Milgram experiment (1963) [video]

Yeah as I see it, the attacks on Milgram were part of a larger fad that went around of finding any excuse to attack unethical science of the past as unscientific and useless or unhelpful. I think previously, the narrative was that such experiments were at least helpful or informative, and that made some people uncomfortable. I think also the particular conclusions of the Milgram and Stanford experiments also deeply upset university liberals because they humanized oppressors and provided some source of empathy for them. There are undoubtedly issues with all such historical science, but I think fighting that small window of empathy is misguided personally, because it forgets one of the most important lessons of history: There really are lots of "normal" people capable of great atrocities under the right conditions. I think it's important and takes more work to pay attention to those conditions, rather than to simply label the perpetrators as evil or inhuman and move on.

Good finds! (I won't add them to the above list because they don't have comments. Users get cranky when they click on HN links and find no comments there.)

You're right, I've changed the terminology to clarify this for people unfamiliar with Derren Brown.