From COVID-19 to climate change, scientists are facing a flood of hate mail, threats and harassment from conspiracy theorists.
From COVID-19 to climate change, scientists are facing a flood of hate mail, threats and harassment from conspiracy theorists.
Scientists are bearing the brunt of this, but it is very much everyone’s problem. The people being harassed are doing things we urgently need them to do. That includes things like warning us about about immediate dangers, telling us what precautions we need to take, and doing research that could lead to workarounds and solutions to the problems themselves.
We need to speak against this. We need to act against this. And we need to change the system to provide protections and remedies. Otherwise we are all going to suffer.
Speaking does not stop those who are willing to harass and intimidate those who are working to improve our world. They cannot be reasoned with because they are categorically unreasonable.
I will leave what actually DOES work to your imagination. Cowards are cowardly.