Thread by @kareem_carr

As a response to the rightwing, some academics are pushing for a world where scientists are above social criticism.

Critiquing the motivations and behaviors of scientists isn't anti-science. It's democracy.

A thread.

I frequently see academics imply it's morally wrong or anti-science to tweet negative things about them and their field. This is somewhat understandable. Who wouldn't want to live in a world where it was morally wrong to criticize us and our work?

I guess it's possible a mean tweet could hurt a field's reputation but so what? Tweeting mean things about Pepsi could cause Pepsi to be less popular and Pepsi employees to lose their jobs. That doesn't mean tweeting mean stuff about Pepsi is morally wrong.

Are academic fields really so fragile that one bad tweet could cause the whole thing to come crashing down and thousands of scientists to lose their jobs?

To be clear, I agree that it's good to promote being on the same page about scientific *facts* BUT this is different from implying it's somehow out of bounds to have opinions about scientists as human beings and their communities.

I know many people are sensitive around issues of stereotyping and speech harm but not all categories are equal. In my opinion, it's fine to tweet "California sucks" or "Guys on tinder are the worst". This kind of talk is just a normal part of human societies.

In the specific case of protected categories like race, humans have a long history of horrific atrocities resulting from our tendency to stereotype. It's a *special* case that requires *extra* safeguards. Trashing IQ researchers, for instance, is not the same thing at all.

Also, I think a lot of academics on Twitter are abusing the language of science education to win arguments. They often claim to be "correcting misconceptions" which invokes the framework of *factual* errors when they're really just pushing back on *criticisms* they don't like.

Let me boil it down. Correcting folks on how gravity works is science education. Claiming someone is "spreading misconceptions" if they don't agree that physicists are hard-working, kind-hearted souls who just want to make the world better is not. That's doing PR for your field.

My message to academic Twitter is simple. Don't act like mean tweets about your academic field are oppression. Don't use your PhD as a cudgel to stamp out opinions about your field that you don't like. Stuff like that will probably backfire. Badly.

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