Haidt et. al. are confident they can win the debate if they are allowed to debate. For the heterodox anthropologist or sociologist the game is already over: their discipline has already been conquered. For the economist, the threat is too remote to take seriously. Behavioral science exists in that rare in-between: methodologically, it has the tools to fight back against the excesses of the activist. Socially, it provides a compelling reason for its practitioners to use them.
Pointer from Tyler CowenAlex Tabarrok. The entire post is interesting, and it is worth contemplating why the blogger chooses to remain anonymous.
I am pessimistic about academia. Go through the following exercise:
1. When I ask you to name a prominent individual under the age of 45 who speaks up for reason against dogma, who comes to mind?
2. Does the person you just named have an academic job?
It looks to me as though when Haidt and Pinker leave the scene, no one will replace them. And I think that the threat in economics is not all that remote. I am on record as predicting that in twenty years economics will look like sociology.