Yeah, you've got it. Your post reminds me of Sam Harris falling all over himself to hold up Charles Murray's racist-ass "research" as some kind of unimpeachable

Yeah, you've got it. Your post reminds me of Sam Harris falling all over himself to hold up Charles Murray's racist-ass "research" as some kind of unimpeachable thing--mostly because Murray, as a crank, would talk to Harris, because Murray, as a crank, will talk to anyone who will listen--but demanded of anyone who would dispute Murray the third degree in an gish-gallopingly exhaustive manner. Which is why it's usually the high-handed rationalist, the claimant of no bias, who is trying to sell you a pig in a poke. They either don't know it's just /r/iamverysmart stuff or don't care, but they're selling you something. Not the reporter with a story on their hands who admits to having an opinion.