There's some physics forums I lurk and occasionally post in, and every time the discussion goes beyond physics, holy shit are their opinions dumb as fuck. Just getting someone to understand a simple point that anyone could understand with like 2 sentences just feels like wading through mud with them because every time anything seems to challenge one of their preconceived opinions at all (or if they just don't understand it because they're out of touch) they get annoyed, and then they fixate on irrelevant parts of your point until you have to explain that part of your point again and again and again, and then everyone forgets what it was even about. Especially the boomers in there.
Then there's the ones "helping" people, who will basically act like they are doing a MASSIVE courtesy to you by explaining things, so they'll put people through the shredder for misunderstanding something or for phrasing the question in a way that isn't absolutely perfectly 100% crystal clear as if their compiler is giving an error or something.
And it's not just people in forums, like almost all the professors I know are also just complete morons about anything even slightly unrelated to their specialty.
Why are science nerds like that, I fucking hate it. Like holy shit grow up >:(
From my experience in undergrad I could write a lot about why I think physics majors miss the point. It boils down to being learned actually makes it easier to be wrong because you can talk yourself into and defend wrong positions better than a less learned person can defend correct positions. It also has to do with an improper reverence for science. Most programs do not include anything about the philosophy of science, or philosophy in general. If you're a physics student and you just go to class and consume pop science junk, then you're likely to develop a hatred of philosophy. Without that broader understanding of where science fits into one's understanding of the world, all they have is the science. To a hammer, every problem is a nail. Also, on a more personal level, deep insecurity about intelligence.
Yes, that's also an issue. And the philosophy we do learn is minimally connected to the rest of the stuff we learn, really bare bones, kinda bad, and no one gives a shit. There is definitely a big issue with physicists having a really narrow understanding that is not at all holistic.
Oof this too...
This! Also, I think a big problem is that physics is very reductionist, which leads to a mindset that accepts a lot of underlying premises and incrementally modify conditions. So when it is applied to something like politics it generates very narrow, technocratic thinking.
Both of these are true for law as well btw.
This reminds me of a quote from Engels, "Natural scientists believe that they free themselves from philosophy by ignoring it or abusing it. They cannot, however, make any headway without thought . . . Hence they are no less in bondage to philosophy, but unfortunately in most cases to the worst philosophy, and those who abuse philosophy most are slaves to precisely the worst vulgarized relics of the worst philosophies. . . It is only a question whether they want to be dominated by a bad fashionable philosophy or by a form of theoretical thought which rests on acquaintance with the history of thought and its achievements."