The "postmodernism" canard

I'll admit that I sometimes wonder whether some of the, ahem, research done in the humanities—including my own field of philosophy—deserves to be funded by taxpayer money.

Still, I can't help but feel contempt for people who rail against "postmodernism" and "relativism" in the humanities. When a philosopher reads a few pages from a popular science book and then says, "Aha! Quantum mechanics proves we have free will!", science types rightly point out that he hasn't studied quantum mechanics in enough depth to be making such assertions. But when a scientist, a professional "skeptic", or a self-appointed defender of Western civilization reads a few pages from Derrida and then blasts leftist literature professors as a bunch of nihilistic, pseudo-intellectual elitists who think science and reason are white male constructs, many see this response not only as acceptable but as a welcome defense of "Enlightenment values".

It's messed up, man.