The Sokal hoax backfired by publicizing postmodernist ideas to right-wing readers
Evidence
Although it was an embarrassing moment for postmodernism, it also gave wide publicity to their views and made them available to others who might not have seen them otherwise. And some of those voyeurs were on the right. — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 263
Categorization
- SEED: The counterintuitive ‘publicity backfires’ dynamic — an attempt to discredit an idea spreads it and hands it to opportune adopters — could anchor an essay about epistemic contamination.
- XREF: connects to: The 1996 Sokal hoax succeeded because Social Text lacked peer review — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 256; Questioning science may have been borrowed from postmodernism by right-wing ideologues. — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 264; Right-wing denialists weaponized academic leftist skepticism of experts — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 289 (+3 more)
Broader Connections
- The political right moved from attacking postmodernism to weaponizing it
#expands(0.88) — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 250 - Questioning science may have been borrowed from postmodernism by right-wing ideologues.
#corroborates(0.85) — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 264 - Right-wing denialists weaponized academic leftist skepticism of experts
#corroborates(0.82) — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 289 - Post-truth tactics first matured in right-wing science denial campaigns
#corroborates(0.78) — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 52 - Accusations of hoax resist correction in ways ordinary bias accusations do not
#complicates(0.75) — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 243