It is plausible that an element of affirmative action could have crept into the awarding of the Fields Medal. It is not unreasonable to suspect that it has. Any number of biases might creep in to the awarding of a prize, however major it is. For example, it could well be that a disproportionate number of Norwegians or Swedes have won the Nobel relative to their accomplishments, because of location.
Sure. In the case of the Nobel prizes this claim has been made before. In particular, the claim is frequently made that the Nobel Prize in literature has favored northern Europeans and has had serious political overtones. There’s a strong argument that the committee has generally been unwilling to award the prize to people with extreme right-wing politics while being fine with rewarding them to those on the extreme left. Moreover, you have cases like Eyvind Johnson who got the prize despite being on the committee itself and being not well known outside Sweden. (I’m not sure if any of his major works had even been translated into English or French when he got the prize.) And every few years there’s a minor row when someone on the lit committee decides to bash US literature in general, connecting it to broad criticism of the US and its culture (see for example this).
There’s also no question that politics has played heavy roles in the awarding of the Peace Prize.
And in the sciences there has been serious allegations of sexism in the awarding of the prizes. The best source for this as far as I’m aware is “The Madame Curie Complex” by Julie Des Jardins (unfortunately it isn’t terribly well-written, at times exaggerates accomplishments of some individuals, sees patterns where they may not exist, and suffers from other problems.)
But, saying “it isn’t unreasonable to suspect X” is different from asserting X without any evidence.
But, saying “it isn’t unreasonable to suspect X” is different from asserting X without any evidence.
True, but this appears to be from a more free-wheeling, conservative-pundit blog-like section of the ’pedia, rather than from its articles. I think that once it’s understood that this section is a highly opinionated blog, the particular assertion seems to fit comfortably. For instance, right now, one of the entries reads:
Socialist England runs the 2012 Olympics, and an early warning about possible cost overruns and/or missed construction deadlines already appears
The “Socialist England” article is from the news section, and does not have an article on Conservapedia. It links to a Reuters article. It’s also nowhere near as dire as the Conservapedia headline makes it out to be.
The relativity article, and the other main articles linked on the main page, are clearly standard articles and not intended to be viewed as simple opinion blogs. It has no attribution, and lists eighteen references in the exact same manner as a Wikipedia article.
At best it is misguided, at worst it is intended to intentionally misinform people about the theory.
At the end of the article counterexamples to evolution, an old earth, and the Bible are linked to, with exactly the same format (and worse mischaracterizations than the Relativity article).
Random articles of more innocuous subjects (like book) have exactly the same format.
Again, it’s clearly the meat of the website, as more mundane articles do no more than go out of their way to add a mention of the Bible or Jesus in some way.
Sure. In the case of the Nobel prizes this claim has been made before. In particular, the claim is frequently made that the Nobel Prize in literature has favored northern Europeans and has had serious political overtones. There’s a strong argument that the committee has generally been unwilling to award the prize to people with extreme right-wing politics while being fine with rewarding them to those on the extreme left. Moreover, you have cases like Eyvind Johnson who got the prize despite being on the committee itself and being not well known outside Sweden. (I’m not sure if any of his major works had even been translated into English or French when he got the prize.) And every few years there’s a minor row when someone on the lit committee decides to bash US literature in general, connecting it to broad criticism of the US and its culture (see for example this).
There’s also no question that politics has played heavy roles in the awarding of the Peace Prize.
And in the sciences there has been serious allegations of sexism in the awarding of the prizes. The best source for this as far as I’m aware is “The Madame Curie Complex” by Julie Des Jardins (unfortunately it isn’t terribly well-written, at times exaggerates accomplishments of some individuals, sees patterns where they may not exist, and suffers from other problems.)
But, saying “it isn’t unreasonable to suspect X” is different from asserting X without any evidence.
Isn’t this a bit like saying “politics has played a heavy role in electing the President of the United States?” The Peace Prize is a political award.
True, but this appears to be from a more free-wheeling, conservative-pundit blog-like section of the ’pedia, rather than from its articles. I think that once it’s understood that this section is a highly opinionated blog, the particular assertion seems to fit comfortably. For instance, right now, one of the entries reads:
Socialist England! Not enough to say “England”.
The “Socialist England” article is from the news section, and does not have an article on Conservapedia. It links to a Reuters article. It’s also nowhere near as dire as the Conservapedia headline makes it out to be.
The relativity article, and the other main articles linked on the main page, are clearly standard articles and not intended to be viewed as simple opinion blogs. It has no attribution, and lists eighteen references in the exact same manner as a Wikipedia article.
At best it is misguided, at worst it is intended to intentionally misinform people about the theory.
At the end of the article counterexamples to evolution, an old earth, and the Bible are linked to, with exactly the same format (and worse mischaracterizations than the Relativity article).
Random articles of more innocuous subjects (like book) have exactly the same format.
Again, it’s clearly the meat of the website, as more mundane articles do no more than go out of their way to add a mention of the Bible or Jesus in some way.