>>5691
Pretense wasn't the right word. Maybe justification?
>actually indifferent
Signaling is often heartfelt even if it's caused by more cynical incentives. Probably a few of the people who signed it were indifferent, but not most people.
>Even if so, the signalling war is likely having the very real effect of obstructing unorthodox research.
I think so.
>Is your stance that it's less of a problem than enabling Bad Racists?
I don't know. I don't think there's a reason why signaling wars couldn't be more trouble than they're worth. Maybe they usually are.
I don't know how large and how important an area of unorthodox research ends up obstructed in practice.
It could be that obstructing it doesn't have a positive effect at all. It could be that obstructing it is what's keeping open Bad Racism from gaining legitimacy. I can't think of a good way to test that.
I would prefer it wasn't obstructed, but that's supported more by the feeling that knowledge is good than by evidence. I'm more describing it than justifying it.