News

Lewin Twitter contained sexual comments to fans

Public tweets included suggestive and explicit language in response to video lecture viewers

Walter Lewin, the former MIT professor with whom the Institute severed ties last month over a sexual harassment probe, appears to have publicly tweeted sexually suggestive and explicit comments to fans of his popular online physics lecture videos.

The Twitter account @walter_lewin, mentioned in a 2013 MIT physics department tweet as belonging to the former professor, responded publicly to fans’ tweets in 2013 and 2014 but was deactivated in December.

The Tech has communicated with Lewin via one of several email addresses he mentioned on his Twitter account. In his emails he defended some of the tweets but disavowed others.

Most of the tweets on the account were responses to fans of his online video lectures who had mentioned his @walter_lewin account in their tweets. Fans were frequently invited to contact him at lewin@mit.edu, but that address was later suspended as a result of MIT’s investigation. A tweet from December 2014 asked a fan to contact him through a non-MIT personal email address.

But some of Lewin’s replies, especially those to young women, included sexual comments.

On June 11, 2013, a female user had mentioned his name in a joking tweet, to which he responded. But days later on June 16, in response to her unrelated tweet to another user saying simply “FUCK,” Lewin commented “That can be included if you want to.”

Lewin defended the tweet via email: “I have an eccentric/unusual sense of humor which can easily be misinterpreted (it’s not appreciated by all). If someone writes ‘fuck’ which is very common, I often turn that into a joke.”

Later on June 16 he tweeted her again using crude sexual slang to apparently proposition her for sex. Minutes later, with no apparent response from the recipient, he tweeted again to ask if she was “chickening out.”

Lewin told The Tech he couldn’t have written the tweet as he did not know the slang term in question, adding, “How on earth it ended up in one of my tweets, it beats me.” He speculated that his account could have been hacked but did not elaborate on the assertion.

Lewin sometimes responded to fans’ tweets unrelated to their original mention of him. One of his July 2013 tweets read: “My publisher sent me a website with all twitters who mention me.”

In some cases, it appears the recipients of Lewin’s comments attempted to ignore or block his future tweets. A day after the June 16, 2013 exchange, he responded to another user’s apparent confusion at the situation, complaining, “You and your friend made your msgs ‘invisible’.”

And in April 2013, he tweeted one woman “I hope you too lost your virginity,” and then replied five more times in three days, though no responses from the recipient were visible. One of his replies: “Hi I also wrote on your facebook wall. Great picture!”

In fact, he speculated about the “virginity” of several users, most of whom had tweeted in amusement about a segment in his online lectures where he refers to learning electromagnetic equations by telling students, “As far as 8.02 is concerned … you have lost your virginity.”

Lewin wrote via email that his responses were in reference to that lecture.

To another user he said, “[W]atch my lectures from bed — very sexy!”

MIT Provost Martin A. Schmidt PhD ’88 said he did not know whether the @walter_lewin account belonged to Lewin. When asked whether the tweets were involved in MIT’s investigation, Schmidt wrote: “The investigation focussed on materials provided by the complainant.”

MIT elaborated last week on its decision to remove Lewin’s online lectures, saying it wanted to prevent “danger” to fans who would contact Lewin “expecting a student-teacher relationship and getting something that was inappropriate,” according to MIT Physics Department Head Peter H. Fisher, who helped lead the investigation. Lewin said that MIT also told him that the videos were taken down to prevent viewers from communicating with him.

Lewin called the removal of the videos a “bad decision.”

“MIT has removed every website they control which mentions the huge impact that my lectures had (and still have) on the world as a whole,” he wrote. “MIT wants to rewrite/change history. To un-person me and to deny my large impact on undergraduate teaching is a political move.”

He said of the videos, “It’s only a matter of time (maybe a few months) and all will be back. Trust me,” but did not elaborate as to how he expected that to happen.

Lewin said he would consider an in-person interview with The Tech when “the dust has settled.”



59 Comments
1
Anonymous about 9 years ago

What an evil criminal Lewin is. Joking about the "F word" on the internet-- fire him and delete his lectures, he's a big danger! Are women intelligent enough to look at his lectures without thinking they're being raped? More seriously, good job by The Tech for carefully investigating the online sexual harassment.

Meanwhile, Princeton professor Cornel West may merrily continue releasing rap music shouting the n-word and accusing policemen of murder.

My gut tells me a jealous lover (maybe the accuser? wouldn't be a surprise given the Rolling Stone hoax-- look it up) put in the tweet about queefing. I do like women a lot, but, you know, sometimes they, well, some guys know what I'm talking about.

2
Walter Lewin about 9 years ago

Austin

Some of your statements are blatantly wrong, some purposely misrepresented. You twist and select things that serve your objectives and leave out things which what would have given a more balanced and fair picture.

This will be my last email to you.

3
Anonymous about 9 years ago

The Tech once again proves it is a tool of the MIT administration.

Those in power always review the material before

it is published.

Sexual harassment is not "tolerated" at MIT, but printing blatant

lies is clearly encouraged.

4
Anonymous about 9 years ago

Lewin, Austin is a pussy-boy, as is most of The Tech. He'll lie (to himself) as much as he can get away with.

The world is not fair. You made yourself an easy target by talking to The Tech. Beneath the pleasantries about "safety" and so on, they're footmen of the bureaucracy, as 3 points out. It's not about helping women, it's about staying in power. They have no code of ethics, and for them "rationality" is anything that pleases the people with power. They are slaves, and it serves them just fine.

