German Physicist Fights Back Against Sexist Blogger After 12 Years of Relentless Online Abuse
German physicist Sabine Hossenfelder has reportedly sent a letter demanding the approximate equivalent of US $10,000 from a Czech blogger who has been obsessively raging against her online for over 12 years.
Luboš Motl wrote on March 15 that he was legally served a 15-day ultimatum that includes the following demands:
- CZK 200,000 compensation, plus an additional CZK 24,864 for legal costs
- removal of all negative mention about her on his blog The Reference Frame
- refrain from making any further mention of her on his blog TRF
At an exchange rate of 22.5 koruna to USD, the total amount Hossenfelder is allegedly asking for is about $10,000 American dollars. Failure to comply with said demands will presumably result in a defamation lawsuit being filed against the physics blogger.
Motl, whose first language is Czech, is known as an extreme critic of Hossenfelder on his English-language blog. The Frankfurt-educated feminist icon is a controversial figure due to her views on the work being carried out by theoretical physicists, as expressed in her quote below.
String theorists are happily studying universes that don’t exist, particle physicists are busy inventing particles that no one ever measures, and theorists mass-produce “solutions” to the black hole information loss problem that no one will ever be able to test.
In particular, Hossenfelder has come out against upgrading the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the European scientific center more familiar to non-physicists as the place where the World Wide Web (WWW) was invented in 1989.
Czechia-based Motl has long been known in physics circles for compulsively commenting on Hossenfelder’s public activities, scathingly reporting them on his blog using over-the-top language to describe her views, employing adjectives like “dumb” and “pathetic.”
For example, in December 2018, he wrote:
Sabine Hossenfelder became notorious for her obnoxiously demagogic and scientifically ludicrous diatribes against theoretical physics – she effectively became a New Age Castrated Peter Woit – but that doesn’t mean that she doesn’t hate the rest of particle physics.
That was a step down from earlier that year when he called her “disgusting, lying [and] untalented.”
The physical laws should have mathematical beauty – and their vitriolic foes should be disgusting, lying, untalented likes of Sabine Hossenfelder. That’s how the roles are divided in our Universe.
In a post titled “Backreaction’s jihad against particle physics continues,” he states that “…the postmodern system has encouraged her to think that she is a real physicist, although she has no potential to be one.” He then slams her published Lost in Math as a “crackpot book.”
One cursory review shows Hossenfelder’s surname mentioned on his blog more than 4,700 times since April 2006.
Motl’s diatribes on other subjects are delivered in the same criminally liable style.
Will the SEC allow Musk to urinate on their faces again?
Elon Musk is probably the single best example of a crook energized by millions of brain-dead fans who is basically allowed to stand above the law by the decaying American justice system simply because he’s producing lies – his business is the production of lies on a 24/7 basis – which are mixtures of pseudoscientific superstitions, impossible promises, attacks against all his real and fabricated enemies, and political correctness – the latter is primarily about the global warming delusions that are still a fundamental part of this whole cult.
No word yet on whether Elon Musk will bother with a piddling blogger in an obscure corner of the Czech Republic.
Hossenfelder is due to visit Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York next month to give a talk on “How Beauty Leads Physics Astray.” In her lecture, she intends to argue that theoretical physicists have reached a dead end.
She lacks his credibility as a physicist regardless whether she is offended
LOL. She has credibility; you have none.
You fail to mention that Lubos Motl is a Harvard-educated string theorist. Typical feminist propaganda.
Wow….. I just heard of Sabine a few weeks ago because mostly I am NOT a professional scientist I suppose. I find her a delightful scientist. It is appalling she has to deal with the “Haters” as she called them in one of her music videos.
waaa waaa waaa. Cry harder
Why not just ignore the guy. After all there is such a thing as freedom of expression, even if you don’t like what is being said.
There is freedom of Expression or speech, and then there is Libel or Slander, which is which? That’s why there are law courts. Would you be happy having someone ALWAY ripping into you most of the time, just to make a name for themselves off of your work, I doubt it! Also, a scientist should keep an open mind, not just follow the herd, but think outside the box (but without re-inventing the wheel every day), it won’t be the first time in history that the “established norm” is proven wrong. Oh! And by the way women have played a… Read more »
Sorry but I do not see any evidence of libel or slander. You cannot sue someone where I come from just because they speak ill of you. Germany and Czech though? I know Germany is historically one of the more limiting countries with free speech, even less than Canada, so maybe there you can sue someone for calling you names. Libel and Slander both should hold a demand a level of proof that might cause her to pay his legal fees if she cannot prove that he actually lied. With her disdain of theory, she might want to avoid trying… Read more »
” I do not see any evidence of libel or slander.”
No one believes you.
So no one has freedom of expression but him so they can’t criticize him? Also, freedom of expression doesn’t work the way you seem to think it does.
Luboš Motl has not published any new papers or even preprints since 2007. I would call him an ex-physicist with some very controversial views.
Doesn’t Motl work at the Cz equivalent of a quickie mart?
Motl is evil garbage and probably mentally ill. He hasn’t done any work in physics for decades and shut down or hid his blog. The main topic on the talk page for his Wikipedia article is whether it should be deleted for lack of notability.