Kulturkampf

[benji]

How can you believe in gender if you can't even find the god particle? Checkmate

This is literally the same exact crap that Sokal mocked and criticized 30+ years ago in his hoax. These "critics" skim the first paragraph of the Wiki entries of scientific things, assume they understand it, then use it as a metaphor or analogy for something completely different, usually society or human nature, to make absurd philosophical claims they insist are scientifically backed. Then almost always, from the smarter ones anyway, it's a motte-and-bailey where they attack you for taking them seriously and not understanding that they really meant some unobjectionable irrelevant non-sequitur rather than the extreme radical claim they actually said.

And Sokal was some years late to the trend, this whole "there is no reality, only language, and so anything I say can be real if I can get power" is even older. Voluntarist thinking goes back even before that and into all kinds of religions. There's barely any of this that isn't taking old religious practices and throwing scientific terms over it and claiming science supports and proves their religious beliefs. Entire academic schools of thought are based on this rejection of scientific/empirical principles and the study of history/society/etc. for contemporary political conflicts with religious trappings. There are whole books where these people explain that MovieBob is right, there are no bad tactics only bad tactics, and everything must be subordinate to the political goal until absolute power is achieved. The Kingdom of Heaven is possible if we just will it into being by murdering all the non-believers who won't convert and thus won't clap to keep Tinkerbell alive.

I have not yet identified what it is that makes people believe such clear nonsense and reject the use of their reason but it must be something innate because all of recorded human history records it.