For instance: make a silly comment denying some element of feminism, and you'll be condemned and called a harasser, but make a silly comment supporting some point of feminism (for instance, calling men rapists), and you'll be tolerated, even celebrated. Heck, the Tech has even written editorials harping on about the stupid myth of "rape culture." Every space where feminists have taken power is a space where academia has taken power. It's no coincidence.

The Tech's disadvantage is that they are not on the side of truth. The more they write, the more contradictions they will make, and the easier it is to rob them of their belief. Yellow journalism does not usually last too long, if it is challenged.

The Tech's advantage is that they are on the side of power. They are also intelligent manipulators, claiming they are "on the side of women," when really, it's just that they are "pro-slut" and "anti-wife."

People who don't see through the media's lies are in for a rude awakening later in life.

5
Anonymous about 9 years ago

To Dr. Lewin: if you feel your emails have been misrepresented or taken out of contect by the Tech column, you may consider releasing them in full in the comments here.

6
Anonymous about 9 years ago

The writers at the Tech have shown how low (and desperate) they will go for a story; it is truly shocking that they be allowed to print such falsified garbage. Is this what one calls actual "reporting?"

It is way beneath the dignity of MIT, or any school for that matter, to have printed this nonsense. The good news is that

1) the world now knows the kind of people who are making the rules and 2) other universities have learned what NOT to do should they be faced with ridiculous accusations.

7
Anonymous about 9 years ago

Given we've established there are no men on The Tech, we need to figure out what kind of women Tech writers are:

"Beautiful and charming women are very dangerous creatures because they have the ability to exercise an immense amount of power by using men as proxies. These women have no need for feminism. They can extract all of the resources from men that they need and create environments to ensure their safety and security using their natural talents of coercion and persuasion. Ugly/fat women cannot. That is why feminism is full of the most broken women you can find. Rarely do you see a gorgeous feminist. However, they do exist. When you do see a gorgeous feminist, you can make the assumption that she is psychology broken and/or power hungry (wielding power indirectly is not enough; she wants the positions of authority as well as the current amount of power that she already has). So men, when you meet a woman and she proclaims that she is a true, red-blooded feminist, what she is really proclaiming to you is that she is a failure as a woman. So approach with caution."

Source: https://fanghornforest.wordpress.com/2015/01/19/feminism-is-for-ugly-women/

Notice about the third of the comments in the article (all positive) are from women.

8
Anonymous about 9 years ago

I wonder how all the people who just knew based on nothing at all that their favorite physics lecturer was innocent, that he couldn't have done anything worse than tweeting a naughty word or calling someone "honey", feel after reading this:

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/01/23/complainant-unprecedented-walter-lewin-sexual-harassment-case-comes-forward

Now that the complainant is speaking out, do you really still think this was just a case of oversensitivity and political correctness destroying a poor innocent professor?

9
Anonymous about 9 years ago

The comments on this page are really disgusting. I can only hope these are all Lewin's dopplegangers or else the readership of the Tech is a rather twisted bunch.

10
Anonymous about 9 years ago

Come on, Lewin, giving someone you're flirting her grades? That's just messed up, don't do it! :( Thanks for the link 8.

That's despicable behavior by Lewin.

11
Anonymous about 9 years ago

It is important to note that the twitter posts are not the only actions taken by Dr. Lewin in chasing women throughout his career. There are also Facebook messages, comments, skype conversations, videos and countless emails with inappropriate sexual comments and explicit offers that he has sent to numerous women, or I should say girls, because a great number of them are between 16 and 25 years old. These are girls from all over the world and, believe me, most of them have nothing to do with any kind of feminist organization or conspiracy. Many of them live in countries where women's rights are suppressed and therefore cannot defend themselves against sexual harassment or sexual assault.

Dr. Lewin is indeed an incredibly bright man who is absolutely aware of how the so called "jokes" are perceived. He knows what he is doing and he has been doing it for decades. He is aware of MIT's policy on sexual harassment and of what a proper student-teacher relationship should look like. However, since he got away with it for so long (arguably even with the knowledge of MIT officials, which is being investigated now), he allowed himself to cross the line.

A lot more can be said about the Lewin case and a lot more information and evidence will be released after all investigation is done.

Until then though, I would like people reading this to imagine their best female friend, their girlfriend, or their daughter, or any female they deeply care for. Imagine she wants to study physics, or even better, she is bright enough to pursue a degree in physic. Now imagine her absolute favorite professor, her idol and inspiration, contacts her and starts complementing her on her intellect, making her feel special, persuading her that they are close friends, that he may even write her a recommendation or help her by all means to become a respectable physicist. What a great man!

Now imagine all of a sudden the compliments start praising her brains and her beauty, then her body, her breasts, her eyes, her smile. Then there is a declaration of love, then dirty talking, then open offers for sex. Keep in mind this is her idol and a respected teacher in the school where she wants to go, keep in mind he is writing a recommendation to her, keep in mind in her eyes, he is so powerful..Now take a second and think about how she feels..

This is what we mean by sexual harassment in academia and in many cases it is a lot worse than what I described.

12
Anonymous about 9 years ago

11

Interesting comment.

But-- the woman in this case was 31 (not 16 - 25) and was sending him nude shots months after she finished the MIT MOOC.

How about women simply not enter in relationships with creepy old men?

13
Anonymous about 9 years ago

It is not that simple. The woman in this case has a history of child abuse and sexual assaults, which made her vulnerable and confused. She shared this information with Dr. Lewin while she was taking the class after they became "close friends". She shared it because she thought her psychological state affects her performance in the class. Now knowing this piece of information, Dr. Lewing started flirting and talking about sex to her.

