What are the chances a physicist or a biologist would write a hundred emotional comments defending the scientific merits of her field, after reading just a couple of highly critical, nonacademic articles on Medium? The chances would be low, but that's what you've done here. Where there's smoke, there's fire. So the very nature of your defense is itself evidence that something is fishy in the case of economics.
Of course, we shouldn't speak from complete ignorance. Especially if we're going to criticize something, we should know what we're talking about. But there are degrees of knowledge, aren't there? I'm not writing a book or for an academic journal. I don't claim to be an expert in economics. I'm just applying my philosophical background to some things I've read about economics, and I've written a few articles on Medium.
Medium, of course, is an open platform filled with everything from junk to deep dives. The standards on Medium are certainly lower than in an academic journal. My philosophical writings on Medium would likewise be unsuitable as submissions to philosophical journals. Does that mean my philosophical Medium writings are empty? No, it means there are different kinds of writings, with different strengths and weaknesses. Academic writings demonstrate more expertise, but they're also unreadable and often literally unread.
It's interesting how in saying that you don't engage in uncharitable, petty mischaracterizations and quibbles, you stopped yourself just short of engaging in that same low level of discourse. First you take my point about your likely high expectations for those who merely use the word "economics" to be literally about me and my Medium articles on economics, which would be absurd. Then you correct yourself and add, 'or that I have taken you to task therefore will take to task anyone who says the word "economics."'
Obviously, my point was hyperbolic and rhetorical. But if only you'd corrected yourself on all the similar occasions, you'd have saved me the trouble of having had to do so on at least some of them.
