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Sad Day for Conservatives: Mike Adams Dead
From the Port City Daily:
WILMINGTON — According to the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office, Mike Adams was found dead at his residence today.
Deputies responded to a wellness check at Adams’ home address and found him deceased. NHCSO is investigating the death, but has not released any additional information, and could not confirm cause of death or if foul play was suspected.
The longtime professor of criminology and sociology at the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) was set to retire next week as part of a $500,000 settlement.
The settlement came as Adams was facing growing criticism for his social media posts and UNCW, in particular Chancellor Jose V. Sartarelli, was under increasing pressure to terminate his employment. Several petitions with around 85,000 total signatures called for his termination, and letters from his colleagues and fellow criminologists denounced his actions and called for his firing.
Due to Adams’ tenured status, and his previous legal victory over UNCW (which cost the UNC system roughly $700,000), the university opted for a negotiated exit.
Adams had supporters as well as detractors, including those who saw his online behavior as an exercise of his first First Amendment rights. Adams’ classes were also popular with many of his students, earning him generally positive evaluations and several awards for teaching, according to his UNCW curriculum vitae.
My son went to UNCW in the History graduate program. Adams was well known on campus as one of the very few conservative voices, and he drove the Left and eventually the UNCW administration wild. He was set to retire Aug 1.
Published in General
May he rest in peace.
A brave man, and a great writer. He found the absurdity in the left, and wrote hilarious pieces about it.
Rest in peace.
Younger than I am. Could have been natural causes. But I would be interested to hear more as the investigation goes on.
Rest in peace, Mike.
I also raised an eyebrow about the timing of his death. While it probably was natural causes (we’ll find out soon enough), I would not be surprised in the autopsy found otherwise . . .
I read Adams years back when I wasn’t really conservative but appreciated hearing conservative voices, especially since he was very good when writing about issues regarding gender and pro-life (things I was probably always right leaning on).
In his own way, he really focused on political communication and the pedagogy of discussing difficult topics with students and it was always fascinating to read his stories. He swam against the grain and said things that he believed were true theoretically and empirically. He didn’t let bad ideas or poorly formed arguments go unchallenged no matter how popular they were. That’s what one would want from an academic. Rest in peace.
This is bad news – he was truly one of the good guys.
Terrible news. But what means, “responding to a wellness check”?
55 years old. Wow.
Poor guy.
A great legacy. More conservatives should do what he did, but we don’t have tenure to insulate us from cancel culture . . .
Someone called the police to go check on him because they had not heard from him or he didn’t show up for something he should have.
It means that someone—a relative or whatever—called the police saying Mike hadn’t answered his phone or been heard from for days and could they swing by a make sure he was okay?
FIfty five is young, though. (Younger than us, Arahant!) It could be that there was some additional vulnerability that made the caller feel uneasy— a medical issue, the existence of a restraining order against a violent ex-spouse, or “subject is known to be despondent.” Or, y’know, a lot of angry progressives making threats online.
A wellness, or welfare check occurs when a family member, or friend asks law enforcement to visit someone that has not responded to phone calls, or does not answer a knock on the door.
And yes—the relative or friend could have checked on Mike himself, or asked a neighbor to do so, but sometimes the caller lives far away, doesn’t know any local players, and the situation seems, for whatever reason, potentially more urgent.
My mother had an elderly friend living in Arizona who didn’t answer her phone for a couple of days. Mom was very worried. I suggested calling the police in her friend’s town and asking them to do a well-being check (wellness check, whatever). To my mother’s charmed amazement, they did this at once. The friend was indeed ill. The police brought in EMTs, the friend went to the hospital, recovered…all turned out splendidly.
The mother-in-law of a fallen officer and grandmother of an active one…and she had no idea what police work is actually about. (Hint: Serve and Protect.)
Someone must have tried to get in touch with Adams and he didn’t respond. They called the Sheriff to check on his home.
Routine stuff.