As I tried to imply, what he is doing is really smart. It's a mixture of being an idol, a father figure, a best friend, and all of a sudden a lover. He does not simply go to a girl in a bar, comment on her ass an try to sleep with her. He establishes an emotional relationship based on admiration and trust and then he makes his move. Of course, even at that point some women can simply block him or start ignoring him, etc. However, there are women, who are vulnerable because they have a past (like the woman from the article), because they are girls (under 21), or because they are in countries where they can't speak up and think everything is their fault.

What I'm trying to say is that this is a very complex issue. However, one thing is certain, Dr. Lewin was aware of his position, of the institution he represented and of the actions he took.

14
Anonymous about 9 years ago

Harbi claims she was trapped.

What a joke.

Last time I looked computers had a on/off button. Anyone older than 5 knows where it is. Harbi's psychiatrist should have shown her where it was on day 1.

15
Anonymous about 9 years ago

Guide on what to do if you feel "trapped."

TIP 1-- DO NOT SEND NUDE PICTURES OF YOURSELF

TIP 2-- CLOSE THE CHAT WINDOW

Uh oh... Is this too advanced?

16
Anonymous about 9 years ago

"(arguably even with the knowledge of MIT officials, which is being investigated now), he allowed himself to cross the line."

And what about all the other MIT professors AND administrators, past and PRESENT, who have been accused of both sexual harassment or sexual assault? Will MIT investigate them as well? Maybe reveal the names of victims who have been paid off? Now that's something The Tech can really look into!

17
Anonymous about 9 years ago

Irrespective of what you people think of Harbi as a person, that does not change the fact Walter Lewin is a pervert whose behavior is offensive and not professional. His work as a scientist has not been lost. All that needs to be clarified here is that he is not a great example as a educator or a human being.

14 and 15, you people can be as sarcastic as you want but even if we let the whole sexist or ethic issue to the side, wouldn't you agree that if you were in charge of an institution and one of your employees was constantly hitting on and trying to sleep with clients, then you would not want to be associated with him because it hurts your reputation? Is that simple enough for you to understand?

Even if MIT had no sympathy for women whatsoever, they still should have done what they did.

18
Anonymous about 9 years ago

16, but of course all claims of sexual harassment and assaults should be investigated and if the accused are proven guilty of breaking the rules of the institution, they should be punished! This is the US, it's not Saudi Arabia, I think that's kind of obvious.

19
Anonymous about 9 years ago

#17 and 18 are naive. The MIT administration picks and choses very carefully who they "investigate" and who they let get away with harrassment.

20
Anonymous about 9 years ago

17

When it comes to women, I'm all heart.

-15

21
Anonymous about 9 years ago

As for the Inside Ed article the reporter was never shown "documented evidence." He was only given by Harbi what was given to MIT: already edited and corrupted inaccuracies.

Harbi got depressed when her publicity started to die down

and so she contacted the media again. Let's be honest here: This is not a person who truly cares about harassment; she is a disturbed individual looking for attention and probably money.

22
Anonymous about 9 years ago

19, help me understand better. So your claim is that MIT administration has picked to investigate Dr. Lewin when, at the same time, it neglects other accusations against other MIT professors. If that's what you mean, then two questions:

1. Do you think Dr. Lewin has done nothing wrong and is unfairly accused?

2. If they pick and chose, then why would they pick him in particular?

As for the evidence on this case, it can't be published yet because there is still an investigation going on so a lot of the material should not be accessible.

21, so basically what you are saying is that Harbi is an emotionally unstable, crazy woman, who is seeking attention and money? What would you think of the the claims of other women that he harassed them? Do you think that's a made up claim? Or if it's not made up, then do you assume every single one of them is just a crazy woman looking for money and attention and it's just a coincidence they all picked Walter Lewin as their victim, the same way MIT just picked him?

23
Anonymous about 9 years ago

21

Indeed. It looks like her husband found out, so now she's crying "harassment!" to excuse the adultery and turn herself into a victim. (This is just like all the women who cry rape once their husband finds out she's cheating. This phenomenon is particularly prevalent in Islamic countries-- look up Sharia law on rape accusations. Policemen who investigate rape accusations know this happens ALL the time.) Being "trapped" is a rationalization for her misbehavior, plain and simple.

And of course she is of Islamic descent, like most criminals in the West (not counting blacks). I encourage Faza to go back to her lands and have an Arab man knock some sense into her the Islamic way. That'll stop the shameless attention whoring.

She's also commenting online saying she's trying to "make [more] noise" and keep fighting the "war." It looks like the scumbag website Gawker is going to come out with a story soon. She has such little value as a person that she needs to treat a bad break-up as a "war."

22

Harbi was the only person who made a claim of harassment. The other women did not AFAIK.

Here's what Lewin did wrong:

(a) Pick an unstable attention-whoring feminist

(b) Form an insufficient emotional connection

(c) Start the relationship while the class was going on, and allegedly send her a gradesheet (no no no, don't do that)

Flirting with a married woman is dangerous! Women may not look it but they are very very dangerous.

-15, 20

24
Anonymous about 9 years ago

"And of course she is of Islamic descent, like most criminals in the West (not counting blacks). I encourage Faza to go back to her lands and have an Arab man knock some sense into her the Islamic way. That'll stop the shameless attention whoring. "

23, after that statement I think you are not really worthy of anyone's time.

25
Anonymous about 9 years ago

24

I'm sorry it hurts your FEEEELINGS. You are free to keep your head in the sand if you like.

Islamic people are perfectly good people and they have a right to live in the West. My point is they have a tendency to misalign with Western values. Let's do some science: look at Sweden's most wanted http://www.swedensmostwanted.se/ :

Ismail Haji Weheliye Raage, Ahmed Maataoui, Omar Ahmed Rashid, the list goes on and on. And Muslims only make up 5 percent of the Swedish population.

