You're being downvoted because you're correct—HN is an eco chamber for zealous regurgitation of opinions of the academy and media—institutions that have decayed. It's been happening slowly for awhile, but now things are starting to come apart at the seams.
It is really annoying because a common response is
"We know academia is bad. But this is the best we have and it is hard to improve"
when that is false on two counts.
1. If you had said the same thing before 2016 or covid, people would not agree that academia is rife with fraud or worthy of skepticism.
2. The same people saying the system dismiss how can it be improved are the same ones that would suffer from disruption as you say. They have the power to dismiss these arguments to begin with.
When I hear someone say, 'We know academia is flawed, but it's the best we have, and it's hard to improve,' I can't help but feel a deep, seething frustration.
It's profoundly insulting and grotesque—on par with excusing the inexcusable.
Accepting this degree of mediocrity is as repulsive as tolerating the most heinous acts imaginable. I've confronted people directly with this, to their face, because to me, it's inconceivable how anyone can be okay with such a vile acceptance of the status quo.
If society was even slightly capable of rational action . . . (legally, I cannot complete this sentence).
You are being downvoted because you extrapolating from one fraud case to call all scientists dishonest.
I can do it too. Person named SpaceManNabs made a bad post. There for all posts by SpaceManNabs, and probably all posts on HackerNews are bad. A dishonest lot.
> from one fraud case to call all scientists dishonest
I specifically mention that the majority of scientists are not dishonest. The majority of scientists are not running academia. The majority of scientists are suffering from this system, to differing degrees.
If I were as rude as you, I'd extrapolate on reading ability, especially since it is not just one fraud case.
Regardless, even if I was wrong on that, all my other criticisms of academia still stand, like exploitation of the phd students. I really hope the grad student unions get what they want.
I appreciate your response though. Makes me feel confident that it is just salty people on HN that hate truth, because otherwise, why would you mischaracterize what I said?
