Episode 129: We Must Fight Against Presentism In Our Analysis Of Nazi Dinosaurs

Episode description

Come see us in Arlington, Virginia on October 29th!

https://www.arlingtondrafthouse.com/shows/186960

Culture war drama hits a new low when a podcasting convention issues an apology for letting Ben Shapiro show up and… actually, that’s about it. Then, Jesse Singal regales us with the story of the American Historical Association’s president, James H. Sweet, and how his attack on presentism got him canceled. Thankfully, Katie Herzog intervenes to soothe us with some nice drawings of dinosaurs and – no, nevermind, turns out there’s drama here, too: paleoartist and behavioral geneticist Emily Willoughby has been exposed for sending black elementary schoolers to jail. Somehow.

Intro

Ben Shapiro causes a firestorm by standing, also breathing

Coverage in Reason

https://reason.com/2022/08/25/ben-shapiro-podcast-movement-harm-done-twitter/

Presentism

Sweet’s credentials (Jesse forgot to mention he’s the president of the AHA)

https://history.wisc.edu/people/sweet-james/

His article in question

https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/september-2022/is-history-history-identity-politics-and-teleologies-of-the-present

The AHA’s tweet of the article, which likely kicked things off

Twitter doing what it does best

The Tattooed Prof’s response to Sweet’s piece

https://thetattooedprof.com/2022/08/19/on-presentism-and-history-or-were-doing-this-again-are-we/

The World Socialist Web Site jumps in

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/08/24/ogzj-a24.html

Phil Magness also comes to the defense of Sweet’s essay

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/2022/08/22/the_suicide_of_the_american_historical_association_577652.html

Nazi Dinosaurs

Some paleo art, to cleanse the palate

http://www.charlesrknight.com/Gallery/Knight/Prehistoric/AMNH/Leaping_Laelops.jpg

http://21essays.blogspot.com/2012/03/kongs-debt-to-charles-r-knight.html

Surprise! Not even paleo art is free of drama

https://www.vice.com/en/article/vvb8kj/why-paleontologists-get-riled-up-over-this-heretical-pterosaur-concept-art

Paleo artist Emily Willoughby has some works on Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/Gods-Word-Human-Reason-Perspective/dp/1629016381

https://www.amazon.com/Drawing-Painting-Dinosaurs-Using-Science/dp/1785009559/

She also has some on FurAffinity (SFW, astoundingly)

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/3856285/

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/5274416/

Prehistorica_CM’s attack on Willoughby

Zoologist Derren Nash’s subsequent disavowal of Willoughby

DinoDJ accuses Willougby of promoting eugenics and racism

History illustrator Midiaou Diallo ties Willougby to the foundations of white supremacy

Willoughby’s drawing for Everyone Draw Mohammed Day

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/957957987673186344/1011361260463460432/unknown.png

Midiaou’s response to the piece

Someone digging up an old FurAffinity post of hers

Willoughby’s response to the drama

Eric Turkheimer, prominent progressive behavioral geneticist, comes to Willoughby’s defense

Jerry Coyne, blogging at “Why Evolution Is True”, covers the drama

https://whyevolutionistrue.com/2022/08/17/the-ignorant-and-misguided-demonization-of-a-behavior-geneticist/

Paleoartist Mark Witton has a very important question about Willoughby’s work

PEN America Charlie Hebdo insanityhttps://pen.org/pen-receives-letter-from-members-about-charlie-hebdo-award/

University of Washington trans study comes to bizarre conclusion, unsupported by its own data

https://mynorthwest.com/3602854/rantz-despite-concerning-trans-study-uw-kept-quiet-because-of-positive-coverage/

Jesse’s original article critiquing the study

Image: Tyrannosaurus rex dinosaur - stock illustration via Getty