Islamic people are fine, but they're less compatible with democracy, plain and simple. Given Islamic countries have always been much more patriarchial than Europe, it makes sense that she would be less well-adjusted to a freeer, more equal society. Hence the shameless attention whoring and mental problems. She needs a strong man to take care of her the Islamic way. It's the way her culture operates. It's the truth.

26
Anonymous about 9 years ago

Again, I fully respect the Islamic faith and their way of doing things. I also respect the right of Muslims to live in the West and practice their faith.

-25

27
Anonymous about 9 years ago

Who ever said that Faza is a muslim? As a matter of fact, she is not. If your name is David , do you have to be jewish? If it's Mary , do you have to be Christian? A name and a country of birth are just a name and country f birth. Also, if she were a nut case, she would have to take anti psychotics, not anti depressants. How incredibly narrow minded some of you are. An arabic name equals muslim. Anti depressants equals nutcase. Grow up people. And read a bit too. Your lack of culture, for those who make such mistakes is more than depressing, it's dangerous.Trapped, yes. And so did MIT investigators agreed to. And so did Lewin since he didn't sue MIT after the December release. Wake up and pull your head out of your asses. And go tell a rape victim who's a master of manipulation's victim to not trust anyone, let alone a teacher with her issues. Search for PTSD and rape related PTSD. At least you'll learn some stuff. Oh , and she is already married. So... Learn to think, learn. Read. DOn't jump to stupid conclusions because of a name. None of us chose ours. My goodness. This is so ridiculous I can't even be angry. I m just sad for the ones among you who have no culture, and act as if they did, based on prejudices. I need some extra hands to facepalm a few million times. Poor humanity.

28
Anonymous about 9 years ago

Who ever said that Faiza is a muslim? As a matter of fact, she is not. If your name is David , do you have to be jewish? If it's Mary , do you have to be Christian? A name and a country of birth are just a name and country f birth. Also, if she were a nut case, she would have to take anti psychotics, not anti depressants. How incredibly narrow minded some of you are. An arabic name equals muslim. Anti depressants equals nutcase. Grow up people. And read a bit too. Your lack of culture, for those who make such mistakes is more than depressing, it's dangerous.Trapped, yes. And so did MIT investigators agreed to. And so did Lewin since he didn't sue MIT after the December release. Wake up and pull your head out of your asses. And go tell a rape victim who's a master of manipulation's victim to not trust anyone, let alone a teacher with her issues. Search for PTSD and rape related PTSD. At least you'll learn some stuff. Oh , and she is already married. So... Learn to think, learn. Read. DOn't jump to stupid conclusions because of a name. None of us chose ours. My goodness. This is so ridiculous I can't even be angry. I m just sad for the ones among you who have no culture, and act as if they did, based on prejudices. I need some extra hands to facepalm a few million times. Poor humanity.

29
Anonymous about 9 years ago

28

The Muslim angle is really quite insignificant to the case-- her heritage is simply unsurprising to me given the circumstances. No need to take it too seriously. She may not be a Muslim, but she is of Islamic descent, being born in Algeria, an Islamic country. Try visiting an Islamic culture and learning how they treat women. By embracing the diversity of humanity and their cultural values you may learn something.

It surprises me that you bring up rape. There is the joke that an optimist sees the glass half full, a pessimist sees the glass half empty and a feminist thinks the glass was raped. Do you mean to imply that a woman chatting with a professor and sending him nude pictures is being raped online?

-26

30
Anonymous about 9 years ago

Hey, what a coincidence, a professor named Walter Lewin once said that joke to me two years ago. : )

31
Anonymous about 9 years ago

The man must have a good sense of humor. May you guys continue your friendship. Cheers! :D

Position statement: I hope that accuser gets her head set in right eventually, because attention-whoring is unhealthy. And shame on Lewin for forming a relationship with an active student of one of his MOOC courses; that didn't put MIT in a good spot.

-29

32
Anonymous about 9 years ago

People should learn to read.

I can understand that woman for being born in Algeria too, only difference is that my name is more mainstream, so I am lucky enough to avoid as much as possible this lack of knowledge about names and religions(not always, but most of the time). Algeria is a muslim country, not an islamic country, since "islamic" is now directly linked in most languages to extremists. I was born there, raised there as a ...normal person, I mean , like the people i saw on tv shows, US tv shows. I moved away as my father's job made it inevitable. So, I grew up seeing bikinis, parties, the bee gees on the radio later, German friends at the beach...Before the civil war basically. As for the rape: What do you think the priors name "sexual assault" means? Because I never said that Lewin raped her, I was obviously talking of the background here, making the whole thing sadly easier and way too common. 3/4th of sex crimes victims end up being rape victims again or for the first time (well, assault is quite the euphemism for rape or attempted rape). Is there a correlation, yes. The fear, that seed that is left there by the first "assault" stays there, and most victims don't even realize it, unless they find themselves in a situation that brings up that seed of fear, that grew fast and quietly. Fear is the best paralyser, the best manipulation tool. Not just here , in this case, look around you, look in the world, how one person can rule an entire country using fear. I don't se the glass half empty or half full, let alone raped. It's a ridiculous analogy, and I don't see myself as a feminist: stupid doesn't discriminate. I tell what I see as I saw it. We all have a very short memory. Dig a bit deeper, you'll find so many cases like this, of psychological manipulations. Check the Stockholm syndrome. Those people are not crazy. Damaged, but , damaged doesn't mean crazy. And not using some sugar coat over the terms "sexual assault" is me being me.

