solarbird | Another way of laundering credentials and citations

Alejandra Caraballo - 10:54 AM · Oct 12, 2022
Anti-trans experts often get citations by writing letters to the editor criticizing gender affirming care research. It is published and they cite the letter's publication in oftentimes prestigous journals. It's credential hacking.

This is the kind of 100% bad faith reference laundering fundamentalists have used for decades. Citing letters to the editor as papers, circular reference chains citing each other, publishing fake work in pay "journals" which will publish anything, etc.

And they control the Republican Party.

Republicans in my lifetime have never acted in good faith, but most had some concept of limits.

As the fundamentalist movement became more and more of the party, though, they brought their no-middle-ground god-vs-satan political culture with them.

This is part of that culture.

For them there is no middle ground, because it is literally god vs. satan - they've spent decades reinforcing this. And since extremism in the service of god is a virtue, literally anything is okay if it serves the cause.

See also Russia's "holy war" against "satanist" Ukraine.

If you want to know how they can go here, this is how.

If you want to know why they like Putin's Russia so much, this is why.

Putin speaks their language and uses their methods, and has the kind of government they want.

He's offering a model they like, and they all know it.

I know I've talked about this over and over again, but I've been warning about this for decades, and it's all playing out.

You have to know what you're fighting to effectively fight it. Just like Ukraine.

Ukraine knows. A lot of us still need to learn.