Dick Strawkins wrote:I've been pondering on a particular question that's been bugging me for a while about Freethoughtblogs.
They began the network as a breakaway from scienceblogs after National Geographic bought that particular network, and because of this I always considered them to be something similar - a scienceblogging network, just one with a left-wing political stance.
It's an easy assumption to make - after all there are many skeptic blogs written by scientists
- and FTB is pretty much the same sort of thing, isn't it?
Well, is it?
There is one way to answer this. Check how many of the Freethought blog authors are actually working scientists.
So I went through their list and here's the result.
Currently there are 36 bloggers on the FTB network.
Of those only three bloggers are qualified working scientists, Mano Singham (who isn't part of the social justice warrior militia), Comrade Physioprof (who seems to be a recipe obsessed lunatic who seems to use a lab monkey with a nervous twitch to write his posts for him) and, of course, Peezus.
There are four students - two psychology students (is that really a subject? - someone ask Rebecca) Kylie Sturgess and Miriam, the new blogger, and two biological science students, Jen McCreight and Crommunist (both of whom almost never write anything in depth about science.)
The rest, 29 out of 36, are non scientists.
Is it any wonder there's such a lack of enthusiasm for scientific qualifications over there.
FWIW, I've a degree in Computer Science, so 'technically' (see what I did there?) I'm a scientist. However, most people do not associate the word 'scientist' with computer theory, so as to avoid confusion I rarely refer to myself as one. In fact, the only place I can think of where I use it is my Twitter describer thingy, and only as a hashtag.
Of course, I'm no longer there, so the point is moot.
FWIW, FtB was not started as an offshoot of The Science Blogs, in spite of Ed and Paul being the founders. It was started as a network of prominent and well known bloggers who were regular writers, atheists or secularists, with a bent on left of center politics, supportive of social justice issues and the promotion of science as the primary means of discovery and insight.
Out of the original group of about ten or so, only two or three were scientists from the start. I know a lot of people here have issues with Ed Brayton, but he's actually a pretty decent guy, and FtB was pretty much his concept. I would hazard a guess that where FtB is now is far from where he intended it to be when he hatched the idea.
I really don't reason that he's overly thrilled about the controversies that keep miring a majority of the writers on the network who have no connection at all to the batshittery that keeps bubbling up there. There are some really, really good writers such as Mano, Myriam, BioDork, NSC, Aron, Taslima, etc.
Anyhow, just thought I'd throw in my two cents... Your mileage may vary...
