The best way I can think of to explain @\\McLNeuro is to compare her to a predatory back-alley abortion provider. Yes, she is a terrible person. But we've gotta remember: she never would have had the opportunity to cause harm if our system weren't so profoundly broken. 1/9

@\\McLNeuro is best understood as a symptom, not a cause—though this absolves her of nothing. Wave after wave of #StemToo victims trusted @\\McLNeuro against their better judgement bc the only other option was to give up hope of getting justice. McLNeuro preyed on desperation. 2/9

The laws against harassment in universities and at federal research agencies have gaping loopholes. To preserve the status quo, those in power pressure us into joining departmental DEI committees with no capacity to fix the professional culture that enables harassment. 3/9

Plus, many of the academics who have positioned themselves as DEI heroes have achieved prominence by restricting themselves to platitudes, by never challenging anyone in power, and / or by proposing strictly philosophical solutions that don't appeal to actual victims. 4/9

And so, as one of the very few PIs on Twitter who spoke out about how utterly broken the system is, BethAnn had an easy time gaining a following. She was a tenure-track white woman who said a lot of the things ECRs usually whisper over DMs. It was validating. 5/9

Simply put: it was the overwhelming cowardice of the professoriate that enabled a lying racist narcissist to derail an incipient activist movement. I warned many people not to trust @\\McLNeuro but it was pointless, because academia created a void for her to fill. 6/9

It seems that all the tenured white folks who "care about diversity" on here just assume that one of their counterparts is doing the work of helping victims? This is not the case. NOT to defend BethAnn, but she gave me support & opportunities that no one else did. 7/9

As this conversation continues I hope we'll discuss the systemic issues that fueled @\\McLNeuro's rise. I fear that, as long as we spin our wheels in departmental DEI committees & make no progress at the federal level, we're doomed to fall prey to the BethAnns of this world. 8/9

The solution is not for us to put all of our faith in a new attention-seeking white woman who is less (overtly) racist than @\\McLNeuro. The solution is to figure out how we can leverage Twitter to organize around policy proposals rather than self-styled martyrs. 9/9