Vince — here’s another example of an off-topic issue taking control of a conference, this one on cybersecurity. Joe Hurd, (R-TX), is an ex-CIA guy, an expert in cybersecurity — both in his spook days and now in Congress. He was slated to keynote the Black Hat conference, a major confab on technical issues of cybersecurity. He was yesterday disinvited when conference organizers found he had long voted the Republican party line on abortion.
So the Disputation question: Are a speaker’s arguments in one arena invalidated by his incorrect opinions in another?
I wonder if there might be surgeons who might be barred from sharing new techniques because of opinions on unrelated matters?