Serious Inquiries Only

What the Gender Studies Hoax and Jordan B. Peterson's pronoun mania both have in common is the bogeyman of postmodernism. It seems to be conventional wisdom that postmodernism is manifestly crazy. But how substantive is that criticism in reality? I've invited a philosopher, Aaron Rabi, to give us a bit of a lesson on what postmodernism is and perhaps where the criticisms are accurate and where they fall short. Leave Thomas a voicemail! (916) 750-4746, remember short and to the point! Support us on Patreon at: patreon.com/seriouspod Follow us on Twitter: @seriouspod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/seriouspod For comments, email [email protected] Questions, Suggestions, Episode ideas? email: [email protected] Direct Download

Please share this podcast with any Democrat you witness losing their mind about the special election results. In reality, the trend is very, very positive for Democrats going into 2018 elections. I go into why. After that, we have a lengthy and most excellent voicemail segment. Listen in! Our Brand Is Worse Than Trump; Anti-Pelosi Republican Ad; Lots of Info On Special Elections At Ballotpedia Leave Thomas a voicemail! (916) 750-4746, remember short and to the point! Support us on Patreon at: patreon.com/seriouspod Follow us on Twitter: @seriouspod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/seriouspod For comments, email [email protected] Questions, Suggestions, Episode ideas? email: [email protected]

In the same weekend, a teen found guilty of manslaughter for convincing her boyfriend to commit suicide, and a police officer found NOT guilty after shooting and killing Philando Castile. It has left many wondering, how did this happen? This demands expert analysis, so I've brought in the big guns in Andrew Torrez, resident law expert at the Opening Arguments Podcast to help us understand the situation! Philando Castile; Michelle Carter; Andrew's Case Leave Thomas a voicemail! (916) 750-4746, remember short and to the point! Support us on Patreon at: patreon.com/seriouspod Follow us on Twitter: @seriouspod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/seriouspod For comments, email [email protected] Questions, Suggestions, Episode ideas? email: [email protected] Direct Download

Back for a second time is Michael Shermer! He's the editor of Skeptic Magazine and has been a very prominent voice in the community for decades. After our last conversation, a couple of things happened. One was the gender studies hoax, which was explained and endorsed by his magazine. The other was the Evergreen incident, which Shermer tweeted about and wanted to know my thoughts on. We discussed both of these at length! Refer to my earlier episode on Evergreen for those references Faculty of color say they are receiving death threats; President disappointed in protesters, may discipline; Weinstein second Tucker Carlson appearance; Sokal's response to the gender studies hoax; Feminist glaciology TED talk. Leave Thomas a voicemail! (916) 750-4746, remember short and to the point! Support us on Patreon at: patreon.com/seriouspod Follow us on Twitter: @seriouspod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/seriouspod For comments, email [email protected] Questions, Suggestions, Episode ideas? email: [email protected]

Joining me this week for interview Monday is Dr. Gleb Tsipursky! Gleb is an expert in decision sciences, focusing on politics and business. In the wake of the 2016 election, Gleb has decided to focus on fighting against fake news and misinformation in our politics. That's why he has created the Truth Pledge, which he tells us all about in the interview. His insight is very valuable and is another in the series on how to change minds and where to focus our efforts. Make sure you take the Pro-Truth Pledge! https://www.protruthpledge.org/ Research links: http://intentionalinsights.org/how-can-facts-trump-ideology/ http://intentionalinsights.org/how-behavioral-science-can-help-truth-triumph-over-baseless-accusations/ http://intentionalinsights.org/the-brain-science-of-political-deception-in-the-2016-election/ Link to Gleb's bio: http://glebtsipursky.com/about/ Leave Thomas a voicemail! (916) 750-4746, remember short and to the point! Support us on Patreon at: patreon.com/seriouspod Follow us on Twitter: @seriouspod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/seriouspod For comments, email [email protected] Questions, Suggestions, Episode ideas? email: [email protected]

Due to popular demand, I've decided to embark on a fact-finding mission regarding the Brett Weinstein/Evergreen College fiasco. It took an incredible amount of digging to find anything beyond the same few talking points that have exploded across conservative media in the past few weeks, but the deeper story is a little more complicated and worthy of our attention. As usual, the easy way out is to filter the facts so they comport to a narrative we want, but I do my best to investigate the facts from a neutral standpoint. What I found might surprise you! Here are links: Tucker Carlson Interview; Email Exchange; Cooper Point Journal 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6; Weinstein View on Equity Policy; Demographics of Professors; Detainment of Black Students; President Letter on Trigger Warnings; President Response to Demands; Letter from 50 Faculty; Professor Solidarity with Students; Prof Setting Record Straight. Leave Thomas a voicemail! (916) 750-4746, remember short and to the point! Support us on Patreon at: patreon.com/seriouspod Follow us on Twitter: @seriouspod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/seriouspod For comments, email [email protected] Questions, Suggestions, Episode ideas? email: [email protected] Direct Download

It is immensely important to me that I do my best to engage with those who disagree, and in that spirit I present a conversation with someone who argued a lot with me on Twitter about Jordan B. Peterson and Canadian bill C-16. This conversation took place on May 4th, but with a lot of Trump news and some key interviews I kept the interview as patron only. Lots of listeners have requested its release though, and I think it's also an inspiring and useful dialogue to hear. So at long last, I give you my conversation with @PithyJoe on the merits of bill C-16. Leave Thomas a voicemail! (916) 750-4746, remember short and to the point! Support us on Patreon at: patreon.com/seriouspod Follow us on Twitter: @seriouspod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/seriouspod For comments, email [email protected] Questions, Suggestions, Episode ideas? email: [email protected] Direct Download

