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In 2000, he reportedly made a link between skin color and sex drive during a lecture. "That's why you have Latin lovers," the AP reports Watson is said to have told the lecture hall. "You've never heard of an English lover. Only an English patient."

pandabear wrote:http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/spea ... se-racism/

In 2000, he reportedly made a link between skin color and sex drive during a lecture. "That's why you have Latin lovers," the AP reports Watson is said to have told the lecture hall. "You've never heard of an English lover. Only an English patient."

Can't argue with that.

But, he is almost 90. He should still have a decent pension, at least. Still, were I he, I would sell the medal, too, and enjoy to the fullest what remained of my life. Seek out a few Latin lovers, to help ease the pain of approaching death.

Jester wrote:Yeah its hard to work up any sympathy for this guy.

Lives a subsidized life, coddled by taxpayers

Gadfly wrote:It doesn't matter that his friends and colleagues probably agree with him. If they publicly support him, they will get the same treatment he is getting now.

He has been quoted in The Sunday Telegraph, 1997, as stating: "If you could find the gene which determines sexuality and a woman decides she doesn't want a homosexual child, well, let her."[79] The biologist Richard Dawkins wrote a letter to The Independent claiming that Watson's position was misrepresented by The Sunday Telegraph article, and that Watson would equally consider the possibility of having a heterosexual child to be just as valid as any other reason for abortion, to emphasise that Watson is in favor of allowing choice.[80]

On the issue of obesity, Watson has also been quoted as saying, 2000: "Whenever you interview fat people, you feel bad, because you know you're not going to hire them."[81]

While speaking at a conference in 2000, Watson had suggested a link between skin color and sex drive, hypothesizing that dark-skinned people have stronger libidos.[81][82] His lecture argued that extracts of melanin – which gives skin its color – had been found to boost subjects' sex drive. "That's why you have Latin lovers," he said, according to people who attended the lecture. "You've never heard of an English lover. Only an English Patient."[83]

Watson has repeatedly supported genetic screening and genetic engineering in public lectures and interviews, arguing that stupidity is a disease and the "really stupid" bottom 10% of people should be cured.[84] He has also suggested that beauty could be genetically engineered, saying in 2003, "People say it would be terrible if we made all girls pretty. I think it would be great."[84][85]

Watson has had quite a few disagreements with Craig Venter regarding his use of EST fragments while Venter worked at NIH. Venter went on to found Celera genomics and continued his feud with Watson. Watson was even quoted as calling Venter "Hitler".[86]

On October 25, 2007, Watson was compelled to retire as chancellor of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on New York's Long Island and from its board of directors, after he had been quoted in The Times the previous week as saying " inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa [because] all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours—whereas all the testing says not really." He went on to say that despite the desire that all human beings should be equal, "people who have to deal with black employees find this not true."[50]

In March 2013 Watson, who is partly Irish himself, made offhanded remarks about Irish people, stating that "[the] historic curse of the Irish, which is not alcohol, it's not stupidity. But it's ignorance." [87]

Gadfly wrote:He told the truth, which few people are willing to do these days.

But like most people, he lived too comfortably, and thought he was secure.

It doesn't matter that his friends and colleagues probably agree with him. If they publicly support him, they will get the same treatment he is getting now. We all live in a complex system of lies, and anyone can be crushed like a bug.

pandabear wrote:Still, rather than just labeling him a "racist", people should be able to argue the point with contrary evidence.

Cornfed wrote:

Gadfly wrote:It doesn't matter that his friends and colleagues probably agree with him. If they publicly support him, they will get the same treatment he is getting now.

But it is only their own cowardice that makes it seem that way. It is only because they are almost all cowards who go along with any absurdity put forward by the elite that the few non-cowards can be singled out and persecuted. If most of them were real scientists who stood up for the truth then crap like this would not happen.

Cornfed wrote:

Jester wrote:
Yeah its hard to work up any sympathy for this guy.

Lives a subsidized life, coddled by taxpayers

It is necessary for science to be supported by the govt given that the lag time between scientific discoveries and commercial applications is generally several decades, and there is no rational business case for investing in a project that might pay off years after you are dead. Pretty much all of the major innovations of the last century were initially government funded. Are we to not like their inventors for that reason?

Gadfly wrote:You seem to be more optimistic about people than I am. Unless they're willing to give up their wealth, status, reputation, friends, comfort, security, and even family, probably most "real scientists" are cowards who will choose self-preservation over truth.

MarcosZeitola wrote:It's a shame this man is treated so badly for making a controversial statement, when he did so much to advance science in his field of interest. People have no respect for their elders anymore these days.

...Auctioneer Christie’s said the gold medal, the first Nobel Prize to be sold by a living recipient, could fetch as much as $3.5m (£2.23m) when it is auctioned in New York on Thursday. The reserve price is $2.5m.

Mr Watson told the Financial Times he had become an “unperson” after he “was outed as believing in IQ” in 2007 and said he would like to use money from the sale to buy a David Hockney painting....