The guy may have some questionable political opinions but he knows more about physics than all LW people combined ever will.
This seems questionable. There are a variety of people here with math and physics PhDs. It might be accurate (and it wouldn’t surprise me) if by some rough metric Motl knew more about physics than any single LW regular. Claiming he knows more than everyone combined seems tough, especially given that we have subject matter experts here in subfields that are not Motl’s. The comment might be more valid if one restricted to something like “knows more particle physics” rather than physics in general, but even that seems questionable.
Motl also has a history of mixing his politics and his other views with his attitudes about physics in ways that don’t help his chances of being right. For example, see this example (one of many) where he says about a physicist that he disagrees with:
The difference between two of us is like the difference between a superman from the action movies who fights for the universal justice on one side and the most dirty corrupt villain on the other side. It’s like the Heaven and the Hell, freedom and feminism, careful evaluation of the climate and the alarmist hysteria, or string theory and loop quantum gravity.
He apparently added a few days (possibly weeks) after posting this bit a winky emoticon. There are other examples where he uses about as extreme or almost as extreme language.
Overall, Motl is not engaging in behavior and cognition that is likely to make him a reliable source.
This seems questionable. There are a variety of people here with math and physics PhDs. It might be accurate (and it wouldn’t surprise me) if by some rough metric Motl knew more about physics than any single LW regular. Claiming he knows more than everyone combined seems tough, especially given that we have subject matter experts here in subfields that are not Motl’s. The comment might be more valid if one restricted to something like “knows more particle physics” rather than physics in general, but even that seems questionable.
Motl also has a history of mixing his politics and his other views with his attitudes about physics in ways that don’t help his chances of being right. For example, see this example (one of many) where he says about a physicist that he disagrees with:
He apparently added a few days (possibly weeks) after posting this bit a winky emoticon. There are other examples where he uses about as extreme or almost as extreme language.
Overall, Motl is not engaging in behavior and cognition that is likely to make him a reliable source.