After a few small points about the last couple episodes on the hoax paper, we're back to normal here on commentary Thursday! Today's main topic is the CBO score on the new incarnation of the evil AHCA bill. AHCA is, in my opinion, the most important political scandal currently happening. After that is a very difficult voicemail segment, in that there are 3 tough questions with no easy answers. But those are the most important kind! Links: CBO Score on AHCA 2; NPR Breakdown on CBO Score; In Depth Uproxx Article on the Burrito Truck; Google Doc on Portland Appropriation; Academic Paper on Cultural Appropriation Support us on Patreon at: patreon.com/seriouspod Follow us on Twitter: @seriouspod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/seriouspod For comments, email [email protected] Questions, Suggestions, Episode ideas? email: [email protected]

Last week you heard Eli Bosnick's side of why the 'Conceptual Penis' hoax paper was disingenuous and unskeptical, and today I speak with one of the paper's authors, James Lindsay. James has been a previous guest on the show; he's been someone I have always admired for his intellectual rigor and willingness to back up what he believes and to have the tough conversations. For that much I really, really respect him coming on. But I can't hide my opinion on this hoax. I think it was garbage and it was latched onto unskeptically by people who fancy themselves critical thinkers. I challenge James on the paper and we get to hear his side of it. Today's episode is actually 2 in 1, because after the conversation I reminded James to send me the links corroborating his arguments. When I received them, I was appalled that each description of the scholarly articles he sent was a lazy and ideologically motivated strawman. As such, I emailed him a heads up that I would be going in depth into his sources and describing exactly how he (or maybe Real Peer Review, if that was his source) is either intentionally or just ignorantly misunderstanding these abstracts. I'm incredibly disappointed at this dishonest or careless behavior. If you are going to waltz into a field that ISN'T your expertise and claim that the bulk of it is bunk, it is incumbent upon you to do the research and know what you're talking about. For the sake of transparency, I will paste word for word the sources email James sent me: "Hi Thomas, In all the fuss, I can't remember what I was supposed to send you, but I'll give it a try. Periods are a social construct: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0891243216672662?journalCode=gasa "Doing Gender" (number one cited gender studies paper in the number one journal -- referred to first sentence of abstract): https://campus.fsu.edu/bbcswebdav/institution/academic/social_sciences/sociology/Reading%20Lists/Social%20Psych%20Prelim%20Readings/IV.%20Structures%20and%20Inequalities/1987%20West%20Zimmerman%20-%20Doing%20Gender.pdf Donated blood is a social construction: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09581596.2017.1297384?src=recsys&journalCode=ccph20 Scientific method is sexist: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/027753959580031J Alligators teach hegemonic masculinity: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0190272516656620?etoc= Squirrels: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0966369X.2017.1314949?journalCode=cgpc20 Pilates is racist: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/dance-research-journal/article/div-classtitlethe-pilates-pelvis-racial-implications-of-the-immobile-hipsdiv/2CDDDB16BFD648003DCAB3DD0634FF81 Curing erectile dysfunction reinforces hegemonic masculinity: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1097184X00003001004 (we cited this paper in ours) Fat men's penises might not exist, social construction: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1363460716640734 Male lactation can exist through social construction: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2916660 Pregnancy shouldn't be associated with femininity: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10894160.2012.653766 Wikipedia shouldn't demand sources because sexism: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S8755461515000547 STEM syllabi are sexist because focus on facts: http://nsuworks.nova.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2467&context=tqr Feminists see themselves as activists to infect other fields of study with ideological biases, compare themselves favorably to viruses like HIV and ebola: http://hipatiapress.com/hpjournals/index.php/generos/article/viewFile/1983/1624#page=78 Feminist glaciers: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0309132515623368#corresp-1 Meanwhile, almost 15000 kids a year are graduating from such programs: https://datausa.io/profile/cip/05/ Also, T&F supports Cogent: http://editorresources.taylorandfrancisgroup.com/introducing-cogent-oa/ " Those are all the papers. In the later half of the episode I discuss the research I did on all of them and how atrocious James's descriptions were. Support us on Patreon at: patreon.com/seriouspod Follow us on Twitter: @seriouspod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/seriouspod For comments, email [email protected] Questions, Suggestions, Episode ideas? email: [email protected] Direct Download

An embarrassingly unskeptical article appeared in Skeptic Magazine recently featuring a hoax paper published in a Gender Studies journal by two authors: James Lindsay (past guest of the show) and Peter Boghossian. Michael Shermer, the editor of Skeptic magazine, and several major figures in the skeptic movement like Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins took the conclusion that Gender Studies as a field has been demolished by this hoax. This is incredibly irresponsible. The hoax paper accomplished no such thing, and Eli is here to explain in depth why. Links: Skeptic Magazine Article Other sokal hoaxes:

• A US nuclear physics conference accepted a paper written entirely in autocomplete.
• A trio of MIT grad students created an algorithm that creates fake scientific papers – in 2013 IEEE and Springer Publishing found 120 published papers had been generated by the program.
• A paper entitled "Get me off your fucking mailing list" was accepted for publication by computer science journal.
• A 2013 hoax saw a scientific paper about fictional lichen published in several hundred journals.

Cogent OA FAQ Lichen Paper published in 45% of DOAJ publishers Gender Studies Journal Rankings Excellent Debunk by Bleedingheartlibertarians Other Excellent Debunk, with Source for Sokal Quote Support us on Patreon at: patreon.com/seriouspod Follow us on Twitter: @seriouspod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/seriouspod For comments, email [email protected] Questions, Suggestions, Episode ideas? email: [email protected]