Outrage Culture - College edition

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I also have a professor in one class who is profoundly unqualified to teach the subject... in fact, I'm more qualified than he is, and yet he's in charge of grading the papers. It's kind of obscene.

Yesterday, h asked about neuroscience book recommendations, and I mentioned a few authors, and concluded by saying "...and of course, Ramachandran is always a good read" to which he responded "If you can stand his arrogance". I said "I have trouble with his arrogance and I'm not a fan of his sense of humor, nor do I always agree with his conclusions, but he has really interesting case studies". The professor kind of scoffed and said "but you recommend him?" as if that was some kind of contradiction. I said "I don't always like what I recommend, and I don't always recommend what I like. If there's good information that has contributed significantly to informing the field, it's worth reading, and a good chance to exercise some critical thinking".

He clearly didn't get it, which is not surprising. He's into complete bullshit that reinforces his views, whether there's good science behind it or not. Currently, he's singing the praises of Rupert Sheldrake, which should tell you everything you need to know about his views on science.

It kills me that you had to explain it to him.  Sheldrake, the morphogentic field guy? Man...your prof checked out years ago.

He's not trained in any science, whatsoever, and has apparently not really tried to educate himself beyond reading things that reinforce what he wants to believe.

How did he get to be a professor? Was it nepotism, or cronyism, or bribery, or just bad hiring policies?

Universities pay their adjuncts shit wages, and he's perfectly qualified to teach the other classes he teaches. He just overreached terribly, I am guessing in a classic case of not knowing enough to recognize the depth of his lack of knowledge.