I knew a man in his 40s that believed monks could levitate and stop bullet with their mind. He didn’t believe in washing and lived free in his brother’s empty appartment, and living on part of his dad’s fortune.
He looked totally “normal”, educated and comfortable financially, but if you got close to him or had him to talk for more than a couple minutes… oof!!
This shows that educated and intelligent are two entirely separate things, and don’t always come together.
Fringe theories are important for the health of established narratives. It pushes against what we assume to know and what we actually know. Anyone who cannot tolerate such theories is a close minded bigot. Let the facts show that they are wrong. The pursuit of knowledge is not about slamming doors but opening them and having a look around.
This theory has surely been proven as bullshit, though. It’s not good to tolerate every opinion, no matter how outright wrong it is.
It’s not harmful. It’s not asserting genetic superiority. Leave it to be. None of us were alive back then and flying doesn’t leave evidence.
It is harmful and it is literally asserting genetic superiority? Its not “all people could fly,” it is “ancient MALAY people could fly.”
While I agree that being able to openly discuss such a topic is wholly fine, asserting it to be true is problematic for a professor who people look towards as beacons of knowledge, for the good and bad that heings. But it is also harmful in that letting crazy theories roam and be treated as just as valid as anything else, is actually a HUGE reason the US is in the state it currently is in. Allowing kisinformation to flow and only pushing back against people pushing back, lets ANY misinformation flow. The giants that still walk among us, the flat earthers, etc, they all exist in a state that is literally dismantling education and sowing seeds for fascism to rise and just generally acting as a direct pipeline to those extremists.
It says they taught it to the Chinese for flying king fu. That’s not about genetic superiority.
I would argue the opposite. By censoring or pruning the established narrative to a single “factual” sequence, you give the most power to fascism. The freedom of ideas, even if incorrect, is essential to freedom but also to critical thinking. When we have a strong “factual” narrative with no other fringe theories allowed, it does not exercise the critical thinking skills of the population.
I’d argue spreading complete bullshit is always harmful. And if scientifically proven a bullshit (and this was not her only horribly wrong claim), she should not be kept in an academic position. If she’s not academic and therefore in position of authority, then let her believe whatever she wants - I agree with you on this condition.
Nothing is really proven in history. Story is right there in the name. Now there is overwhelming evidence for certain stories over others. And I agree the university is free to terminate researchers that don’t align with the desired messages of their donors. Academics do not need to be in consensus - and in fact that’s an unhealthy state for them to be in.
Not sure about Malaysia, but in a lot of countries once you get tenure you can just start saying crazy shit, especially when it’s completely unrelated to your area of expertise…
Dr Solehah, an Arabic language and linguistics scholar,
Especially with language, it’s pretty easy to have a very very narrow range of education. Loads of people move to another country and then become “experts” on their native language.
Among the controversial historical assertions attributed to Dr Solehah are claims that ancient Malays could fly and had taught the Chinese flying kung fu, as well as claims that ancient Romans learnt shipbuilding techniques from the Malay world, according to NST.
More recently, Solehah suggested that ancient Kedah’s rich iron deposits may have been linked to a meteor shower or extraterrestrial impact.
Classic academic. Absolutely dumb as bricks on anything outside their lane, but never lacking confidence.
