An alarmist might be calling the police about now. It’s one thing to say that the other side in a debate should be “laughed off the stage,” or what have you, but… “shot in the face”? Now, just under a week after YouTube personality Professor Dave’s poor showing (see here and here) in the origin-of-life debate at Rice University with James Tour, it sure looks as if he is inciting his fans to violence. I mean, taking him at face value. He tweeted: “Anyone who is STILL spewing ‘DUHHHH no progres since mIlLer Urie’ should be shot in the face.”
That was in a thread responding to a tweet I posted about an article by our colleague Casey Luskin on the debate. When I Googled the phrase “No progress since Miller-Urey,” the 3rd item that came up was a post by Dr. Luskin and the 7th was by Professor Tour.
For now I’m going to assume that “shot in the face” is what Farina regards as a joke, or maybe some kind of juvenile pop culture reference. But it takes only one unhinged “Professor Dave” fan to take Dave Farina at his word. At the very least, it confirms that Farina, for all his bluster, is not feeling great about his encounter with Professor Tour. If you’re enjoying the certainty that you’ve triumphed in a debate, you don’t then, even in a weird “just kidding” way, post fantasies about murder. Healthy people, of course, don’t say or think things like that under any circumstance.