Hacker News Reader

Why is salon bothered by Pinker? Lots of professors follow ideology rather than logic, specially in the softer majors. Listen to philosophers, and they loosely tie things together from time to time.

Maybe this book of Pinker's is full of it, but why take exception to Pinker when there are many more out there?

It seems pathetically personal, for no good reason [by that I mean it attacks some flourishes and liberties, but not the substance]

View on HN

Hungry writers sometimes attack their betters in order to earn some publicity from the controversy. For it to work, the victim has to be famous and with a significant following, such as in Pinker's case.

>Why is salon bothered by Pinker?

It's given away in the intro. Re-read this line: "In a recent article for Quillette, the “Intellectual Dark Web’s” online safe space"

Opening an article by bringing up something the Salon core readership has already been taught to hate before mentioning the topic of the article? This article isn't about Pinker, it's about the battle between Phil Torres and whatever it is that Pinker and the IDW stand for in Phil Torres' mind.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com