r/neoliberal • u/ghhewh Anne Applebaum • Aug 11 '24

Richard Dawkins lied about the Algerian boxer, then lied about Facebook censoring him Opinion article (non-US)

https://www.friendlyatheist.com/p/richard-dawkins-lied-about-the-algerian

633 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

413

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '24

The guy who made a generation of middle schoolers insufferable.

35

u/p00bix Is this a calzone? Aug 11 '24

The Selfish Gene and its followup The Extended Phenotype are two of the best books on Evolutionary Biology ever made. Absolute must reads for anyone with even a passing interest in the subject.

Unfortunately since the 2000s dude's basically devoted his life to being a complete asshole to anyone who disagrees with him, to the point that it kinda overshadows his groundbreaking scientific work.

2

u/kharlos John Keynes Aug 12 '24

I still think EO Wilson's work on kin selection will become vindicated, but we'll need to wait for Dawkins to die before the field will widely recognize this.

Not to say that his assertions on the Selfish Gene are wrong in general, but that it isn't the only mechanism for selection (though it probably accounts for 98% of it)