4 ms·

Intellectual junk food like this is exactly why those in academic/PhD circles have lost the trust and respect of most of mainstream society. You are one of the

by tharne 3y ago

Intellectual junk food like this is exactly why those in academic/PhD circles have lost the trust and respect of most of mainstream society. You are one of the few people in the world who has a job that allows you to research whatever tricky or interesting problem you want; and you choose to nitpick a childrens' television show?

Quinzel 3y ago
I understand your point of view, and while I mostly agree with what you’re saying, I think the loss of trust in academic/PhD circles is not just because of flakey articles like this - and actually I think a lot of lay people would jump at this one because it’s easy to read, and about a popular kids show. While I personally find this article to be extremely subjective and the arguments are weak, I do think it provides some food for thought, and perhaps more generally it creates some good discussion points. I think the loss of trust in academic circles is also to do with elitism, it’s not like just anyone can go off and get a PhD, even if you can get it for free it’s a significant time investment which a lot of people cannot afford to invest to advance their education. I guess my point is not everyone can realistically achieve a PhD, so that elitism creates a perception of “them vs us”. Additionally, academic’s often use language that separates them from those who have not been schooled in their rhetoric, further reinforcing beliefs that they are some how different to the rest of us. Also, academic’s are often used to support government initiatives and as social trust in governments continues to plummet - so to will trust in academic’s. Also, academia is guilty of p-hacking. So there’s a lot of reasons why academic/PhD circles have lost trust of mainstream society and I would say articles like this are fairly benign, and the ones that do the real damage are the ones like Andrew Wakefield’s publication in the Lancet falsely linking MMR vaccine to autism.

by tharne 3y ago

Quinzel 3y ago

I understand your point of view, and while I mostly agree with what you’re saying, I think the loss of trust in academic/PhD circles is not just because of flakey articles like this - and actually I think a lot of lay people would jump at this one because it’s easy to read, and about a popular kids show. While I personally find this article to be extremely subjective and the arguments are weak, I do think it provides some food for thought, and perhaps more generally it creates some good discussion points. I think the loss of trust in academic circles is also to do with elitism, it’s not like just anyone can go off and get a PhD, even if you can get it for free it’s a significant time investment which a lot of people cannot afford to invest to advance their education. I guess my point is not everyone can realistically achieve a PhD, so that elitism creates a perception of “them vs us”. Additionally, academic’s often use language that separates them from those who have not been schooled in their rhetoric, further reinforcing beliefs that they are some how different to the rest of us. Also, academic’s are often used to support government initiatives and as social trust in governments continues to plummet - so to will trust in academic’s. Also, academia is guilty of p-hacking. So there’s a lot of reasons why academic/PhD circles have lost trust of mainstream society and I would say articles like this are fairly benign, and the ones that do the real damage are the ones like Andrew Wakefield’s publication in the Lancet falsely linking MMR vaccine to autism.