This original editorial by Fiske, especially the "methodological terrorism" soundbite, reminds me of the NEJM data sharing editorial where they described people who use datasets that others shared as "research parasites".
Both editorials are written by people in positions of academic power (Fiske is a PNAS editor - PNAS editors have a unique and often criticized ability to unilaterally review and approve publication of articles without a peer review panel; NEJM editors wield great power in medical sciences).
Both are originally directed toward a narrower audience of their journal, but taken out of the confines of their academic cloister, start to sound ridiculous in a world where the public starts to point out where their funding is coming from, and poke holes in their reasoning.
> start to sound ridiculous in a world where the public starts to point out where their funding is coming from
I have to say I disagree (did I misunderstand you?): they sound absolutely ridiculous even if your only goal is to do good science and you don't care one jot for the public or funding. That was always a key problem with research parasites and Fiske's methodological terrorism: apart from everything else, it's just bad science.
"sounds ridiculous in a world where X" does not mean "sounds ridiculous only in a world where X". It doesn't imply that the thing wouldn't be ridiculous if X wasn't the case.
Both editorials are written by people in positions of academic power (Fiske is a PNAS editor - PNAS editors have a unique and often criticized ability to unilaterally review and approve publication of articles without a peer review panel; NEJM editors wield great power in medical sciences).
Both are originally directed toward a narrower audience of their journal, but taken out of the confines of their academic cloister, start to sound ridiculous in a world where the public starts to point out where their funding is coming from, and poke holes in their reasoning.