Again, think longer, read, document yourselves before writing terrible , terrible stuff, horrors about so called cultures and countries you don't know, obviously. And if that whole thing makes me a feminist, then again, I guess I shall take off my bra and wear it on my head in the streets. Again , ridiculous lack of culture. You want to argue, know your history, geography, as in really searching, talking to people, ask. Geeez. Another million facepalm needed

33
Anonymous about 9 years ago

I agree that a nuanced opinion requires erudition. At the same time, a cultured person does not say "million facepalm" or "learn to read!"

Perhaps, you are too emotional. My advice is: don't worry. You live in a democracy. Nearly everyone (especially in academia) has liberal views about female victimhood and Islam. You are totally safe; you put your chips on the "winning side." There is no need for fear; you may be happy. If a Civil War breaks out here as it did in Algeria, your side, the ignorant one, wins.

I'm an outlier. I intellectually know women make bad decisions, and rationalize their regret using "sexual assault" and "sexual harassment" accusations to gain sympathy and shift blame to others. But if I were to express my opinions publicly, I'd be mobbed and accused of God knows what, like the witches in Salem.

What do I see? On the accuser's end we have:

1. Mental issues- Cuts herself, sees a therapist.

2. Militant mindset- Says she's fighting a "war" on behalf of women.

3. Attention whoring- Reaches out to news media (e.g. Gawker) to try to get her story out. Wouldn't a real victim feel deep shame and try to understand the issue, in all its complexity, rather than whoring herself out the news media?

4. Rationalization- Talks about feeling "trapped," which is nonsensical given that there was no bullying or coercion.

5. Narcissistic self-delusion- Her Twitter bio starts off by saying she's "blonde," but her Algerian hair seems a rather dark shade of brown!

6. Misdirection to get sympathy- She talks about her past "sexual assault" to make her seem more of a victim. If sexual assault is much worse than a dirty conversation with a professor, shouldn't she be talking about the sexual assault instead?

7. Consent- She was 31, an adult capable of choosing whom to communicate with. She sent him nude shots. She kept talking to him online. If his advancements were unwanted, she should have communicated that and ended the chat, not sent pictures of her naked body, for heavens sake.

8. Adultery?- She is married. She may have been violating her husband's or fiance's trust by exchanging nude shots with Lewin. This leads to more regret.

It's a clear-cut false accusation. She was not victimized by Lewin, and no sexual harassment occurred.

Now, Lewin is no angel, and MIT was right to take action due to the conflict of interest violation.

-31

34
Anonymous about 9 years ago

Oh, and my words of wisdom:

The naive, well-intentioned "Brave. Thank you for coming forward" responses of many MIT community members does the woman no favors. They only reward her attention-whoring, making her a more damaged person who will only seek more attention. It's exactly analogous to the "nice guy" bending over backwards to his girlfriend, hurting the relationship by not setting standards for good behavior.

Before you compliment someone, you should understand what you are complimenting them for. Otherwise you breed degenerate behavior.

If you break your skull or have a heart attack, you should receive care. But if you exchanged nude shots with someone you regret talking to, you should not receive victim points for the rest of your life. When you let fake victims take control, you have a world ruled by broken people, who in saner times would never be heard of. History tells us mob rule is tyrannical. Just look at the French revolution.

-32

35
Anonymous about 9 years ago

woops that should be -33 not -32

36
Anonymous about 9 years ago

I get emotional(33-34) because of the horrors I read. I am stunned by your listing and conclusion of "no sexual harassment occured".

Excuse me, but did you read the MIT release? If so, did you see Lewin sue MIT for false accusations (I mean, this is some serious accusations, and since he is retired, it seems only logical to infere that if it weren't accurate, he would have taken actions.)? It would have only been fair to do so.

Unless the accusations are not false, which means the sexual harassment happened.

Your listing, as if you were developping a hypothesis to prove a point and conclude what you concluded looks very scientific. Hypothesis, search, conclusion.

Only that your research, you making points are nothing more than hypotheses based on your experience, and biased by the fact that you decided regardless the only facts we have that what has been proven to be true is not.

So much for calling others "Naive".

Those who are right to see the courage it takes to go public: Look at what oy wrote, at what others wrote. Where can someone see any gratification for Harbi in that.

So I m not ssaying learnto read, but I m suggesting that you do your homework before you judge, not assume, but judge and conclude a lot of so called statements, based on ... Your opinion, point of view.

And ending up saying that what has been proven true is false. That one is really impressive in termss of logic, use of facts, and turning a blind eye on a subject nobody likes to talk about.

I don't exactly see myself as a feminist, I stopped trying to know as people like you want to act as great protector of the true victims by metaphorically calling one victim a liar.

I don't want to be called a feminist nor be seen as one if it puts me somewhere near your definition of it and your way to defend "true victims".

The world is kinda ruled by broken people already, look at the news, ask foreign people. get out of your illusion. And apart from saying that French revolution led to republic through the use of terror, which is sadly the story of mankind, I see no relevance in mentionning it. You can take so many closest exemples in time, as it's a pattern that keeps repeating itself.

Hats down to those who see the courage of that woman where others try to see everything else but that.

Don't let fear make you stay silent.

Don't judge what you don't want to understand.

37
Anonymous about 9 years ago

36

You would be right to be stunned if I made those comments publicly. They are not politically correct. Moderns would call me Islamophobic (though I respect Muslims), misogynistic (though I like women a lot), racist, sexist, a rape-apologist, a victim blamer, and so on, and that would be the end of me.

But in an anonymous thread one is not a slave to the excesses of horny violent impulsive superstitious apes. One is free from social constraints and can focus on technical matters.

