Richard Dawkins claims “psycho” cyclist smashed up his Tesla – while he was in it

chrisonatrike wrote:

Dawkins ate my hamster! Not true but although he was smooth enough when I saw him at a public event once in print he certainly gives the opinion that he can spot fools infallably and is not inclined to tolerate them. I suppose "Old man gets irked" or even "Early self-driving car makes another dangerous balls-up" probably isn't such a notable story as "D-lock wielding psycho on wheels!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_t4Pksq7BI

That video suggests he approves of cycling though?

chrisonatrike wrote:

That video suggests he approves of cycling though?

I'm not aware that he's anti-cyclist, just anti-property-damage. He may not even have been driving the Tesla at the time and he does mention "us", so he may well have been a passenger.

Here's a pic from an old Horizon episode showing him cycling

Yep he's not the tolerant type, doesn't suffer fools gladly or at all. And, I don't think age will have blunted that part of his character - I am using Victor Meldrew as my point of reference here.

chrisonatrike wrote:

Dawkins ate my hamster! Not true but although he was smooth enough when I saw him at a public event once in print he certainly gives the opinion that he can spot fools infallably and is not inclined to tolerate them. I suppose "Old man gets irked" or even "Early self-driving car makes another dangerous balls-up" probably isn't such a notable story as "D-lock wielding psycho on wheels!"

I get the impression (from some of his interviews, and dealings with the public), that he's actually fairly compassionate and respectful of people, but certainly not of ideas that are clearly wrong. Sometimes folk seem to conflate his response to the idea with their projection of what they believe must be his view of teh person. 

Captain Badger wrote:

chrisonatrike wrote:

Dawkins ate my hamster! Not true but although he was smooth enough when I saw him at a public event once in print he certainly gives the opinion that he can spot fools infallably and is not inclined to tolerate them. I suppose "Old man gets irked" or even "Early self-driving car makes another dangerous balls-up" probably isn't such a notable story as "D-lock wielding psycho on wheels!"

I get the impression (from some of his interviews, and dealings with the public), that he's actually fairly compassionate and respectful of people, but certainly not of ideas that are clearly wrong. Sometimes folk seem to conflate his response to the idea with their projection of what they believe must be his view of teh person. 

Point taken - I probably need more empathy. Although it does look like "having a big head" and "having a big ego" can overlap I guess it depends whether you're being made to feel clever (for understanding) or stupid because you can't keep up. Witness jokes of the "The universal measure of arrogance is the pico-dijkstra" type.

This video of him reading his hate mail seems to show he's got a pretty good sense of humour:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhYT4vE1gvM

(NSFW by the way)

chrisonatrike wrote:

....

Point taken - I probably need more empathy. Although it does look like "having a big head" and "having a big ego" can overlap I guess it depends whether you're being made to feel clever (for understanding) or stupid because you can't keep up. Witness jokes of the "The universal measure of arrogance is the pico-dijkstra" type.

Don't we all, if TFL are to be believed....

Secret_squirrel wrote:

It's worth noting there are random nut jobs riding bikes about. There was one on this site a few months back in London.

It remains to be seen what the entirety of the events were. 
The god tweet worked for me though. 

There may well be, just as there are random nutjobs who will deliberately drive into a cyclist for a transgressions such as flipping them the bird. But even these nutjobs don't go around attacking every car they see.

Now it could be something trivial like beeping at another road user who pulls out without looking, or obstructes the cycle lane to prevent bikes filtering.

Or it could be that the driver hits the cyclist and then attempts to drive off. But that's all speculation.

Unless he was targetted by a religious extremist, and the bicycle was coincidental.