People on the right have this weird idea that, because the left dominates the media/academia and will therefore treat them badly no matter what, they don't have to be rigorous or police their own ranks by calling out crackpots, when in fact the opposite is true. 1/n
I think it's mostly because the have the view that the media and academics have no standards whatsoever, hence will criticize right-wing claims just as much and just as strongly no matter how sensible and well supported by the evidence they are, but that's just false. 2/n
Of course, it's true that the media and academia are biased against the right and they often attack even demonstrably true claims by using dishonest tactics, but they still have standards and how strong a claim is *will* impact how much and how strongly they'll attack it. 3/n
This point is related to various points that were made by @RichardHanania and @slatestarcodex codex in essays about the media recently. I think that people on the right just have a very flawed view of how the mainstream media actually operate and what their actual flaws are. 4/n
Right-wing views will never be treated fairly by the media and academia, there is no point in whining about something you can't change, but we *can* control to some extent how badly our views will be treated and for that we have to be more, not less, rigorous than the left. 5/n
In other words, it's not just that the view I summarized at the beginning is wrong, but the opposite of that view is true! Yes, that is unfair, but life is unfair and again there is no point in whining about something you can't control. 6/n
Of course, it's still important to highlight and document bias in the media and academia, but we have to accept it and draw the right conclusion from it, which is not that we can just abandon all standards because we think they don't have any. Exactly the opposite is true. 7/7
This is actually a perfect illustration of the fallacy I was criticizing. No, the left doesn't have to police its own ranks nearly as much as the right, but that's because it controls the media and academia. The right doesn't!
As for whether being more rigorous and calling out crackpots on your side will help win policy battles, I think there are several reasons why it will, but I'll just mention one, which is that actually change policy you need enough qualified people on your side.
Now, this kind of people have a lot to lose and they tend to work and live in environments that skew heavily left, so they're not going to want to be associated with people who are constantly demonized in the media if only because they don't want to become social outcasts.
You can find them cowards if you want, I agree though I suspect that most people (including those who call them cowards) would do the same thing in a similar situation, but once you've said that you're still left with your problem, so again you have to take reality into account.
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