In 1996, physics professor Alan Sokal submitted a paper to the postmodern culture studies journal Social Text. When it was published, Sokal revealed that the paper was an elaborate ruse, a parody, filled with the most absurd postmodernist tropes he could dream up. It became known as the Sokal Hoax.
Slate has just been the subject of what future historians will likely call the Pellettieri Hoax. Jill Hunter Pellettieri wrote an article lampooning Slate’s penchant for vapid, picayune, deeply privileged, self-conscious contrarianism … and tricked Slate into publishing it!
Well played, Pellettieri. Slate, you’ve been punk’d!
