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I'm not actually as worried about this sort of direct copy-paste plagiarism as I am about a related issue. What I'm worried about is the appearance of authorit

I'm not actually as worried about this sort of direct copy-paste plagiarism as I am about a related issue. What I'm worried about is the appearance of authority when there is none, something that I guess Raval is also accused of. But what I'm looking at is a bit more subtle than pretending to have written a paper. In several fields, you get someone popularizing certain topics and observations. Some guy will write a book about economics or psychology with some compelling storytelling, and many articles will be written reviewing the books. But actually nothing new has been added. It's simply a rehash of a few well worn ideas from an area. Importantly what can also happen is something that was considered marginal is brought up (Marxist/Austrian economics) as accepted mainstream. Or something with weak reproducibility (Marshmallow) is brought up as the accepted truth. Nothing that's a complete lie, but you get a picture of a field that is quite different to what the experts see it as. The fact that they aren't making up complete lies is what makes them hard to critique. If someone comes up with a list of studies that seem to support some tenuous case, it becomes quite hard to rebut them without seeming quite pedantic. For instance you might need to dive into the methodology of some survey to understand the critique, but the soundbite culture of our times does not permit that. Often the person writing these books is portrayed as someone very authoritative, and certainly that makes sense for the publisher. They get in the news, they give commentary on relevant news items, and the circus continues. They never really have to defend their positions, because they're always a sort of conduit for some other historical authority figure. But the total mix of what they're saying doesn't add up.

wrnr 7y ago
You make a fair point, but ins't that what any educator does. I've even heard multiple teachers say "never let the truth get in the way of a good lesson". It becomes impossible to begin to explain anything if you don't simplify thing. The problem with Raval is he is a narcissist. Check out his youtube apology video where he reads out, for 4 minutes, the names of the developers he plagiarised. It's a grand gesture suitable on veterans day or after a terrorist attack. He gets pleasure from the attention alone, others get pleasure from actually doing something. Maybe we should be asking the ESA who decided to give him a podium.
- sukilot 7y ago
  "simplifying" is different from "bullshitting". As it is said, Education is the art of telling progressively smaller lies. Marketing and pop-book-writing is the reverse.
buzzkillington 7y ago
You've just described pretty much all 'public intellectuals'. This is not new, and they are professionally hated for a reason. The most egregious example of this is Malcolm Gladwell. Not one of his books is true in any sense of the word even at the time he wrote them. Yet that didn't stop him from becoming an expert in ... expertise.
disabled 7y ago
This. You did a very good job of describing the current pattern of behavior of these pariahs who make a career from plagiarism. A lot of times, this is the basis of their entire "work". They plagiarize nonstop and unapologetically. A lot of people who engage in these behaviors on the internet are narcissists, at minimum. At worst, they could be malignant narcissists (narcissists with sociopathic tendencies) or narcissists who are straight up sociopaths, too. What I mean is that it is not just straight up plagiarism: there is an unbelievably strange level of self-promotion from them on the internet, which is at minimum, a huge red flag. Their presence and "influence" on the internet is unavoidable, really. It is really tragic when they start going in to "research", which is a profoundly dumb move by them. At some point, they will get caught, and it will not be brushed off at all by other researchers and academics. One should be alert to identifying these people on the internet. They are "smart" in the sense that they know how to play and manipulate people, all the time. To identify potential narcissists online, I use this guide (although not scientifically verified): http://www.issendai.com/psychology/narcissism/narcissists-online.html http://www.issendai.com/psychology/narcissism/narcissists-on...

wrnr 7y ago

You make a fair point, but ins't that what any educator does. I've even heard multiple teachers say "never let the truth get in the way of a good lesson". It becomes impossible to begin to explain anything if you don't simplify thing. The problem with Raval is he is a narcissist. Check out his youtube apology video where he reads out, for 4 minutes, the names of the developers he plagiarised. It's a grand gesture suitable on veterans day or after a terrorist attack. He gets pleasure from the attention alone, others get pleasure from actually doing something. Maybe we should be asking the ESA who decided to give him a podium.

sukilot 7y ago
"simplifying" is different from "bullshitting". As it is said, Education is the art of telling progressively smaller lies. Marketing and pop-book-writing is the reverse.

buzzkillington 7y ago

You've just described pretty much all 'public intellectuals'. This is not new, and they are professionally hated for a reason. The most egregious example of this is Malcolm Gladwell. Not one of his books is true in any sense of the word even at the time he wrote them. Yet that didn't stop him from becoming an expert in ... expertise.

disabled 7y ago

This. You did a very good job of describing the current pattern of behavior of these pariahs who make a career from plagiarism. A lot of times, this is the basis of their entire "work". They plagiarize nonstop and unapologetically. A lot of people who engage in these behaviors on the internet are narcissists, at minimum. At worst, they could be malignant narcissists (narcissists with sociopathic tendencies) or narcissists who are straight up sociopaths, too. What I mean is that it is not just straight up plagiarism: there is an unbelievably strange level of self-promotion from them on the internet, which is at minimum, a huge red flag. Their presence and "influence" on the internet is unavoidable, really. It is really tragic when they start going in to "research", which is a profoundly dumb move by them. At some point, they will get caught, and it will not be brushed off at all by other researchers and academics. One should be alert to identifying these people on the internet. They are "smart" in the sense that they know how to play and manipulate people, all the time. To identify potential narcissists online, I use this guide (although not scientifically verified): http://www.issendai.com/psychology/narcissism/narcissists-online.html http://www.issendai.com/psychology/narcissism/narcissists-on...