Apparently we get a shout-out? Sharing this brings me no joy, and I am sorry for inflicting it upon you.

  • swlabr@awful.systems
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    1 day ago

    Peter Woit has weighed in on this second post as well in an update to his original response. Note that he has linked to the sneersub.

    Here’s the update text, with links preserved:

    Update: More from Scott, it seems that those opposed to what Israel is doing in Gaza are “brain-eaten zombies”. He’s also convinced that the zombie problem is mainly academics in the humanities. I hear that there’s a statement about what is going on in Gaza signed by thousands of prominent scientists that will soon be made public. A lot of very prominent brain-eaten zombie scientists out there, it seems.

    Of course he’s still not allowing comments on his blog. For other discussion of his blogposts, see here and here.

    E: I don’t know anything about Woit, what should I know about him? I see that, despite his recent disagreements with Scott, he has links on his blog to sht-opt’ed and also other sneer club villain Sabine Hossenfelder. Also, he seems a little judgmental/critical of the pro-palestinian protest tactics. So my guess is: liberal academic that’s probably a little STEM brained, but not anything near problematic enough to be sneered at here.

    • CinnasVerses@awful.systems
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      Hossenfelder seemed like a normal science blogger and critic of string theory until some recent videos, and most people don’t update their blogroll every year. And Woit links her sensible (but defunct) blog, not her out-there videos.

      A lot of people in this world have connections going back 15 or 30 years but ended up on opposite sides (eg. Charlie Stross and Curtis Yarvin, or Laurie Penny and Scott Aaronson)

    • blakestacey@awful.systemsM
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      And now Woit has banned ScottAa from his blog:

      One reason people are not discussing the WWII analogy here is that, as I explained, I delete attempts to argue one way or another about justifying the mass murder of children through things like bad analogies. It’s the kind of thing you seem to really enjoy a lot, but makes me sick to my stomach. […] Actually, that’s enough. If you want to carry on your arguments for killing children, and engage in lunatic rants about everyone being an antisemite, you have your own blog, can do so there.

    • blakestacey@awful.systemsM
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      Woit is a math guy at Columbia who is mostly known for calling string theory a crock of non-science. I don’t think he’s sneerable. Sometimes his opinions align with a remark by, e.g., Hossenfelder, but he’s not … brain-cooked by engagement algorithms like she is. I check in on Woit’s blog occasionally to see if there’s news in the world of math that I missed, and the sense I get is that he made the criticisms he wanted to make and would rather talk about things he finds more interesting, whereas Hossenfelder is desperate for those physics is a corrupt cabal clicks.

    • AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space
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      A defining property of a zombie is that it’s not alive, and thus that destroying it is not murder. Not sure if that was what he was going for.

      • swlabr@awful.systems
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        1 day ago

        Yeah, if I had to guess, it would be that that in part 3 of this shit, Scott begins advocating killing the “zombies”. So what he’s going for is “manufacturing consent”.