There have already been several discussions in which I made similar points. (See e.g. my comments in this thread for a particularly detailed exposition of my views.)
The problem is that the juiciest examples are likely to provoke extreme ideological controversy, so I usually limit myself to the blander ones, where contrarian views are, if not respectable, then at least not overly scandalous. One such example is academic economics, where even rudimentary logical and epistemological scrutiny suffices to show that much of it is just institutionalized charlatanism and pseudoscience—and considering its influence in the current system of government, it seems bewildering that all these champions of skepticism and warriors against pseudoscience don’t seem bothered by this at all. (Similar things could be said about many other “social sciences” too, although the problems are usually less blatant and the related controversies more violent.) Another such example is provided by the vast complex of “scientific” fields concerned with lifestyle issues such as diet an exercise, where rampant pseudoscience is also quite evident, and it’s also clear that many people’s health and quality of life have suffered due to nonsense peddled by various officially accredited experts. These examples are probably as far as one can go without getting into hot-button issues that are too highly charged to be worth opening.
Moreover, I don’t think that confirmation bias is a problem here. As long as significant high-status and officially approved delusions exist, they should be high on the list of anyone who sports the label of “skeptic,” simply because their practical influence will be, for obvious reasons, much greater than that of low-status folk superstitions. Thus, recognizing some particular examples of such delusions is enough to establish my point, regardless of how representative these examples are of the overall state of the respectable and accredited intellectual institutions.
There have already been several discussions in which I made similar points. (See e.g. my comments in this thread for a particularly detailed exposition of my views.)
The problem is that the juiciest examples are likely to provoke extreme ideological controversy, so I usually limit myself to the blander ones, where contrarian views are, if not respectable, then at least not overly scandalous. One such example is academic economics, where even rudimentary logical and epistemological scrutiny suffices to show that much of it is just institutionalized charlatanism and pseudoscience—and considering its influence in the current system of government, it seems bewildering that all these champions of skepticism and warriors against pseudoscience don’t seem bothered by this at all. (Similar things could be said about many other “social sciences” too, although the problems are usually less blatant and the related controversies more violent.) Another such example is provided by the vast complex of “scientific” fields concerned with lifestyle issues such as diet an exercise, where rampant pseudoscience is also quite evident, and it’s also clear that many people’s health and quality of life have suffered due to nonsense peddled by various officially accredited experts. These examples are probably as far as one can go without getting into hot-button issues that are too highly charged to be worth opening.
Moreover, I don’t think that confirmation bias is a problem here. As long as significant high-status and officially approved delusions exist, they should be high on the list of anyone who sports the label of “skeptic,” simply because their practical influence will be, for obvious reasons, much greater than that of low-status folk superstitions. Thus, recognizing some particular examples of such delusions is enough to establish my point, regardless of how representative these examples are of the overall state of the respectable and accredited intellectual institutions.