Steven Pinker as the Definition of Sadness,
…here we see a connection to The New Yorker’s attitude toward science, which might be called Postmodernism Lite. Aside from environmentalists and doctors, the magazine tends to treat scientists as a tribe with the rather quaint creed that progress in understanding the world is possible through rigorous theory and empirical discovery. In fact, the magazine likes to imply, they are just another set of factions struggling for power. Science lurches from paradigm to paradigm; ’twas ever so, and all journalists can do is—as the creationists say—teach the controversy.
Notes
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cocknbull likes this
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cmnotes said:
Pinker is a dick, but as rescaled for Steven Pinker this wasn’t a bad piece. Basically what he’s saying about language is true. That said he has way too much cred so I applaud your mockery.
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matryushka likes this
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thenoobyorker posted this
