9 Comments
User's avatar
Jim Geschke's avatar

I go back to this, the academic hoax pulled by James Lindsay and Peter Boghossian. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlqU_JMTzd4&t=833s

Expand full comment
Thomas Prosser's avatar

That was sobering, but affected quite a narrow range of (pretty eccentric) fields.

Expand full comment
Jim Geschke's avatar

Yes, gender studies ... within Sociology and Humanities at liberal arts colleges.

Expand full comment
Mike Hind's avatar

Good to see commentary like this from an academic. Many of the social sciences papers I see (via weekly roundups from Psypost) are obviously politically motivated.

An example this week was some analysis of ‘extreme’ speech that arises in online epistemic bubbles. Predictably they looked at far right and incel spaces. I am still to see any studies of the violent language in trans activist spaces.

As well as obvious political bias the other aspect that leaps out is quality. Another paper sought to examine the role of the female orgasm in enduring relationships. The subjects of the study were college students. Also known as kids.

Your piece uncovers some of the dynamics afoot here and I’m grateful for that.

Expand full comment
Thomas Prosser's avatar

Thanks! It's a fascinating topic. The very politically motivated postmodernist articles are the worst cases!

Expand full comment
Maxim Lott's avatar

Time to re-build. E.g., the new University of Austin.

Expand full comment
Thomas Prosser's avatar

Ventures like the University of Austin are useful and interesting, but I think that the best hope is the reform of existing institutions! The costs for new entrants seem too high...

Expand full comment
Maxim Lott's avatar

But if it’s true that there’s no solution to the credibility of existing institutions...

Expand full comment
User's avatar
Comment deleted
Apr 20, 2022
Comment deleted
Expand full comment
Thomas Prosser's avatar

Lol, our trade union would hate that idea! But seriously, we do need bold new ideas - the Guardian article (linked in the piece) gives food for thought...

Expand full comment