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[return to ""The Stanford scam proves America is becoming a nation of grifters""]
1. UncleM+9F[view] [source] 2026-02-07 14:21:05
>>cwwc+(OP)
This is a moral panic.

To be very clear, the only real evidence anybody has provided is that way more students at Stanford have registered disabilities than students at community colleges. And individual students have tweeted.

These stories want you to draw the conclusion that there are huge numbers of students who are faking disabilities and then getting access to accommodations that give them an unfair advantage in coursework, setting them up for an unfair advantage in the job market. But nobody has been able to provide evidence of these things. Are these students really faking disabilities? Or are students with means far more likely to have access to doctors who can identify these disabilities? Do the students with disabilities actually get accommodations that make courses easier for them in an unfair way? Do these improved grades give students a meaningful leg up in the job market? Nobody is pointing to evidence here. They just let you conclude that this is happening.

My spouse is a professor. There are oodles of students who have disabilities who don't receive any accommodations because their course is already set up to support these students well. This idea of structuring evaluations such that everybody is getting access to the things that a student with ADHD or whatever might get is increasingly common in universities.

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2. esbran+MV[view] [source] 2026-02-07 16:36:58
>>UncleM+9F
There is no evidence this is a moral panic.

> But nobody has been able to provide evidence of these things.

Universities are able to provide such evidence, and are the only ones who can.

> that everybody is getting access

There is no evidence that this is actuality, or ever will be.

The "little or no evidence" line to defeat premises is cheap.

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3. Tadpol+X11[view] [source] 2026-02-07 17:16:44
>>esbran+MV
You have the burden of proof entirely backwards...
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4. esbran+S61[view] [source] 2026-02-07 17:49:47
>>Tadpol+X11
I think the wrong burdens of proof are being used. "Reasonable suspicion" should be used for investigations.
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5. Tadpol+v81[view] [source] 2026-02-07 17:58:42
>>esbran+S61
What is it with the deluge of people on HN that suddenly don't believe in evidence-based reasoning?
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6. Schmer+to1[view] [source] 2026-02-07 19:38:53
>>Tadpol+v81
You've confused 'evidence' with 'proof'.

There's way, way more than enough evidence to require investigation. Which could then possibly lead to a standard of proof...

If tptb investigated. Which they haven't, despite all the evidence.

... Which is its own kind of proof.

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