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Hard scientists. What's the deal with them, anyways? We all know that lots of them are antisocial geeks who can't get along with other people, partly because they are abrasive and partly because other people are jerks. In anger and fear they turn away from the social, which is distressing, and take refuge in what they define as "the scientific," which is nice and pat and doesn't play mind games with you or give you guilt trips; remind you of your sainted mother or hated father; pass you over for a less angry, more fun, and more well-groomed male; or anything like that.

People displace their energies onto a more tractable target. Numbers, colliding masses, and chemical reactions aren't ambiguous the way people and perception are. Then they, and others who don't really feel one way or the other but like to draw conclusions about unfamiliar things, say that social scientists are bad, maybe not even scientists, because their work is sloppy, imprecise, unverifiable, and, most damningly, does not give them comfort.

Sorry, guys. You try it sometime.