Read on Twitter
I realized that some of my twitter people don't know about my history with Brian Leiter. If you wanna hear about that one time he threatened to sue me and dug through a bunch of my emails etc., this thread is for you! If you already know or don't care, you can skip it, it's dumb!
It's Summer 2014. Carrie has been promoted to Full Professor at UBC. She writes a nice little blog post, reflecting on the responsibility she feels as a senior member of the discipline, to help foster a respectful environment. https://csi-jenkins.tumblr.com/post/90563605390/day-one
In it, she pledges to treat colleagues respectfully, and not to stand by and treat it as normal with other colleagues don't do that.
I am very inspired by this stance and try my best to live up to it too! I cite it often e.g. here:
https://twitter.com/jichikawa/status/1135421695215325184
I am very inspired by this stance and try my best to live up to it too! I cite it often e.g. here:
https://twitter.com/jichikawa/status/1135421695215325184
"Wait," you say. "I thought you said this was going to be a story about Brian Leiter. This is just a completely general blog post about how to behave in philosophy!"
Quite right, dear reader, it is. But see, Leiter didn't see it that way.
Quite right, dear reader, it is. But see, Leiter didn't see it that way.
You see, when Brian Leiter read Carrie's post, about how it's bad to be belittling, trivialising, and/or exclusionary, he interpreted this as a threat against him personally.
So he sent her a threatening email, accusing her of defamation per se and insinuating that he was considering suing her.
(That email and other similar ones to others are available here: https://web.archive.org/web/20150216151344/https://files.nyu.edu/dv26/public/Statement_of_Concern.html )
(That email and other similar ones to others are available here: https://web.archive.org/web/20150216151344/https://files.nyu.edu/dv26/public/Statement_of_Concern.html )
Another website that's gone down since then, but was preserved by the wayback machine, also includes this story and others from the same era. Besides his email, he blogged about it (not naming her) and tweeted insults (tagging her). https://web.archive.org/web/20141016013943/http://leiterevents.wordpress.com/
Back in 2014 Leiter still had a lot more social power within philosophy than he does now. He was still most people's main source of news about the discipline. People were afraid. (Many still are.) https://twitter.com/jichikawa/status/1351372786900500487
I won't go into details in this public thread because they're private and personal, but Leiter's private threats and public insults had a significant negative effect on Carrie's health and well-being.
It made the harms of the long pattern of similar behaviour personal for me.
It made the harms of the long pattern of similar behaviour personal for me.
(Carrie is doing a lot better now — thanks for asking!)
In September some colleagues and I put together a document about how Leiter was using his power running the PGR in abusive ways, and pledging to withhold our volunteer labour from the PGR for this reason. Hundreds more signed this "September Statement".
https://sites.google.com/site/septemberstatement/
https://sites.google.com/site/septemberstatement/
I wrote about it at the time here. (My views have become more radical since! I still thought there was significant value behind the rankings back then.) http://blog.jichikawa.net/2014/09/some-thoughts-about-pgr-and-brian-leiter.html
A Daily Nous post from around that time, with links to more discussions: https://dailynous.com/2014/09/24/should-the-philosophical-gourmet-report-continue/
Leiter did end up stepping down as editor-in-chief of the PGR that year. https://dailynous.com/2014/10/10/leiter-to-step-down-from-pgr-the-new-consensus/
Over the course of the fall, Leiter blogged about us several times, describing us as 'miscreants' engaged in a 'smear campaign' against him. He also posted false claims about internal departmental matters at UBC. (Our department head emailed to correct matters but was ignored.)
In December 2014 it became clear that he was escalating. Some of us received FIPPA (Freedom of Information) demands, requiring us to turn over our emails discussing Leiter and the September Statement.
We also received a letter from Leiter's Canadian lawyer, threatening a defamation lawsuit unless we published an apology drafted for us. (That apology included various falsehoods, and also doxxed another blogger.)
We declined to comply with this demand.
https://www.ubyssey.ca/news/two-popular-ubc-professors-threatened-with-a-lawsuit-over-a-blog-post-on-professional-goals-435/
We declined to comply with this demand.
https://www.ubyssey.ca/news/two-popular-ubc-professors-threatened-with-a-lawsuit-over-a-blog-post-on-professional-goals-435/
I mentioned this story last month in my decade retrospective thread. We went public. https://twitter.com/jichikawa/status/1340073845726670853
We spent a while after that wondering whether the threatened lawsuit would actually materialize. We turned over our emails, as required by law. (They were not very interesting.) But Leiter did make a project of pulling bits and pieces out of context and publishing on his blog.
This included private matters about Carrie's mental health, and horrible takes like this one. Leiter is obviously knowledgable about and comfortable with the fact that when provoked, he makes people miserable for years.
This one was also pretty amazing. Leiter cited a dean mentioning her "seeming better", and the fact of an unrelated email about transportation, as evidence against her having suffered as a result of his conduct.
This kind of thing continued off and on. It gradually slowed down. He'd pop up from time to time to attack one or both of us on occasion, about this or unrelated matters. We never heard from his lawyer again. He never sued. The statute of limitations has long passed.
Leiter threatens to sue people a lot. I don't know whether he's ever actually sued anyone or not. The point, I have no doubt, is to silence and intimidate. I talked about the tactic a bit in this thread (also about Jordan Peterson). https://twitter.com/jichikawa/status/1042917380358266880
This whole saga was a really formative experience for me. I learned a lot about what I value, and what the field is like, and what silence feels like, and what solidarity feels like.
People — especially people in positions of authority — need to stand up to bullies. Most don't, they just look away. But many do, and it makes all the difference.
Anyway that's my story about Brian Leiter. Not exactly my favourite guy, if I'm being completely honest. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
Anyway that's my story about Brian Leiter. Not exactly my favourite guy, if I'm being completely honest. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
oh yeah and the postscript!
Carrie and others who had been targetted by Leiter also got some shit in the mail in 2016. Literal shit.
Leiter said he was the real victim there https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/katiejmbaker/professors-receive-packets-of-poop
Carrie and others who had been targetted by Leiter also got some shit in the mail in 2016. Literal shit.
Leiter said he was the real victim there https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/katiejmbaker/professors-receive-packets-of-poop
no seriously, that's really what he said.
"This is about trying to embarrass me."
what a weirdo
"This is about trying to embarrass me."
what a weirdo
