# Side Comments on Progress after the Royal Society Conference

**URL:** <https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/side-comments-on-progress-after-the-royal-society-conference/17641>\
**Category:** Side Conversation\
**Tags:** Comments\
**Created:** [January 18, 2026, 8:01pm UTC](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/side-comments-on-progress-after-the-royal-society-conference/17641 "2026-01-18T20:01:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 62

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**Author:** ![Tim](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.peacefulscience.org/tim/32/9381_2.png) [@Tim](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/u/Tim)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2026, 4:34pm UTC](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/side-comments-on-progress-after-the-royal-society-conference/17641/62 "2026-01-29T16:34:08Z")

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> [@lee\_merrill](#):
>
> I begin to doubt that you are a real psychiatrist, if you deny such plain statements, which correspond to my view.

The statements may be “plain” but the correspondence, particularly when we consider [everything](https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions) that the Mayo Clinic will have to say on mental health, to your view would seem to be poor (and merely asserted, rather than demonstrated).

And I’m afraid that nobody here is interested in a definition of “real psychiatrist” that means “agrees with Lee’s [ill-thought-through and over-simplified caricature] of psychology.”

Addendum:

I had originally decided to let this go, rather than self-censor to get past moderation.

However it then occurred to me that there are larger principles involved.

Firstly that Lee’s “doubt[ing] that [@Faizal_Ali is] a real psychiatrist” simply because he knows sufficient about psychology to reject Lee’s [ill-thought-through and over-simplified caricature] is _far more_ “insulting” than my own accurate, albeit blunt, characterisation of that caricature.

Secondly that in doing so, Lee is displaying the same **anti-intellectualism** that has been far to frequently on display through events commented on in [this thread](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/politics-megathread/17175/). I would note that I recently read that the Trump administration’s firings have disproportionately targeted PhD-qualified scientists.

Given these current events I would suggest that it is not only merited, but arguably necessitated, that we give forthright, and even blunt, expression to our disdain and disgust at this trend – _wheresoever_ we see it.

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