nshepperd comments on Some Heuristics for Evaluating the Soundness of the Academic Mainstream in Unfamiliar Fields - Less Wrong

73 Post author: Vladimir_M 15 February 2011 09:17AM

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Comment author: Vladimir_M 17 February 2011 05:55:34PM 3 points [-]

JoshuaZ:

When dealing with the possibility of ideology influencing results one needs to be careful that one isn't engaging in projection based on one's own ideology influencing results. Otherwise this can turn into a fully general counter-argument.

That is true. The easy case is when clear ideological rifts can be seen even in the disputes among credentialed experts, as in economics. The much more difficult case is when there is a mainstream consensus that looks suspiciously ideological.

To use one of the possibly more amusing examples, look at Conservapedia's labeling of the complex numbers and the axiom of choice as products of liberal ideology.

This sounds like it's probably a hoax by hostile editors. It reminds me of the famous joke from Sokal's hoax paper in which he described the feminist implications of the axioms of equality and choice. Come to think of it, it might even be inspired directly by Sokal's joke.

Comment author: nshepperd 17 February 2011 11:15:22PM 2 points [-]

I thought Conservapedia as a whole was a hoax. Poe's law...

Comment author: Emile 23 February 2011 04:13:33PM 5 points [-]

As far as I can tell a lot of it is a hoax, though the founder may have a hard time telling which editors are creative trolls and which editors (if any) are serious.

Comment author: TheOtherDave 23 February 2011 05:46:42PM 4 points [-]

It is periodically asserted by people claiming to be former contributors to Conservapedia that the founder simply endorses contributors who overtly support him and rejects those who overtly challenge him.

If that were true, I'd expect that editors who are willing to craft contributions that overtly support the main themes of the site get endorsed, even if their articles are absurd to the point of self-parody.

I haven't made a study of CP, but that sounds awfully plausible to me.

Comment author: David_Gerard 23 February 2011 10:21:09PM 2 points [-]

You will be unsurprised to hear that CP has played out in precisely that manner: a parodist coming in, dancing on the edges of Poe and wreaking havoc by feeding Schlafly's biases.

Comment author: TheOtherDave 23 February 2011 10:22:52PM 1 point [-]

I am hereby stealing the phrase "Dancing on the edge of Poe."

I figured I should let you know.