Last week, we covered theoretical physicist Sabine Hossenfelder’s ejection from her affiliation with the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy in Germany. She announced it on her YouTube channel on September 17, in an episode that is currently heading to 1.15 million views:

I was recently contacted by a physicist who was very upset that I judge their research to be 100% [ __ ].

He demanded that I remove my video and when I politely declined, complained about me to some people he must have thought were my supervisors in a very deliberate attempt to exert pressure on me.”

As we reported then, her subsequent ejection follows a surprising attack on her in the Wall Street Journal earlier this month, implying that she was a proponent of “conspiracy physics.”

Hossenfelder has not hesitated to call out a slough of papers in theoretical physics that she judges to be mediocre to bad, often in language characteristic of social media. But if there is an underlying conspiracy theory, it is very hard to detect.

At any rate, it’s clear that she did reach some Top In Trays.

Rob Sheldon, who was quoted in the article, follows up with this emailed comment on the overall story:

Bad language is widely accepted today. US Senators can routinely use even fouler language than Sabine without so much as a reprimand. I’m sure there’s a longer sociological explanation, but it seems that rage is the only “authentication” today, and foul language lets everyone know how authentic you are.

But it was Sabine’s criticism, not her language, that has dogged her career. Somewhere 20 or 30 years ago, she bridled under the censorship of academia, and of course, academia only doubled down on the punishment. Like Cool Hand Luke, that has led her to her present occupation of being the loyal opposition.

The fact that she has lost her unfunded affiliation, as I did 20 years ago, says volumes about the nature of academia, not about Sabine.

After all, who lost any money on Sabine? Who lost any reputation? Who lost any fame? Certainly not the Munich Center. Only the charlatans who were publishing the garbage.

Denyse O’Leary, who spotted Hossenfelder’s “They kicked me out” podcast shortly after it aired, responded in an email,

Yes, that was my impression too, Rob. She’s a tad shrill at times but then she isn’t a saleswoman or a talk show hostess. Who or what did her bluntness really harm?

The reputation of science? Well, as to that, au contraire!

Dumping her makes me think that the problem is far worse than I had earlier supposed. Possibly irremediable?

Consider: Suppose she goes on talking about pointless papers and rarified nonsense until she is too old to podcast any more — but remains a Munich affiliate.

That means Munich thinks it’s a solvable problem in principle and has nothing to hide.

That’s like the police chief in a big city saying, “Yeah, crime is bad here but my officers are doing their best.”

True? Untrue? I don’t know from a distance. But he doesn’t act like he has anything to hide. So I would need to do some research to get deeper into the causes of the problem than that.

But now, suppose the chief starts disciplining officers for saying that crime is bad there…

Bingo. Right away, I know the situation is worse than anyone — except those officers — is letting on.

That’s what the Munich Center has done here. It appears that their brass are not smart enough to see that.

Sheldon replied by email, “Yes. It is worse than it appears.”

Here at Mind Matters News, we thought there might be fallout from her ejection. And those 1.15M views of that episode in less than a week seem like fallout already.

It’s getting harder to dismiss the idea that something is rotten in the state of physics. Now it’s not what she knows but what her former colleagues know and don’t want to talk about.

You may also wish to read: Physicist Sabine Hossenfelder gets Canceled by the Munich Center. Her parting words: “A lot of research [in] the foundations of physics is now pseudocience. It hasn’t followed the scientific method for decades.” It seems unlikely that the only reason that the Munich Center parted ways with Hossenfelder is bad language in her posts. Is she uncomfortably correct?