Should we also laugh at folks who graduate from MIT’s doctoral programs and want to be addressed as “Doctor” even though their degree might be a ScD?
Yes. Insisting on the use of titles is vaguely European. That’s not how we do things in America, where the title for the head of state is just “Mr. President.”
So, just like in Europe? “Mr. Prime Minister”, “M. le Président”, “Frau Bundeskanzlerin”, “Herr Bundeskanzler”, ...
Shouldn't we call her 'Professor' then, since that outranks 'Doctor'?
“We’ve long taken the stance that, despite the technicality that a “J.D.” has the word “doctor” in it, lawyers who adopt the honorific are, well, jackasses.”
Because it's pompous, self-aggrandizing and totally deserving of ridicule for people to use highly formal titles when it is not normative.
More ridiculous are the attacks on anyone who objects to it as 'sexist and partisan'.
Profs and PhDs in the United States and elsewhere do not use such titles outside of Academia. Nobody in the US uses the term but medical doctors and dentists, or, in the most formal of situations. Profs if they are teaching - maybe.
Do we say 'Doctor' when they talk about Steven Pinker?
Neil De Grasse Tyson?
Angel Merkel?
Anyone else ?
No, of course not.
'Dr. Sanjay Gupta' on CNN - yes - of course, but not because he's a PhD, but because he's a Medical Doctor, that is the normative usage, and it's relevant to his work.
Anyone has the 'right' to use such titles can obviously use them, but you can also wear a Tuxedo to Applebee's, that doesn't make it not ridiculous.
In practice, these are tenure track positions, and not all teaching staff have them. For example, as a postdoc, I might teach a course at a college nearby. They might refer to me as "Adjunct professor", which is a temporary non-tenure-track position.
Some students? All students.
The usage of "professor" in the US is much like the usage of "lisp" in programming. There are many lisps (scheme, elisp,...), but there is only one Lisp (that is, Common Lisp).
Similarly, "professor" does indeed mean "Full professor". But students and staff in most universities call nearly all faculty "Professor X", whether they are assistant, associate, full, emeritus, adjunct, term, or whatnot. Indeed many US institutions have since invented official titles for, for example, instructors or adjunct faculty, which explicitly include the word "professor".
I became a professor a month after I got my PhD. Thus for my whole life I had been Sean, then for one month I was Dr. Luke, and then suddenly I was Prof. Luke. It has never been comfortable. I let the undergrads and some MS students call me Professor Luke -- I can't stop them -- but the PhDs, particularly those who are coauthors with me on papers, generally call me Sean.
Students, yes; staff, no; at least this has not been my experience, and outside of some students referring to any teaching faculty as "Prof. X", I have not seen it used professionally. In a professional setting, an associate prof. would be introduced simply as "Dr. X", rather than "Associate Prof. X". I have never heard anybody short of a full professor be called "Prof. X" in a professional setting. The students I understand as them misunderstanding the nomenclature.
And yes, staff also refer to all instructional faculty as "Professor".
This goes not only for my current institution (GMU), but for several other major universities with which I have had experience, as well as major conferences and other academic gatherings. I think it is the norm.
Is it possible that you're seeing something else because of the culture stemming from a different area of academic study? I am in computer science.
I should clarify that: by "title" here I mean "a thing people are called", as in "hey, Associate Prof. X, what's up?". As opposed to an "official" job title.
But an EdD is a professional degree like a JD or PharmD. Demanding we call her doctor out of her professional context is bizarre unless you want your cousin with a JD demanding you do the same.