I hadn’t heard the news. He was a courageous rabble-rouser and he will be missed. Thanks, Kozak.
Fearless. A longtime favorite and just a few days older than me. Godspeed – you did well.
So he passed over, and all the trumpets sounded for him on the other side.
I agree.
It seems there are two asymmetries, both of which tend to lead to liberalism being over-emphasized, at least in poli-sci and econ. What follows is more anecdote based than anything. But it feels right. Also, I’m talking about liberals and conservatives, but I mean people who are “very” left/right.
Compared to liberals, most conservatives go into areas where they don’t have to be “conservative.” As an example: you’ll get a lot of conservatives who study bureaucracy and methodology, but they won’t go into political comms. or race and ethnic politics.
The other asymmetry is that conservatives are less likely to see their research as advocacy. To be clear, few good scholars try to make the data say what they want, but they will be less critical of it when it does. So, liberals will often find specific areas where their work is more likely produce results supportive of things commonly called “progressive” (ex: studying access to public provisions for poor first generation immigrants who live in rural areas).
Adams was a rare breed, not in that he was conservative, but that he argued with sociologists as a sociologist, from within the academy no less.
May I try to put it more simply? People of the left are liars, and liars have a natural advantage in any field that is not directly founded on observation.
That isn’t hyperbole. People of the right reason, argue, and try to convince by reference to objective reality. “Look at this!” People of the left argue directly, mind-to-mind. “Think this!” That is the essence of lying, and it is their social advantage.
Sorry, but with respect to what I was responding to, I can’t sign on to this. Do I think the broader left has its pathologies, which includes just making stuff up (everything is racist, unidentified paramilitary squads are disappearing peaceful protesters in Portland)? Yes. But in terms of a decent poli-sci/econ faculty, they really aren’t lying. I’ve not been lied to in any serious capacity, though I have seen some myopia.
Andrew Breitbart.
Antonin Scalia.
Mike Adams.
Who’s next?
Off topic (the topic being Mike Adams), but reminded me of a useful program at a large general residential apartment building in which one of my grandmothers lived. There was a team of people who would telephone all the “elderly” residents every day at a specific time. If the elderly person didn’t answer, they’d telephone again in a couple of hours. If the person still didn’t answer, they’d contact the apartment building manager, and he’d go to the apartment to check. Saved at least a few lives, and provided reassurance for us living at some distance that someone was checking on Grandma. The manager was also pretty good at noting who left the building for a walk around the adjacent lake, and confirming that they returned in a reasonable amount of time.
That’s what I see in most academic historians. Except it isn’t so much myopia as its opposite. They can see what’s far away, but they can’t see what’s close up, i.e. themselves and their own role in oppression.
One of my cousins lives here in Aiken. Although we don’t socialize that much, she calls every day around lunch time and immediately hangs up. This leaves her number on the machine so we can see she’s still alive.
Exactly. This is why the left promises Utopia, and defends it when the right tries to prove their policies won’t work. Because conservatives are arguing against an imaginary creature, their blows rarely land as the left has imaginary defenses to back them up (“the wrong people are in charge”, “we need more money”, “it’s for the children”, “Republicans don’t want to try solutions that work”. etc.).
Did he know the Clintons?
Update on D Adams.
Now reporting death by gun shot wound. Local paper is setting up a suicide narrative, reporting he was “ acting erratically recently….
Confirmed by local sheriff’s office:
https://www.wect.com/2020/07/27/uncw-professor-mike-adams-death-ruled-suicide-deputies-say/#:~:text=(WECT)%20%2D%20UNCW%20professor%20Mike,for%20a%20check%20welfare%20call.
Was going to “retire” with a settlement from UNC-Wilmington on August 1. Which makes one ask a few questions.
At the guy who shot at that judge’s family drove away and shot himself, too. I know all about how it’s done. I’ve seen Shooter.
A good column by Mark Steyn on Dr Adams
Not So Happy Warrior