What if your devastating take-down of string theory is intended for consumption by people who have never heard of ‘string theory’ before? Even if you’re sure string theory is hogwash, then, you should be wary of giving the impression that the only people discussing string theory are the commenters on a recreational physics forum.
I wasn’t saying that there’s anything wrong with trying to convince random laypeople that specific academic ideas (including string theory and non-causal decision theories) are hogwash. That can be great; it depends on execution. My point was that it’s bad to mislead people about how much mainstream academic acceptance an idea has, whether or not you’re attacking the idea.
That’s par for the course here. Philosophy, frequentism, non-MWI QM all get this treatment in the (original) sequences.
The full thing I said was:
I wasn’t saying that there’s anything wrong with trying to convince random laypeople that specific academic ideas (including string theory and non-causal decision theories) are hogwash. That can be great; it depends on execution. My point was that it’s bad to mislead people about how much mainstream academic acceptance an idea has, whether or not you’re attacking the idea.
Ah, OK, I agree then. Sorry I took the original quote out of context.
Sure, not a problem.