In Bill Maher’s latest comedy/politics bit on Real Time —called“F with your algorithm—he calls out people for assuming that because he criticizes the left, he must be a right-winger. This criticism hits home for me, as I’ve been accused of the same thing. As Maher notes, he’s been criticized for being a right-winger by people who deliberately ignore his criticisms of the right—even though he does that as well, and often. People don’t like to call attention to things that make them uncomfortable.
One example is our joint anthology, The War on Science, which was attacked for criticizing the left’s erosion of science when in fact many of its authors are liberals. The slant of the book apparently angered some “progressives,” who argued (many without having read the book), that it should have been aimed instead at the right (which also damages science). My response to these critics is pretty much the same as Maher’s, but this is a family-oriented site so I will simply echo what Maher says at 1:07.
As Maher says, “If you think your job is to tell people what you want to hear, you’re not a journalist—you’re a wedding D.J.” He gives examples of his own demonization for being a right-winger when, in his piece, he had in fact he’d criticized both right and left. Much of the reportage on Maher’s so-called conservatism (he’s a classical liberal) involves deliberately distorting or truncating his views. Maher may seem a bit defensive, but he deserves to be!
(The guests appear to be Mark Cuban and Andrew Ross Sorkin.)
At the end he analogizes this journalistic tactic to how websites and devices also type their users, developing algorithms that, as we all know, aim their ad at users who, they think, will bite. His solution? Mess with those computer algorithms by clicking on things that you don’t like or want. That has a side benefit. You’re a liberal like most of us, start reading conservative sites: that will do you good anyway.
Apropos of Maher’s monologue, we have a new video (below) about The War on Science book, or rather about its thesis. Lawrence Krauss, author of the anthology, says this about the 100-minute video (I haven’t yet watched it):
We’re closing our campaign of interviews and discussions for the book with something special: the official broadcast video of the War on Science Panel Discussion. This was a remarkable event put on as a collaboration between The Origins Project Foundation and the Free Speech Union, their largest ever event in fact, celebrating the book’s launch.
You can now watch the full video, where I was joined by several eminent contributors including Richard Dawkins, Alice Sullivan, John Armstrong, Alan Sokal, and Amy Wax. We debated the causes of, and solutions to, the ideological and political capture we’re witnessing in mathematics, the natural sciences, theoretical physics, medicine, and even government statistics. It was a good-natured but feisty exchange of ideas across political divides, driven by a panel of speakers who care passionately about truth and reason, all chaired by FSU founder Lord Toby Young.
This discussion really captures the core of the entire project: a candid exchange about the very real problems facing science and academia, and a necessary defense of free inquiry and objective truth.
Reader Bat recommended this video in an email:
I am finding it very engaging. I have read the full book of essays and maybe that helps me appreciate the authors’ verbalizing, but in any case I find it to be surprisingly fresh and engaging. It is nice to have both of the two mathematicians on the panel, and for two reasons: 1. It forewarns people that even math is under serious woke attack; and 2. Both guys give very nice talks of what hogwash the attacks are.