@excon

To add to this discussion, it should be noted that Mathematics & the Sciences are really the same way. That is, when people leave High School (or GED, or whatever), they know how to (generally) speak, read, and listen to the English language--and thus are able to explore various works, theories, ideas, etc. etc. across the entire scope of available material. Then, the standard person has the option available to them to choose this book or that, this newspaper or that, this podcast or a separate one, etc. Just as when a person walks into Barnes & Noble and there are books from various camps, often with flimsy evidence, poor arguments made, questionable research methodology, unsound conclusions, bias, plain too dumb for words, or, conversely brilliance and eloquence--the exact same holds true in Mathematics & the Sciences. See, most people (generally) have very fragile egos, so they hype up the "prestige" of their field & corresponding work, just as Humanities Professors (and such) tend to do over the public, and Math & Sciences have received a more privileged place in this regard simply because less people have fluency in the language. The average person sees Greek (unreadable) letters rather than "English" when looking at a Physics paper, or Math, Biology, Neuroscience, etc. etc.--so it all must be very "technical", "advanced", "respectable", etc.--right? Wrong. Chinese looks very "technical" and "advanced" to an English speaking person--if you were born into that culture. Now, if you come across it later in life, or have to learn it later in life, that it will certainly have a steeper learning curve before being able to understand what is going on around you. When you hear people such as Richard Feynman, Neil Tyson, Brian Greene, and many others say that "there are a lot of "dumb" Physicists, Scientists, etc. with published work that is (nearly) incomprehensibly stupid", they are not joking, at all. It is exactly like History, Literature, etc. etc. Now, of course, just like in the Humanities, there is also excellent, exceptional work, however it should be understood (as it is often not) that once one has or approaches fluency in the language of the Sciences (like English), it is exactly like walking into a Barnes & Noble and going to the "History" section, or even "Politics"