Social science hoax papers is one of RealClearScience’s top junk science stories of 2018

We knew about the “rape culture in dogs” paper that got taken seriously but did you know about this one?:

Hoaxers Reveal That Some Social Science Journals Will Publish Nonsense. This year, three academics, James Lindsay, Helen Pluckrose, and Peter Boghossian, revealed their efforts to publish blatantly ridiculous hoax papers in a variety of social science journals. … Accepted at Affilia was “Our Struggle is My Struggle: Solidarity Feminism as an Intersectional Reply to Neoliberal and Choice Feminism,” which essentially reworded a chapter from Hitler’s Mein Kampf. Revised and resubmitted to Women’s Studies International Forum was “Stars, Planets, and Gender: A Framework for a Feminist Astronomy,” which argues “that feminist and queer astrology should be considered part of the science of astronomy.” Lindsay, Pluckrose, and Boghoassian showed that social science, and especially postmodernist grievance studies, are apt to publish meaningless gibberish.* Ross Pomeroy, “The Biggest Junk Science of 2018” at RealClearScience

Wow. As noted earlier, a good deal of social science is not, for any practical purpose, distinguishable from a hoax. The only significant question is whether the authors are in on it.

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See also: Sokal hoaxes strike social science again

Post-modern science 101: How gender theory “harms” pets

Objectivity is cultural discrimination

and

Nature: Stuck with a battle it dare not fight, even for the soul of science. Excuse me guys but, as in so many looming strategic disasters, the guns are facing the wrong way.

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