There are some older horror films made by John Carpenter in the 1980s and 1990s. They are entertaining. This kind of horror is welcome and I can enjoy it. To the contrary a different topic is on the menu. This blog post might be summarized as: We are not amused.
Last week I stumbled over a YouTube video made by Sabine Hossenfelder mid July. It's a comment about another video from the YouTube Channel Piers Morgan Uncensored in late May, where two guests, Sean Carroll and Eric Weinstein, didn't share the same ground and had a little chitchat resulting from a disagreement regarding a scientific paper written by Eric Weinstein. Phrasing it this way is probably my last chance of winning the diplomacy award. Sabine Hossenfelder is quite clear, straight and blunt about her point of view. Warning: by using this video as an entry point your emotional state might be out of balance at the end, which takes less than a quarter hour. Prepare to have a break (and maybe a cup of coffee or tea), and then watch it again to fill in the details which you might have missed while watching it the first time.
A few words to avoid misunderstandings: every now and then I tend to write in an ironical, satirical or even cynical way. This is my personal style. Deal with it. This doesn't mean in any way that the topic, especially the behaviour of parts of the community, is funny or even acceptable by any civilized standards. To the contrary the topic is a long chain of ignoble events. Obviously manners and social graces went down the drain and some folks are even proud to aim for or have already achieved maximum distance to what is called a gentleman. They ought to be ashamed of themselves. If you have a feeling to be addressed by these lines, please continue reading here.
At timestamp approximately 0m55s Sabine Hossenfelder introduces the phrase Carrollgate. This was the beginning, but not the end. There is quoted YouTube footage from Piers Morgan Uncensored at timestamp 5m02s, where Sean Carroll is speaking:
The good news is: I have read Eric's paper. Here it is. I actually have it here, right here, and it's worse than you think, you know, it's not serious. It's the dog ate my homework kind of thing.
WTF? Obviously I missed the memo where the new peer review style was announced. At least this could explain my confusion. I suppose it is save to assume the paper is this: Geometric Unity: Author’s Working Draft, v 1.0 or as PDF Geometric_Unity-Draft-April-1st-2021.pdf.
There was also some more detailed critique from Sean Carroll on the show, which was answered by Eric Weinstein on X. Since the above mentioned paper is available online you can check for yourself. I don't have an idea how to comment. Instead let me repeat quoting Sean Carroll: I have read Eric's paper. Let's read this quote very exactly. No claim whatsoever was made concerning any level of understanding the paper. So far fair deal. Sean Carroll is in good company. I don't understand the paper either (yet).
There is ~1h footage from the gladiator meeting at Piers Morgan arena available on YouTube since May 23, 2025. Hence you can watch the whole start of an ugly story uncensored and hopefully unbiased, not only some cherry picked quotes.
As you should have noticed (scientists check data, don't they?) the quoted footage of Sean Carroll, which I transcripted above, was cutted in the first video. You can compare it beginning from timestamp 37m49s, ending with you know and unquoted text until timestamp 38m54s starting again with it's not serious. However, the paper about Geometric Unity wasn't the only topic. The scientific or academic environment and community was part of the debate, too. At timestamp 22m40s Eric Weinstein nails this down to: And this kind of toxic sociology is the true problem. A few minutes later, at timestamp 26m53s, he arrives at the core: The first rule of physics fight club is don't talk about the problems with physics fight club. This is his essential and important takeaway. Let me repeat and emphasise it:
The first rule of physics fight club is don't talk about the problems with physics fight club.
It didn't take a week for things to pick up speed and go off the rails. The first issue I found wasn't from a member of the physics community but those followed shortly after in less than two weeks. This is in total another part of the story and Sean Carroll wasn't (to my knowledge) involved anymore. But the avalanche of holy shit was on its way to exorcise the heretic and burn him at the stake.
In the first video above at timestamp 10m19s Sabine Hossenfelder mentions Brian Keating. Guess what happened - exactly. Later in the story he will be in the line of fire, too. There is a quite famous song about this situation: You never burn alone. Maybe someone from Liverpool can tell some details... However, as long as things were still on the rails there was time for a civilized conversation between Eric Weinstein and Brian Keating.
The first reactions on YouTube were still quite moderate and irrelevant. But events developed towards a rougher baseline. After Sabine Hossenfelder's video it became clear she had pushed herself into the line of fire. The mob made crystal clear she has to be sentenced to and burned at the stake. Obviously she is a witch serving the Prince of Darkness. This makes three to the cost of one stake - an impressive ROI. Digging deeper and expanding the context a little bit we can find more people on the blacklist of the mob. Among them are the brother of Eric Weinstein, the employer of Eric Weinstein, podcaster Lex Fridman and of course Curt Jaimungal, who dared to talk to Eric Weinstein. In the latter case this was predicted by Sabine Hossenfelder (which proves her witchcraft). The whole picture is an empirical proof of toxic sociology and thus, at least regarding this point, Eric Weinstein is proven correct. At the moment I don't publish the unappetising details of quotes and sources because I don't want them to be distributed easily. It is not difficult to find them, e.g. in YouTube videos or descriptions or on Twitter/X.
Just to avoid any misunderstanding: Sean Carroll is not part of the mob. He had the guts to talk to Eric Weinstein directly on Piers Morgan's show. The problem is the ecosystem of wimpy cowards and snipers who always chicken out when Eric Weinstein invites for a dance.
Update (2025-08-09): https://mstdn.social/@fmg/114998367700855960
To be continued...?