I have left the German skeptics organisation , GWUP, two days ago. This led to many questions and confusion. I therefore feel that I owe it to those skeptics who I may have upset or unsettled to offer a few clarifications (I do appologise, if this does not make much sense to those readers who were unable to follow the various disputes and discussions that took place, mostly in German, on Twitter).
1. Clarification – accusation of antisemitism: This accusation is completely absurd! In my opinion, the 1st re-Tweet that Bartoschek is using is not anti-Semitic. I have posted thousands of tweets, many of which are the opposite of anti-Semitic, as anyone can verify. Moreover, I have worked for the last 30 years to fight antisemitism and can probably show more results of this endeavor than my accuser.
2. Clarification – I can’t find the 2nd re-tweet that Bartoschek exhibits. No idea who found it and where! I can’t remember the text (but I do vaguely remember the graphic), and I certainly didn’t delete anything. I would delete if, if I could find it and be open about it. If it turns out that I am nevertheless at fault, I can only apologise.
3. Clarification – peer-review publications by Hirsch, Huemmler, Bartoschek (who I sarcastically called ‘the GWUP-elite’). After watching a long video of these gentlemen, I began to doubt whether they are true scientists (or even skeptics) at all. Hence my legitimate question. The answer seems to be largely negative.
4. Clarification – Bartoschek claims “Prof Ernst is on the side of the “anti-woke”. However, I have repeatedly emphasised that I do not believe in and even detest both ‘woke’ and ‘anti-woke’.
5. Clarification – Mr Hirsch is the ‘social media manager’ of the GWUP commissioned by Huemmler, the current chair of the GWUP. The fact that he spreads aggressive nonsense in this role under the pseudonym ‘Endgegner der Kommentarspalten’ is inadmissible.
6. Clarification – I have not gained the impression that the current division of the GWUP is primarily idiological in nature (both sides are not far apart in this respect), but believe that it is a rather ridiculous power struggle on a personal level.
7. Clarification – I have left the GWUP because I am sure that I can do my work better without it, because the current tone amongst GWUP members is unacceptable, because the GWUP is currently not converting its membership fees (I estimate ~200 000 per year) into meaningful activities, because the current GWUP ‘elite’ behaves neither as genuine sceptics nor as true scientists, and because I fear that things will only get worse after the AGM in May.
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My hope is that this is the last time I have to mention this sorry story here on my blog.
12 Responses to Why I resigned as a member of the GWUP, the German skeptics (Part 2)
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Thank you for the clarifications!
As an aside: I‘m not one to get hooked up on typos, but under 3), I expect you meant „Hümmler“, not „Himmler“
thanks – the autocorrect tried to make a joke?!?
Edzard, you are not alone. I also left the organisation, for similar but also other reasons.
Thanks for your work. Keep it up and have a great life.
You do not mention the issue that I consider the worst example of the problematic behavior of the new GWUP leadership. According to Dr. Christian Weymayr, speakers that had been selected by the GWUP SkepKon 2024 scientific council were paternalistically dismissed by Holm Hümmler, without presenting a good reason, thus ridiculing the whole selection procedure. The interview can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktxVW8udWHI
If the statements of Weymayr are indeed true (which I can not confirm), then this would be a really shameful behavior in my opinion.
I think I allued to it in part 1
There is a new talk between Andre Sebastiani and Ulrich Berger, which goes in the same direction. It all sounds very depressing. The accusations levelled at Holm Hümmler and his supporters are severe. It casts an extremely unfavourable light on them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTL9VeMjXLs
Fascinating talk. Especially when they talk about claims and accusations which had been made without any explanations. This is nothing new. And it is not related to Team Hümmler, but a general problem, which already was described in 2016:
“Schweigen…”
http://ariplex.com/folia/archives/1546.htm
There is something wrong with the state of GWUP.
whith the help of a friend, I was finally able to delete the offending post!
sorry for the upset; I certainly did not intend it.
André Sebastiani is running for the chairmanship of the GWUP.
I have had a lot of discussions over the last few weeks and have given this step careful consideration: I would like to run for the chairmanship of the GWUP and am standing for election on May 11. I will be running with a team that I will announce in the next few days. We are currently working together on a program, which we will also be presenting shortly. I have summarized some thoughts on my candidacy in this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QFdTDAXSQY
good news!
Thank you, especially for Clarification 4 and 6
you are very welcome