But I am more interested in spending my time in this conversation on the subject of the OP.
A subject where plain speaking is apt to result in being massively downvoted.
The academics cited by OP describe a primitive and little known tribe behaving in an implausibly politically correct manner with improbably politically correct and satisfactory results, just as Margaret Mead’s Samoans acted in implausibly politically correct manner with improbably politically correct and satisfactory results.
We should therefore have as much faith in these anomalously well behaved primitives as we should have had in Margaret Mead’s anomalously well behaved Samoans, or, returning to my much safer topic, those criminals so marvelously reformed the by Soviet Union’s enlightened penal system.
You would prefer to discuss evidence of academic reliability on topics where most evidence of academic unreliability will get the post presenting such evidence downvoted to −10, and thus disappeared from sight.
I think sam0345 may be exaggerating with a projection of −10, but I think he isn’t exaggerating when he suspects that there are examples of academic unreliability that would be unfeasible to discuss on LW, even though I am a bit more optimistic about what LW can handle than Vladimir_M, for instance. It would be a bad mistake to even attempt to collect evidence on some topics.
I’m a psych junkie, and by following certain online debates and reading journals, I’ve run into several topics where peer-review studies that aren’t publicized contradict the public story. With some of these topics, LW has proven itself to not be quite ready for them, though Vladimir_M sometimes dances around them, and I and others have discussed some of the lighter ones. Other topics are not discussable in public at all in any forum where a speaker wants to retain any reputation. In fact, it would be a hazard to others to even mention these topics on LW, given that many people comment here with their real names, and LW would be tarred by even tolerating serious discussion of those findings.
It is difficult to continue this conversation productively because the nature of your claim is such that you will not want to give examples to back it up or to clarify what you mean. The only solution that I can think of is to continue the conversation via private messages. I publicly promise to keep the contents of such a conversation private. (I also extend this offer to sam0345.)
ETA: My impression of you from reading your comments leads me to expect that such a conversation would be dispassionate and to-the-point.
It is difficult to continue this conversation productively because the nature of your claim is such that you will not want to give examples to back it up or to clarify what you mean.
There are lots of areas where I can give examples of stuff that used to be unmentionable in academia, such as the frequent revisions of the history of the Soviet Union.
Which examples imply that there is lots of stuff that is still unmentionable in academia—and what is unmentionable in academia is for the most part unmentionable on LW.
A subject where plain speaking is apt to result in being massively downvoted.
The academics cited by OP describe a primitive and little known tribe behaving in an implausibly politically correct manner with improbably politically correct and satisfactory results, just as Margaret Mead’s Samoans acted in implausibly politically correct manner with improbably politically correct and satisfactory results.
We should therefore have as much faith in these anomalously well behaved primitives as we should have had in Margaret Mead’s anomalously well behaved Samoans, or, returning to my much safer topic, those criminals so marvelously reformed the by Soviet Union’s enlightened penal system.
You would prefer to discuss evidence of academic reliability on topics where most evidence of academic unreliability will get the post presenting such evidence downvoted to −10, and thus disappeared from sight.
Do you mean to say that you have evidence for your claim that you decline to present for fear of being downvoted?
Or have you already presented (or pointed towards) all your evidence for your claim?
I think sam0345 may be exaggerating with a projection of −10, but I think he isn’t exaggerating when he suspects that there are examples of academic unreliability that would be unfeasible to discuss on LW, even though I am a bit more optimistic about what LW can handle than Vladimir_M, for instance. It would be a bad mistake to even attempt to collect evidence on some topics.
I’m a psych junkie, and by following certain online debates and reading journals, I’ve run into several topics where peer-review studies that aren’t publicized contradict the public story. With some of these topics, LW has proven itself to not be quite ready for them, though Vladimir_M sometimes dances around them, and I and others have discussed some of the lighter ones. Other topics are not discussable in public at all in any forum where a speaker wants to retain any reputation. In fact, it would be a hazard to others to even mention these topics on LW, given that many people comment here with their real names, and LW would be tarred by even tolerating serious discussion of those findings.
It is difficult to continue this conversation productively because the nature of your claim is such that you will not want to give examples to back it up or to clarify what you mean. The only solution that I can think of is to continue the conversation via private messages. I publicly promise to keep the contents of such a conversation private. (I also extend this offer to sam0345.)
ETA: My impression of you from reading your comments leads me to expect that such a conversation would be dispassionate and to-the-point.
There are lots of areas where I can give examples of stuff that used to be unmentionable in academia, such as the frequent revisions of the history of the Soviet Union.
Which examples imply that there is lots of stuff that is still unmentionable in academia—and what is unmentionable in academia is for the most part unmentionable on LW.