Darwin Fanatics and their Malicious Workplace Harassment Campaign: The Case of Dr Mike Weale

 In the Springer Science book chapter on science ethics and academic integrity in the social sciences  The Patrick Matthew Effect in Science (Sutton and Griffiths 2023) Professor of Psychology (Dr Mark Griffiths) and General Editor of The Internet Journal of Criminolgy, (Dr Mike Sutton) write about the ethical requirement not to bury painful empirical data. They also describe what happens to those who upset beloved myths, which are held dear as though they are true facts by the scientific community, by publishing and defending that data. In that chapter, they write:

                                                                                                             

"We know dangerous minds can engage in and create dangerous behaviour. More specifically, that can mean engaging in academic misconduct such as misrepresentation of data, brute censorship, and even criminal malicious harassment for those who dare to put their head above the parapet (see Sutton 2022) for fully evidenced examples of such behaviour by others following his naming of the scientists who cited Matthew pre-1858, vindictive, prolific and systematic workplace harassment behaviour that both authors of this chapter have been subject to because of their published work on this topic). We have been subjected to this disgraceful behaviour for daring to put our heads above the parapet by going into print to more widely disseminate empirical data that seriously questions the honesty and originality of Charles Darwin, arguably the world’s most beloved scientist.

The cultural resistance of the science community to researching this area, or indeed towards others doing so, is manifested by what Merton (1973) called“studied neglect of systematic study of multiples and priority.” Merton (1973 pp.391–392) explains why this is so: 

"...charged with blemishing the record of undeniably great men of science; as though one were a raker of muck that a gentleman would pass by in silence. Even more, to investigate the subject systematically is to be regarded not merely as a muckraker, but as a muckmaker."

It follows, we must not be forced by unethical bias and fear of embarrassing exposure of earlier ignorance of wrongdoing by proclaimed experts to ignore important empirical data, because empirical data are necessarily what defines science (Strevens, 2020)."

The Dr Mike Weale workplace harassment letter

After Charles Darwin super fan Dr John van Wyhe literally told, a Scottish journalist by email, that the new found empirical data on Darwin's lies and plagiarism were a "conspiracy theory" Dr Mike Sutton outed van Wyhe's email for its author's desperate deluded attempt to bury the facts on his Victorian hero with utter and dishonest nonsense. Doubling down on the same stupidity as van Wyhe, Dr Mike Weale, then of Kings College London, tried to have Dr Sutton disciplined and perhaps worse, suspended or sacked from his senior academic position as Reader in Criminology at Nottingham Trent University. 

For the history of science and those interested in the  criminology of  workplace harassment, here is Dr Weal's ludicrous malicious letter. 

Of course, Weal's attempt failed. But it might not have failed what then?

Managerial Vice Chancellor, Professor Edward Peck, perhaps being intellectually or managerially ethically unable or perhaps simply to lazy or being just too unprofessional and impolite to bother to go professionally and respectfully and judge for himself, instead had Dr Sutton very expensively investigated by a professor of criminal justice and the university HR department over a number of weeks. 

"Going forward" "mindfully" Dr Sutton some years later wrote a scathingly humorous poem about the idiotic curse of infantile anti-professional managerialism in universities and elsewhere (here).

Weal's malicious and childish accusations were consequently thrown out and dismissed for being weirdly disingenuous nonsense. No action whatsoever was taken against Dr Sutton. The Nottingham Trent (NTU) Human Resources (HR) letter to Dr Sutton, confirming this, is on file and will be published, initially exclusively, at a later date. Similarly, van Wyhe's childishly unprofessional empirical fact denial email is on file for later exclusive criminology book publication, as are dozens sent by the criminally obscene anal rape threat communication social media troll , workplace criminal harasser (Youth Association Hostel worker! and tacky little Darwin statue dealer) Dr Julian Derry.

Dr Mike Weale has been a prolific editor of the nuance avoidance, fact denial and deliberate misinformation and outright empirical data proven lies about Patrick Matthew that are on the deliberately misleading Patrick Matthew Wikipedia page - as has Julian Derry.