George MonbiotFeb 16
I've often wondered how Steven Pinker's amazingly sloppy research and baseless claims* have for so long received a free pass. I wonder whether it could have something to do with a. his connections with the rich and powerful; b. his claims often aligning with what they want to hear. *See next post.

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:b7kamuwqipovlbz2l5vhe2tb/post/3mevfzvpbgk2e
Show threadGeorge Monbiot
In writing this, I focused on a chapter of his that concerned something I knew a bit about. I was flabbergasted. I then discovered that other people had produced similar takedowns of chapters about their own specialisms. I came to the conclusion that he's a charlatan. www.monbiot.com/2018/03/09/c...

Contrary to Reason
Contrary to Reason

Steven Pinker claims to champion Enlightenment values. But his latest book is an affront to them

George Monbiot
Feb 16 at 8:57amWeb
Show threadGeorge MonbiotFeb 16
Yet he has sailed through, untroubled by such exposures, always onto the next set of honours and acclaim. The media seems to have decided he's a genius, and nothing can shake that view.
Show threadTC Won't Give In To LiesFeb 16

@georgemonbiot.bsky.social

It says an awful lot about our "media" and its role in gaslighting the public.

Show threadHerefordrobFeb 16
@TCatInReality @georgemonbiot.bsky.social
Gaslighting like scapegoating is a tool/ weapon of the domination adversarial hierarchical systems. I believe we need to develop partnership working and encourage cosmolocalism #universalequality #universaleducation
Show threadLazarou Monkey Terror 🚀💙🌈Feb 16

@georgemonbiot.bsky.social sounds like how they treated Elon's so called 'genius'

The media are firmly within the Epstein Class, they're in the club and we are not.

#EpsteinClass

Show threadColman ReillyFeb 16
@georgemonbiot.bsky.social sorry, but the charlatanism has been clear for decades. Like so much that people are suddenly discovering now.
Show threadChris FoxFeb 16
@georgemonbiot.bsky.social I would say even the work for which he initially came to media attention ("the language instinct") is based on a contested interpretation of the data on the FOXP2 gene, but gained acclaim as it appealed to the Chomskyian cult in linguistics, and he was able to promote it to the mainstream with telegenic appeal. His business is writing and promoting profitable 'trade books', not conducting academically robust research. It seems the media always love a grifter.
Show threadMarianneFeb 16

@georgemonbiot.bsky.social I wish someone had written up his use of his position to defend a colleague against a student who brought a harassment case against him (the colleague).

There was a twitter thread about it with copies of emails. I may still have the link somewhere, assuming the thread still exists.

I feel that should have received far more attention. All you tend to see when looking is rubbish about his position on "cancel culture" and how he 'avoided cancellation' and other such nonsense.

Now of course we have... All this.
#Epstein #Pinker

Show threadQuantum ⊂ AIFeb 16

@georgemonbiot.bsky.social

IBCK shredded him a while ago https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCE1SOv0bMk

If Books Could Kill - Episode 26: The Better Angels of Our Nature Part 1

YouTube
Show threadMaier AmsdenFeb 16
@georgemonbiot.bsky.social As far as calling humans "a pathogen," some clearly are. Noticing that reality isn't misanthropy. It's called looking.
Show threadGrey the earthlingFeb 16
@georgemonbiot.bsky.social Related: “getting it right might mean admitting you're wrong” — https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0013zm1
BBC Radio 4 - Think with Pinker, Being right

Why getting it right might mean admitting you're wrong.

BBC
Show threadSamuelJohnsonFeb 16

@georgemonbiot.bsky.social Birds of a feather

https://www.thenerve.news/p/epstein-billionaires-eugenics-project-harvard-academia-john-brockman

The billionaires' eugenics project: how Epstein infiltrated Harvard, muzzled the humanities and preached master-race science

Edge - Jeffrey Epstein's favourite intellectual salon - was sold to me as a gathering of the world's finest minds, writes Virginia Heffernan. The files reveal it was something far darker: a decades-long project that cloaked eugenics, race science and sexual misconduct in Ivy League respectability

The Nerve
Show threadThe Sleight Doctor 🃏🍉Feb 16

@georgemonbiot.bsky.social His book, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, was an absolute mess! Shocking abuse of statistics, and such a narrow and self-serving definition of "violence" (not only ignoring structural violence - such as deaths caused by poverty, exploitation and inequality - but also ignoring all undeclared, covert conflicts as well) that his whole thesis is built on quicksand.

So yeah, he's a charlatan with a deeply questionable agenda. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Show threadNicholas WhyteFeb 17
@georgemonbiot.bsky.social The new bits in his books are not good, and the good bits are not new.