3 ms·

Thank you for spelling this out. I've seen the GP opinion multiple times and it never connected for me before.

• bowsamic 3y ago
  I was on twitter during the whole "anti academia" movement in physics and there is a lot of craziness on both sides. You have everything from professors saying that anyone who quits academia wasn't smart enough to be in it, or that they have betrayed academia, to people who left for the industry who insist that all peoples' experiences in academia are terrible or even that anyone who stays is complicit in some kind of continuation of abuse. I generally landed on the pro-academia side because the communities of people who had quit academia were a much worse eco chamber, often even pro capitalist and/or claiming that being an academic is also being a proletariat or some weird stuff. The worst part is that they spend a lot of time convincing other younger academics that they should quit, and portray having a job as some kind of beautiful and perfect time compared to academia. However, I don't blame anyone for quitting academia, or focussing their efforts elsewhere. Academia is ultimately a very conformist and social thing. You have to network and collaborate, you have to be buddies with a lot of gatekeepers, etc. Job = do the thing and get paid for it, but you can't just go home at lunch because you want to put a wash on Academia = do whatever you want, but that's also not enough, you have to beg for your salary even if you complete amazing work Zizek's position is kind of the best of both worlds then, he makes enough money from his casual writing that he retains the freedom of academia while not having to suck up to anyone. That's probably why people don't like him