Good news: you are not a broken person. You know people have a capacity for terror, you avoid the stupid "feminist" label (implying you are not an enemy of happy, traditionally married women), you value the stories of diverse people, you value erudition. Though you are no great writer, you are more intelligent than most American journalists.

You talk about true victims, and understanding the stories of others. So lets do that. Is a true victim a woman bloodied by dozens of lashings in Saudi Arabia, or a woman who sent Lewin pictures of her breasts? Is a true victim a woman violently gang-raped by dirty Indians in Mumbai, or a woman who was friendly with Lewin for nearly a year because she felt "trapped"?

Responses to your points:

1. I encouraged Lewin to take legal action, as did a lawyer in a previous thread at The Tech. But Lewin says he is too poor, weak and lazy to do that.

2. The French Revolution shows mob rule results in terror. Same deal with Hitler and Napoleon, two insecure angry little men.

3. In terms of whether Harbi is brave, look at the top comments at Inside Higher Ed and the attention she has received on Gawker, Twitter, etc: all positive ("youre so brave!"). Further, as an attention whore, she is not looking for pure sympathy, just attention. Feral women like drama and fights: attention is the thrill. Even if they respond angrily, attention whores like receiving some hate. To madmen, love and hate are similar.

4. I have done my homework and will yield the floor to anyone wiser than myself. And, no, that does not mean yielding to a clever, agreeable PhD with no life experience. Even if the New York Times published him.

Lewin being an aging flirt and Normals such as yourself instinctively trusting a mentally ill feminist who cuts herself, lies about the color of her hair and whores herself out to the media are not horrors. They simply reflect the decay of the West. The tale is a sorry reflection of Lewin, Harbi and the mob.

-35

38
Anonymous about 9 years ago

Point one. Lewin is neither poor nor weak nor lazy. If you know the guy enought to encourage him to take legal actions, then you should know that those three statements are false. I guess he shouldn't have bragged so much about how much money he has, his pieces of art, etc.... He's not a lazy person. It takes time and persistance to teach right? He made it clear in his book too, as well as in his last MIT lecture, the time spent on one lecture.

Weak? That's so hilarious it's ridiculous. We both know it's not true. so let's just skip that part.

Maybe it's because I am a woman , I think it's actually because I am a woman that I can make the difference between brown hair and dark blonde. Again, google is here to help. Or your hair stylist for that matter. My sister thought she had a hazelnut hair color until a hair stylist showed her using fake hair representing all nuances where she was, and..She took it lightly: "I m dark blonde, I make a lot of jokes about blondes, sht it applies to me too!" Was her reaction(she was a bit upset though, but she's young).

Now we come to self-mutilation. Also known as a pathological-yes, a pathology is not always a disease, that is important-way of hating your body in specific cases, yourself in general: Extremely and sadly common among sex crimes' victims, and I m talking about her priors.

39
Anonymous about 9 years ago

I never trust people just because they say what they say. I forgot to be completely stupid.

Now what are the odds of her plus ten other women-let's stick to what MIT has also confirmed-all being mentally ill feminist suffering from depression and using self-mutilation? Yes; very low.

Going public for attention happens, but the ones who do that, in those cases, are either in situation where they have no choice, a life or death situation for instance, and being known would also mean having a chance of staying alive. Or it's not about attention-whoriness. And for that part, neither of us know enough to make any statement. I can say that it can have some sense if the threat is still ongoing, and the MIT action had no impact. That's based on trusting her, which is basically trusting MIT's investigators, dean, chancelor, people who take the big decisions. Hum... And both of us agreeing on the fact that Lewin is no angel, me not being as radical as you are, what you see as blind trust in her is nothing more that taking facts, stuff that have been proven right during the investigation, and my vision of it and yours are different. As for the West's decay, I couldn't agree more. But I'd add the East too. Different paths same issues in the end. Your mob analogy though is-and I love the Godfather movies(not the III)- to me more of a vision of the West than the actual West. Mob is mob, it's here, no doubt. In a much more wicked way I'd say.

And:

Anonymity..This talk of yours reminds me of descriptions of how the world needs things like the Roman circuses and the people craving for violence to feed their primal needs for murder, rape and violence. Those games are over in almost all over the planet. I see it as a sign of "it's not ok anymore, we moved on guys".

Being anonymous. Even that doesn't mean people are not responsable for what they say, do and the concequences. And we all see the concequences to late. Same old story all over again.

40
Anonymous about 9 years ago

Now it's ten woman who were trapped? Ten women who couldn't find the off/on button on their laptops? Trusting Harbi is a joke to begin with and trusting "MIT's investigators, dean, chancelor, people who take the big decisions" is an even bigger joke."Facts, stuff that have been proven right during the investigation"were never legally substantiated and everyone involved knows this. The people who make the big decisions were looking for a witch hunt and they got it. They criticize Russia and North Korea while they themselves create this despicable atmosphere in their own backyard.

41
Anonymous about 9 years ago

The worst thing is that the 32 year french woman who sent him explicit photos of herself hasn't been charged. If I found out a 32-year old woman was sending naked photos to my 80-year grandad - I think would know who is doing the abusing.

We need a law which means jail-time for these woman who bother (close to) senile men with their sexual fantasies - that would stop them.

42
Anonymous about 9 years ago

The worst thing is that the 32 year french woman who sent him explicit photos of herself hasn't been charged. If I found out a 32-year old woman was sending naked photos to my 80-year grandad - I think I would know who is doing the abusing.

We need a law which means jail-time for these women who bother (close to) senile men with their sexual fantasies - that would stop them.

