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0 pointspron10y ago0 comments

Meritocracy still has purely negative connotations among those who study society, and positive connotations among politicians or corporations who wish to justify their current practices. You won't hear the word "meritocracy" mentioned by sociologists or historians as anything but a joke, or, if they're patient, as a starting point of a dystopia.

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5 comments · 1 top-level

proveanegative10y ago· 4 in thread

Of course, it has to be noted that academics lean left, and sociologists overwhelmingly so.

See, e.g., http://www.criticalreview.com/2004/pdfs/cardiff_klein.pdf.

pronOP10y ago

Right, and did you know that most climatologists are overwhelmingly climate-change believers?! That's just so unfair. Where are all the climate-change-denier climatologists, creationist biologists and libertarian sociologists, I wonder?

proveanegative10y ago

Comparing sociology to biology in particular ends up unflattering for the former. Biology is a lot more obviously successful than sociology. Sociology has so far failed to produce its equivalent to evidence-based medicine and whenever treatments it has tried to design for social illnesses have not delivered.

I don't think sociology is completely hopeless but given its track record so far I would sooner expect intelligence (and empathy, willpower, etc.) augmentation to cure whatever problems plague society than any attempt at "institutional change".

Grue310y ago

At least climatologists actually observe the climate. If the sociologists observed the massive failure of communism in the 20th century they wouldn't be leaning left, that's for sure.

gd110y ago

That's a very good point. I know you're trying to be sarcastic, but if you had any self-awareness you'd stop and ponder it. Who do you think ends up doing 'climate science'? Why?

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