Common sense?

Reference 1, which arrived with me by email from the NYT, is about a philosopher who has been hounded out of his university by social media as a result of his doing a podcast about the issues involved in an adult male having intimate relations with a consenting child female. A philosopher who appears to like playing devil's advocate for moral positions which many people would regard as wrong and worse. The podcast in question is the one at the top of the snap above and the offending episode may be the one at the bottom.

In appropriate circumstances, say in the relative privacy of a small seminar or discussion group at a university, such playing might be acceptable, instructive even. But without having attempted to find out exactly what was said, putting such stuff out on the Internet seems foolhardy. One would have thought that the man would have had more sense.

That said, for someone in anything like this position to be hounded out of his university by a storm of hate messages on social media, many of them posted by students at that university, does not seem to be a very good place to be either. Although, given that the social media are out there, it is hard to see what can be done about it. 

I associate to the book about the madness of crowds by Charles Mackay noticed at reference 2 - madness which did not need modern social media to thrive.

PS 1: I had thought to illustrate this post with one of those lurid Flemish allegorical paintings from the fifteenth century, perhaps something like the Brueghel above. In the course of poking around, I decided probably Brueghel or Bosch. At which point I remembered being shown a painting of this sort, possibly in an art class at school, involving a rather green witch with a pointed hat, on a broomstick, in the middle of a complicated, allegorical composition. A painting which I then tried to run down. I tried Bard who was not terribly helpful. I tried the new improved Bing, ditto. I tried more searches, all to no avail. 

Eventually I decided that lists of paintings with thumbnails, like those at references 3 and 4 were the way forward. With the lady above being one result.

And the angels above being another. But still not what I had in mind. I even went so far as to check with one or two art books I have sitting on my shelves. Leaving me wondering whether my memory is playing tricks, that the painting I am remembering does not actually exist at all; at best some kind of a conflation of a whole lot of vaguely related stuff. Or maybe the takeaway is that the riches of the Internet and the power of the likes of Bard are not yet equal to the knowledge of an expert. Maybe if I talked to someone who knew his Flemish art, I would have the answer in seconds.

Maybe it will come to me in the morning.

PS 2: the morning failed to deliver. While going to sleep last night (Sunday), I remembered about the 'Witch of Endor', known to me since a child as a cutter which features at the end of the Hornblower book 'Flying Colours', the third of a handsome, three volume set, long since retired. Known to Bible lovers as a witch consulted by Saul. He wanted her to put him in touch with Samuel about an upcoming battle against the Philistines. There are lots of paintings of this lady about, some fantastical, but not the one in question.

References

Reference 1: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/13/nyregion/suny-fredonia-professor-lawsuit.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2018/11/a-last-outing.html.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_paintings_by_Hieronymus_Bosch.

Reference 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_paintings_by_Pieter_Bruegel_the_Elder.