43
Anonymous about 9 years ago

It is interesting how comments 23 and 25 about Islam, the religion of peace, were purged.

This is one reason the West drifts left. Speech on the right is censored because it hurts the left's feelings, so the right is unable to keep the left sane.

The general pattern:

Right: Violence exists, so--

Left: You are horrible for bringing up violence! I will report you to the police!

Right: Whatever. I dont want to hurt anyones feelings.

Left: Thats a very unconvincing argument. Bring back Santa Claus!

I will re-state the argument in longer form:

1. Scientific fact: Geneticists have found that races of people have different DNA, similar to dog breeds. Indeed, the DNA differences between races are larger than the DNA differences between dog breeds. (Disclaimer: No race is better than another race.)

2. Scientific fact: Intelligence and personality is highly heritable (genetic). Put identical twins in different families and they will reach the same height, the same IQ, and similar personalities. (Disclaimer: All heights, IQ and personalities are OK.)

3. Historical fact: Islamic states rely on favors between kins (traditional government). European states rely more on favors between friends (democratic government). The former is more patriarchal than the latter. (Disclaimer: Neither culture is better than the other.)

4. Observation: The Middle East model requires different personality traits than the European model.

Now, the reader may logically draw the correct conclusions. (cont'd)

44
Anonymous about 9 years ago

(cont'd)

After you draw the conclusions, consider these unrelated recent events which you may find on Wikipedia:

1. 1400 young white girls were systematically sexually exploited in the town Rotherham, UK by Pakistanis. (Disclaimer: Pakistanis are good people in general.)

2. The great majority of violent crime in Western Europe is committed by Muslims. (Disclaimer: Muslims are good people in general.)

3. Efforts to establish democracy in Iraq are associated with a decline in quality of life in the country. (Disclaimer: Iraqis are good people in general.)

I may not express them myself because it is hate speech and illegal in college.

In the meantime, you Westerners may continue welcoming Muslims (who are perfectly good people) and watch your crime statistics (sexual harassment, rape, murder, terrorism) rise, for completely unrelated reasons.

After the American Civil War, educated diplomats said blacks would reach equality with whites in 10 - 20 years and leave many whites in the dust. Try walking in a ghetto in 2015 to see if they were right.

Now, educated academics say that if we cross our fingers and believe in multiculturalism, Muslims and whites will be good friends.

The educated academics, such as those running The Tech, have blood on their hands. Shame on them.

45
Anonymous about 9 years ago

I think we can state that half of the people commenting this article, or not the article at all, or whatever they think of talking about are close to being the rough definition of "everything that is wrong with humanity".

I love the so called religion comeback. Once again people who don't make a difference between a religion an a nationality/country of origin should really start by that, before making beyond ridiculous statements and before pushing other to get wiser and ask themselves the so called right questions.

Interesting to see what hardcore Lewin defenders are about.

Don't look at yourselves in a mirror, you may actually see your true selves, and from where I am it's beyond sad, disgusting, and in a way hilarious.

It's almost like you suddenly realized that people can come forward, regardless the fact that, well, it's pretty much a sacrifice in the sense that we know the name, the face, and she's not exactly gonna be people's best friend. and realized too that, hey, it happened once, could happen twice, thrice, and so much more.

Fear seems to be what drives you to be so full of hatred, prejudices and some of you, dangerous statements.

Now excuse me, but I need to talk to an actual human being.

46
Anonymous about 9 years ago

45

You are an ignorant plebe who turns a blind eye to violence and dysfunction.

The accuser is a lying, mentally ill whore.

Lewin is a chatty scumbag.

There you go. Feel free to thank me for my kind words. Cheers!

47
Anonymous about 9 years ago

typo "attention whore" not "whore"

48
Anonymous about 9 years ago

46

And how exactly can you tell that she's lying, when you know nothing about her beyond what's in this article? She admits to anxiety and depression, and claims to have told Lewin about it, and he proceeded to manipulate and take advantage of her, probably in large part because he knew she was vulnerable. The fact that some anonymous commenter on the Internet doesn't believe her or approve of her actions doesn't invalidate what she went through and it doesn't mean she's making any of this up, especially given all the evidence she has shown to both MIT and to Inside Higher Ed.

49
Anonymous about 9 years ago

48

I appreciate your cordiality, and will reciprocate in kind. Reciprocation makes the world go 'round.

Firstly, I hope the disapproval some commenters are showing does not stop her from seeking treatment (perhaps from religion, perhaps from honest friends) for her issues. My point is: it was wrong for her to seek treatment by sending naked pictures to a professor, wrecking his life and then selling herself out on news media.

Second, I condemn the commenters complimenting her actions. I think this nice guy behavior only makes her mental issues worse, because it is dishonest and doesn't get to her root problems.

Third, I do not approve of Lewin's behavior. One should avoid getting into sexual relationships with mentally ill women. He has also tarred MIT's reputation and violated its code of conduct.

Fourth, why is she liar?

1. She lies about the color of her hair. She says she's "blond (but not that stupid)" in her Twitter bio, yet her Twitter profile picture and all pictures of her online show wavy dark brown hair. (Algerians aren't blonde, in general.) I know it's possible to color your hair, but this is a red flag to me.

2. It is not harassment if youre friendly with a person for many months and are sending him nude shots. Thats just a normal online sexual relationship, and I havent seen any evidence to the contrary. She has a lot of psychological incentive to (I think falsely) call it harassment, because it gives her sympathy. And thats what I think happened here.

Anyway, please point if you disagree with anything.

50
Anonymous about 9 years ago

MIT and Inside Higher Ed only looked at Harbi's edited and corrupted evidence. They chose to believe her for purely political reasons. If you can't see that, then you are not being honest or acting human.

