And I'm a stodgy old scientist who believes, naively, that there exists an external world, that there exist objective truths about that world, and that my job is to discover some of them.

A mode of thought does not become 'critical' simply by attributing that label to itself, but by virtue of its content.

Anyone who believes that the laws of physics are mere social conventions is invited to try transgressing those conventions from the windows of my apartment. (I live on the twenty-first floor).

Why should self-indulgent nonsense - whatever its professed political orientation - be lauded as the height of scholarly achievement?

And I'm a stodgy old scientist who believes, naively, that there exists an external world, that there exist objective truths about that world, and that my job is to discover some of them.