> methods like the Sokal hoax to create stories that seem scandalous on the surface
No, it doesn't seem scandalous "on the surface." If you are in a field with so called "peer reviewed research" and someone can publish complete made up bullshit, then your entire field of study is garbage. You see these morons complain about his tactics, but you never see them fight back in kind. That's because you would never be able to get bullshit through the peer review process in physics, because it's, you know, real.
> If you are in a field with so called "peer reviewed research" and someone can publish complete made up bullshit, then your entire field of study is garbage.
The problem is, that's simply not what's happening. Boghossian isn't getting published in any large or reputable journals. He's getting articles published in tiny obscure open access journals. His paper has repeatedly, consistently failed peer review in academic journals.
If I published a logically incorrect math proof in some obscure journal no one has ever heard of, I haven't "disproved math." To claim I did so would be deeply dishonest.
I believe the point he is making, is that any old BS can be published, which is then picked up by the "woke" crowd and used in their citations...therefore highlighting that their citations are generally nonsense.
To show their citations are generally nonsense he would have had to do some analysis to prove this. Having fraudulent papers accepted to low impact, open access journals doesn’t exactly prove much of anything in a general sense.
I believe there are some hints that towing certain ideological lines is more important for a successful submission in some academic journals than the merit of the paper itself.
For the reasons explained in the article and plain monetary interests.
>That's because you would never be able to get bullshit through the peer review process in physics,
are you sure about that?[1]. Some journal accepting a bullshit paper proves exactly one thing, that likely one individual or a small group of people had bad judgement. I'm not sure how one publicity stunt is supposed to destroy an entire field of research. That's just your own preconceived bias talking, and it's actually why these hoaxes are just stupid.
Did you read the article you linked? It has nothing to do with peer-reviewed publication in physics journals. It’s just another fake conference that automatically prints submitted abstracts (as do many real conferences). I get a different invitation every week or two to submit papers to these things. This week it’s some energy conference in Turkey (today was my “last chance” after ignoring their five previous emails). It means nothing.
No, it doesn't seem scandalous "on the surface." If you are in a field with so called "peer reviewed research" and someone can publish complete made up bullshit, then your entire field of study is garbage. You see these morons complain about his tactics, but you never see them fight back in kind. That's because you would never be able to get bullshit through the peer review process in physics, because it's, you know, real.