Shorter Ross Douthat, Apostolic Nuncio to 42nd Street, "Social Conservatives and Social Science", New York Times, December 18, 2013:
Why don't social conservatives become economists? Why don't they become social scientists at all? Can't be because they're innumerate, or unable even for the sake of argument to suspend their preconceptions and prejudices, can it? Must be because all those liberal social scientists make them feel weird and unwelcome.
And I guess it's not their bold entrepreneurial spirit that keeps them away from academia in favor of the choice between running their own businesses or living on wingnut welfare, either. I think it's mainly that they can get all the benefits of studying social sciences (like Ross Douthat, Harvard 2002, magna cum laude in history and literature, who prognosticates on social science week after week) without actually studying them.