Harbi is under the care of psychiatrists. You mean to tell me

they couldn't stop her from emailing Prof. Lewin nude pictures of herself regularly? If not, then she should really get another opinion. Or maybe she doesn't want to...

51
Anonymous about 9 years ago

and what does she have if you're so so smart?

evidences, it seems, pictures, footage, chats, and not only hers if we go with the fact that she mentions other victims and that MIT, when asked about it afterwards says "yes, the number the talk about is correct". How stupid do you think MIT is?

Stop lying to yourself. ANd for god's sake's far all we all know, she could have dyed her hair pink after before, or green, or darker, or simply the flash. Take a picture of a blonde ( and search again what blonde's range of colors you get) with the flash. Yes. O surprise!

And what if the hair is wet? all hairs look dark when they are wet!

We've got on one side: So called lie about hair color, hundreds of pictures emails etc...not the one she sent, as you can guess when you read. But the ones he sent, because what's the pointin showing the pictures she sent without prooving he also sent pictures videos whatever that is to make the point "he is a sexual harassor".

On the other hand. We have her coming forwards, we can't see the evidences, but it seems that a looooooot of people accessed it, enough to push MIT to make a release, I mean why the need of a release. Lewin is retired right?

We also have Lewin not suing if all of this are lies, his kids not suing for him if that's all lies, his wife not suing for him if it's all lies...you name it who did not sue what you call lies.

I hope you're interacting with real people so little.

You are all out of arhuments, just read yourself! do it! please. Read your own nonsenses. Your lack of ...credibility. For what?

Despicable.

This is despicable.

52
Anonymous about 9 years ago

49: People who are suffering from mental illness can behave in ways that seem very irrational to those who are not. There could be any number of reasons for her giving in to his request despite not having a gun to her head or anything of the sort: a paralyzing fear of rejection or disapproval, for example, especially from someone so renowned. This does not mean that her behavior was a way of "seeking treatment", as you put it, but rather of giving in to this tremendous pressure and potentially later realizing how wrong it all was.

As for your fourth point, I think the hair color is an extremely minor detail. I think it's unreasonable to judge whether her hair is dyed or anything of the sort from a single Twitter photo, and it's the sort of nitpicking lots of public victims are put through by people who want to believe they can't possibly be reliable -- if you were to be put under this sort of public scrutiny, are you sure that everything which has ever appeared online under your name is 100 true, easily verifiable, and not in the least bit unobjectionable? And yes, even if it goes on for many months, it can still absolutely be harassment, especially when there's such an enormous power differential between the two. Even if it was just a free online course, the fact that he was the famous professor and she was a vulnerable student with a history of anxiety and depression means that it can still be anything but a "normal online sexual relationship" no matter how long it lasted.

50: How do you know she told anyone at all, much less a psychiatrist, about the nude photos while they were actually being sent? How do you know her evidence is edited and corrupted? If any of her allegations were false, then why hasn't Lewin or anyone else involved in the matter spoken out to deny them? When Lewin was interviewed by MIT as part of the investigation, what makes you think his colleagues got perfectly good answers from him and then just chose to ignore them for the sake of "political reasons"? In short, why do you disbelieve her when not a single person has credibly denied or contradicted her story?

53
Anonymous about 9 years ago

#45 The major hatred on display here is coming from hardcore misandrists like you.

The disgraceful irrational comments posted all over the internet by you and your type makes one wonder if allowing free speech is such a good idea, when you have so many extremist ideologies being promoted by so many cretinous fundamentalists.

54
Anonymous about 9 years ago

Being a sexual pervert does not make you mentally ill. Her behaviour is just as a bad a a paedophile grooming a child. She should be locked up in a jail not a hospital.

Middle-aged women can not claim mental frailty to excuse all their shitty behaviour. Women getting low jail sentences for killing their kids for example.

We should have zero tolerance of mentally dangerous women, just like we have of paedophiles.

55
Anonymous about 9 years ago

51

I guess she's blonde, except whenever she gets a photo taken? Or you're saying that whenever she gets a photo taken, her wavy blonde hair is wet and turns into a dark shade of brown?

There is the ancient saying "a dishonest man has trouble telling the truth about even the simplest matters."

Ponder that for a second.

Oh, and given that she's married, I wouldn't be surprised at all if her flirtation with Lewin was an instance of adultery.

56
Anonymous about 9 years ago

#49: Sounds like you behave in exactly the same manner that

Harbi does. MANY people have denied and contradicted her

story. MIT won't name who they are because it won't suit

their cause. How blind and stupid can you be.

57
Anonymous about 9 years ago

Apologies: 56 was addressed to 51.

58
Anonymous about 9 years ago

53

"hardcore misandrists"

Hear, hear!

Thank goodness for the second amendment and the invention of the airplane. When Stalin 2.0 comes it'll be time to either pack up or lock and load in self defense.

Notice how they say we are not "actual human beings." This is not a simple rhetorical trick-- when you say people are inhuman, down that way lies violence. Most of us do not know the hypocrisy and terror humans were capable of in Communist Russia.

Misogyny: women shouldn't wreck men's life without a fair trial

Normal speech: men who complain are not "actual human beings"

This is the US we live in, and it likely is going to get worse.

59
Anonymous about 9 years ago

56 :I don't know if I sound like Harbi, but you sure do sound like Lewin.

People's writing habits are hard to get rid of. And yours is incredibly close to his style, like the use of uppercase.

It's known (the style) to anyone who saw Lewin's facebook or anything internet related, written by him. And books, and other written materials, including his courses videos.