A scholar tries to reprise Sokal’s hoax. And mostly fails. Daily Bullshit, May 20-21, 2017

Updates

  1. May 21, 1:31 pm:
    • Uber is “charging some passengers more because it needs the extra cash.”[1]

Not Sokal’s Hoax

Come on, guys. It[2] just ain’t that hard.

Andrew Mytelka, “Hoax Article in Social-Science Journal Gets a Rise Out of Some Scholars,” Chronicle of Higher Education, May 20, 2017, http://www.chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/hoax-article-in-social-science-journal-gets-a-rise-out-of-some-scholars/118526


Donald Trump

From what I can see the conventional wisdom is that if Donald Trump is removed from office, it will most likely be via impeachment.[3] But, to my understanding, the 25th amendment offers a quicker and—I think at least in the short term—less painful route, at least to the end of getting Trump out of office.[4] And while I’m no fan of having mental health professionals violate the Goldwater Rule and believe that there’s more value to that rule than just not getting sued,[5] in combination with Trump burning Mossad and demonstrating himself to be a threat to “national security,”[6] these remote assessments do provide a rationale.[7]

Will Pavia, “The psychiatrists’ verdict: Donald Trump is a man incapable of guilt, with inner rage,” Times, May 20, 2017, https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/world/psychiatrists-verdict-on-trump-a-man-incapable-of-guilt-with-inner-rage-zsrlt707b


James Comey

McKay Coppins, “How Does This End?” Atlantic, May 18, 2017, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/05/how-will-the-trump-presidency-end/527055/


Discouraged Workers

Eleanor Krause and Isabel V. Sawhill, “What we know and don’t know about declining labor force participation: A review,” Brookings, May 17, 2017, https://www.brookings.edu/research/what-we-know-and-dont-know-about-declining-labor-force-participation-a-review/


Uber

Uber is “charging some passengers more because it needs the extra cash.”[8] Ummm, hello, Uber? Drivers need the cash too.

Eric Newcomer, “Uber Starts Charging What It Thinks You’re Willing to Pay,” Bloomberg, May 19, 2017, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-19/uber-s-future-may-rely-on-predicting-how-much-you-re-willing-to-pay


  1. [1]Eric Newcomer, “Uber Starts Charging What It Thinks You’re Willing to Pay,” Bloomberg, May 19, 2017, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-19/uber-s-future-may-rely-on-predicting-how-much-you-re-willing-to-pay
  2. [2]Abhishek Roy, “The Sokal Affair,” University of California, Berkeley, February 23, 2004, http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~abhishek/sokal.html; Jennifer Ruark, “Bait and Switch,” Chronicle of Higher Education, January 1, 2017, http://www.chronicle.com/article/Anatomy-of-a-Hoax/238728; Steven Weinberg, “Sokal’s Hoax,” New York University, August 8, 1996, http://www.physics.nyu.edu/sokal/weinberg.html
  3. [3]McKay Coppins, “How Does This End?” Atlantic, May 18, 2017, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/05/how-will-the-trump-presidency-end/527055/
  4. [4]Andrew Prokop, “The 25th Amendment, explained: how a president can be declared unfit to serve,” Vox, May 17, 2017, https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/2/9/14488980/25th-amendment-trump-pence
  5. [5]Aaron Blake, “The American Psychiatric Association issues a warning: No psychoanalyzing Donald Trump,” Washington Post, August 7, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/08/07/the-american-psychiatric-association-reminds-its-doctors-no-psychoanalyzing-donald-trump/
  6. [6]Bryan Bender, “Ex-intelligence leaders: ‘Nightmare’ if Trump leaked to Russia,” Politico, May 15, 2017, http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/15/trump-secrets-russia-isis-238421; Yochi Dreazen, “Donald Trump is a serious threat to American national security,” Vox, May 15, 2017, https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/5/15/15644928/donald-trump-russia-share-intelligence-lavrov-isis-oval-office; Shane Harris and Carol E. Lee, “Israel Provided Intelligence Trump Shared With Russia, Officials Say,” Wall Street Journal, May 16, 2017, https://www.wsj.com/articles/intelligence-trump-shared-with-russia-was-from-israel-officials-say-1494960259; Greg Miller and Greg Jaffe, “Trump revealed highly classified information to Russian foreign minister and ambassador,” Washington Post, May 15, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-revealed-highly-classified-information-to-russian-foreign-minister-and-ambassador/2017/05/15/530c172a-3960-11e7-9e48-c4f199710b69_story.html
  7. [7]Henry Alford, “Is Donald Trump Actually a Narcissist? Therapists Weigh In!” Vanity Fair, November 11, 2015, http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/11/donald-trump-narcissism-therapists; Matthew Goldenberg, “A professional opinion: You don’t need a psychiatrist to know there’s something wrong with Donald Trump,” Los Angeles Times, August 23, 2016, http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-goldenberg-trump-mental-health-20160823-snap-story.html; Dan Hannan, “The real reason Donald Trump is unfit to be president,” Washington Examiner, May 16, 2016, http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/the-real-reason-donald-trump-is-unfit-to-be-president/article/2591147; Will Pavia, “The psychiatrists’ verdict: Donald Trump is a man incapable of guilt, with inner rage,” Times, May 20, 2017, https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/world/psychiatrists-verdict-on-trump-a-man-incapable-of-guilt-with-inner-rage-zsrlt707b; Gail Sheehy, “At Yale, Psychiatrists Cite Their ‘Duty to Warn’ About an Unfit President,” New York, April 23, 2017, http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/04/yale-psychiatrists-cite-duty-to-warn-about-unfit-president.html
  8. [8]Eric Newcomer, “Uber Starts Charging What It Thinks You’re Willing to Pay,” Bloomberg, May 19, 2017, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-19/uber-s-future-may-rely-on-predicting-how-much-you-re-willing-to-pay

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.