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posted by takyon on Thursday October 04 2018, @07:22AM   Printer-friendly
from the mein-wort dept.

In an effort to show how politically correct nonsense and evil (but I repeat myself) can get through academic peer review and be published, some academics did just that with seven papers. More are partly through the process.

A particularly funny and horrifying case is the Gender Studies journal Affilia. Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf only needed to be translated with wording in the typical style of intersectionality theory, and it passed muster.

Another published paper, considered exemplary scholarship by the journal that published it, contains this whopper: "Dog parks are microcosms where hegemonic masculinist norms governing queering behavior and compulsory heterosexuality can be observed in a cross-species environment."

The Grievance Studies Scandal: Five Academics Respond

Now, three academics have submitted twenty spoof manuscripts to journals chosen for respectability in their various disciplines. Seven papers were accepted before the experiment stopped; more are surviving peer review. This new raid on screamingly barmy pseudo-scholarship is the Alan Sokal Opening, weaponised. Like dedicated traceurs in a Parkour-fest, the trio scrambled over the terrain of what they call Grievance Studies. And they dropped fire-crackers. One published paper proposed that dog parks are "rape-condoning spaces." Another, entitled "Our Struggle is My Struggle: Solidarity Feminism as an Intersectional Reply to Neoliberal and Choice Feminism" reworked, and substantially altered, part of Mein Kampf. The most shocking, (not published, its status is "revise and resubmit") is a "Feminist Approach to Pedagogy." It proposes "experiential reparations" as a corrective for privileged students. These include sitting on the floor, wearing chains, or being purposely spoken over. Reviewers have commented that the authors risk exploiting underprivileged students by burdening them with an expectation to teach about privilege.

Also at WSJ.

Related: Publishing Stings Find Shoddy Peer Review
Absurd Paper Accepted by Open-Access Computer Science Journal
Media World Fooled with Bogus Chocolate Diet Story


Original Submission #1Original Submission #2

 
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  • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Thursday October 04 2018, @12:19PM (3 children)

    by Gaaark (41) on Thursday October 04 2018, @12:19PM (#744024) Journal

    I figured: I hauled out my copy and looked at the intro.

    Read the rest and you'll see.
    He states facts that support what he wants, ignoring what he dislikes, and then gibbers his way along in a meandering way, one sentence having no connection with the next.

    I got about 1/3 to half way through and just gave up. Too hard to read.

    --
    --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
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    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday October 04 2018, @12:31PM (2 children)

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Thursday October 04 2018, @12:31PM (#744032) Homepage Journal

    He preferred to be called "Matt" but really his name was "Matthias".

    Without it even occurring to me that Matt was German, I showed him my brand-spanking-new copy of Mein Kampf:

    "Cool. I read it both in English and in German".

    Matt was quite a well-educated guy.

    He could not have read the German in Germany because its only recently that it's been permitted there, and only now because its copyright expired. The holder of its German copyright - I think it was one of Germany's States - never granted permission for its publication.

    It happens that I very easily found it at the very first bookstore I happened to look for it in. I said to the cashier, "I should explain why I'm buying this" "Oh, it's OK! It's a very popular book"

    The specific reason I bought it was to get the opposing view, after having bought several volumes of Martin Luther King's collected essays, speeches and sermons. Much of my writing on mental illness is aimed at fighting the stigma against people like me. I figured that it wouldn't be enough to read all the stuff that I already agree with.

    --
    Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
    • (Score: 2) by Pino P on Thursday October 04 2018, @01:48PM (1 child)

      by Pino P (4721) on Thursday October 04 2018, @01:48PM (#744067) Journal

      Read Henry Ford's The International Jew and you'll reportedly have read half of Mein Kampf.