If you search for 'PhD' on twitter, 90% of what you see is thin-skinned performance of fragile authority. It's really embarrassing.
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By both people with PhDs and people attacking them for presumption of authority with sarcasm etc.
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The fundamental paradox of the PhD system is that it props up a basis for argument by authority... that is itself founded on the idea that argument by authority is wrong and should be replaced by evidence-based reason
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Oh yeah, and you also have overcompensation in the other direction. Embarrassed/apologetic self-abasement bordering on self-flagellation.
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The remaining 10% is 9% clueless, cheerful PhDing performance that looks like an 8-year old with no self-consciousness of how the label operates in adult society, and 1% literal/factual usage like "oh where did you do your phd?"
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Oddly enough, the only sincere, self-aware, and positively valuative use of "PhD" I see is in jokes about topics where people don't actually get PhDs. As in, "I deserve a PhD in shitposting"
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Okay I cannot even look at my tweetdeck search column for "PhD" anymore, it's so cringe-inducing
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"Forgive me father, for I have PhDed"
"Hi, I'm X, and I am a PhDholic. I haven't embarrassed myself with a fragile authority performance for 3 months."
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I believe that this happens, but my experience was an environment where only the evidence mattered, whether it came from an undergrad, PhD, or person with no formal qualifications whatsoever.
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The Royal Society's motto: "Take no-one's word for it [except ours]".
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