting the society to launch a formal investigation.

Critics claimed the ongoing investigation was an attack on free speech and that scientists were being punished for defending science.

In the letter, titled 'In Defence of Science, the professors accepted indigenous knowledge should be taught in schools as it is 'critical for the preservation and perpetuation of culture and local practices, and plays key roles in management and policy'.

But they argued it could not be treated on a par with biology, chemistry and physics, adding: ‘In the discovery of empirical, universal truths, it falls far short of what we can define as science itself.’

After the letter was published in July, the Royal Society of New Zealand received complaints from five members demanding disciplinary action against three society fellows: Professor Cooper, philosopher Robert Nola, and psychologist Michael Corballis. Mr Corballis died suddenly last month.

Maori beliefs argue that all living things originated from Tane Mahuta sending his father Ranginui up to the sky and his mother Papatuanuku down to the earth.

Columnist Rod Liddle, writing in today's Sunday Times, called the reaction to the professor's letter 'madness and stupidity'.

He wrote: '(Professor Cooper) signed an open letter suggesting that, while it was important everybody knew about the interesting Maori take on creation, “In the discovery of empirical, universal truths, it falls far short of what we can define as science itself.”

'Yet for once freedom of speech is not the crucial issue for me here. It is instead the burgeoning madness and stupidity, condescension and racism that are propelling us towards the De-Enlightenment.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10301209/New-Zealand-academic-got-CANCELLED-condemned-plan-teach-Maori-beliefs-science-classes.html

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YouTube amps up its censorship

On December 9, YouTube announced that it would begin removing new content posted to its platform that "misleads people by alleging that widespread fraud or errors changed the outcome of the 2020 U.S. Presidential election."

YouTube said that while users were allowed to post whatever they wanted about an undecided election, content claiming fraud or errors intended to influence public opinion regarding a past election would not be allowed. It was a reversal of the companies' earlier stance not to remove election-related videos.

A quarter of U.S. adults get their news from YouTube, according to the Pew Research Center.

The dominant video-posting site's action now went far beyond the two other social media giants—Facebook and Twitter—which had started labeling posts that it judged to be misinformation or disinformation but in general were not removing those kinds of posts. YouTube said its policy would apply only to new videos uploaded after December 9.

https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-supporters-censored-discovered-they-didnt-need-twitter-youtube-1655945

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)

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