Science, Scientism, and the "Intellectual Yet Idiot"

A friend on Facebook points out a wonderful and insightful tirade by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, of Black Swan fame, denouncing what Taleb calls the Intellectual Yet Idiot class. In general, we disapprove of name-calling around here. But there's something to this.

Who are the "IYI"? They are "policymaking 'clerks' and journalists-insiders, that class of paternalistic semi-intellectual experts." A key identifying marker of the IYI is an eager credulousness when presented with prestige scientific o...