I gotta track down that old study showing that stereotypes have a higher degree of accuracy than virtually all of social science.
Come to think of it, most of social science is really just stolen valor. “Your ancestors didn’t know that the earth revolved around the sun, or that harmful microscopic organisms exist, therefore all of your ancestors’ observations regarding human nature are completely invalid.” The historical limitations of legitimate hard science do not automatically invalidate the learned wisdom resulting from generations of human interaction.
I have a whole rant about how physics essentially stumbling into profound explanatory power throughout the 18th and 19th C, through nothing but dogged following of evidence and first principles, mind-broke the humanities and soft sciences. They then rebuilt themselves as cargo-cult physics and have never recovered.
I gotta track down that old study showing that stereotypes have a higher degree of accuracy than virtually all of social science.
Come to think of it, most of social science is really just stolen valor. “Your ancestors didn’t know that the earth revolved around the sun, or that harmful microscopic organisms exist, therefore all of your ancestors’ observations regarding human nature are completely invalid.” The historical limitations of legitimate hard science do not automatically invalidate the learned wisdom resulting from generations of human interaction.
I have a whole rant about how physics essentially stumbling into profound explanatory power throughout the 18th and 19th C, through nothing but dogged following of evidence and first principles, mind-broke the humanities and soft sciences. They then rebuilt themselves as cargo-cult physics and have never recovered.