Side Comments on Allelic Multiplicity Argument

[swamidass (S. Joshua Swamidass)]

@gbrooks9

Why not during the podcast he recently gave? Nothing has changed over the last 8 months.

@swamidass

I am just guessing here … but I think he wanted to focus on what he was doing, and he hoped that “not dissing Joshua” would be considered sufficiently diplomatic.

That does not appear to be the case.

He was asked about this precise quote from WLC:

@swamidass

As I shared in our last Report, some scientific popularizers have claimed that the [ allelic diversity ] of the present human population could not have arisen from an isolated primordial pair. Joshua @Swamidass, a [ computational biologist ] from Washington University, who was at the conference, helped me to understand that this claim is completely wrong-headed.

Note that WLC is reference Venema specifically here. He is the popularizer.

Rather than responding to the question, he changed the topic to discus Richard Buggs. Rather than admitting error, he made another fallacious argument, and refused to retract his false claim. Keep in mind, he was directly asked about this by the podcaster. He refused to answer the question, he refused to admit error, and instead just changed the topic. He was so smooth about it, the podcaster was either complicit or bamboozled.