ChristianKl comments on Open thread, Dec. 1 - Dec. 7, 2014 - Less Wrong

3 Post author: MrMind 01 December 2014 08:29AM

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Comment author: ChristianKl 03 December 2014 02:43:03PM 3 points [-]

If you strongly feel all of mainstream academia is biased, then pick a school known for being right-wing.

If left-wing academia is low quality that in no way implies that right-wing academia is high quality. Seeing everything as left vs. right might even be part of the deeper problem plaguing the subject.

Comment author: gjm 03 December 2014 05:05:35PM 1 point [-]

On the other hand, if (in someone's opinion) academia as a whole is of low quality on account of a leftward political bias then it seems reasonable for that person to take a look at more right-leaning academic institutions.

Comment author: ChristianKl 03 December 2014 07:33:43PM -2 points [-]

Nobody here said that's it's primarily a leftward bias.

A while ago someone tried to understand who controls the majority of companies and found that less than few institutions do control most of the economy.

Did they publish in a economics journal? Probably too political. Instead they publised in Plos One.

I have a German book that makes arguments about how old German accounting standards are much nicer than the Anglo American ones. Politics that makes Anglo-American accounting standards the global default are not well explored by either leftwing or rightwing academic institutions.

Substantial debates about the political implications of accounting standards just aren't a topic that a lot of political academics who focus on left vs. right care about.

A lot of right wing political academia is also funded via think tanks that exist to back certain policies.

Comment author: gjm 03 December 2014 11:59:05PM 0 points [-]

Nobody here said that it's primarily a leftward bias.

True, but the things Nornagest was complaining about could all be at-least-kinda-credibly claimed to have a leftward bias, and could not be at all credibly claimed to have a rightward bias.

Of course, as you say, there's a lot more to politics (and putative biases in academia) than left versus right, but it's a useful approximation.

Lest I be misunderstood, I will add that I too have a leftward bias, and I do not in fact think anyone would get a better education, or find better researchers, by choosing a right-leaning place (except that there are some places that happen both to be good and to have a rightward slant, I think largely by coincidence, and if you pick one of them then you win). And I share (what I take to be) your disapproval of attempts to manipulate public opinion by funding academics with a particular political bent.