[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-40862-en":3,"doc-seo-40862-105":30,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":83},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":21,"is_downloadable":21,"audit_status":21,"page_count":22,"language":23,"language_code":24,"site_id":25,"html_lang":24,"table_of_contents":26,"faqs":27,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":28,"read_time":29},40862,962075114765,"Quinn","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_a8503ba1806abce46bf441b54a3ca4cd",8,"Research & Report","The Uphill Battle of Unpopular Ideas","The article argues that controversial and unpopular ideas face structural barriers to gaining public platforms. It is prompted by the rejection of an opinion submission by a dozen publications, whose refusal reasons are often unconvincing or reveal editorial priorities. Using an example about sex equality applying in both directions—particularly the historical expectation that men defend their country—the piece explains how heterodoxy encounters increased difficulty even when the argument is well founded.","Editorial  \nThe Uphill Battle of Unpopular Ideas  \nDavid Benatar  \nPhilosophy Department, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa  \nSubmitted: 20 August 2022, accepted: 1 October 2022, published: 31 October 2022  \nAbstract: This is an opinion piece about the struggle of controversial ideas to be heard. It is occasioned by the rejection, by a dozen publications, of another opinion piece. The rejected article appears as an appendix at the end. In what precedes it, I discuss why it is much more difficult for controversial ideas to receive a platform.  \nKeywords: controversial ideas; epistemic injustice; heterodoxy; sex discrimination  \nHow to cite: Benatar, D. The Uphill Battle of Unpopular Ideas. Journal of Controversial Ideas 2022 , 2(2), 1; doi:10 .35995/jci02020001 .  \n©2022 Copyright by the author. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4 .0) license.  \nThis is a short article about an even shorter opinion piece that follows it in Appendix A. That latter piece expresses a simple, well founded idea that struggles to be heard – the idea that equality of the sexes must cut both ways, by removing wrongful discrimination not only against women, but also against men. The specific example I discuss is the responsibility to defend one’s country, historically borne overwhelmingly by men. Although it applies more generally, I raised it in an essay written in the topical context of Ukraine’s defensive war against Vladimir Putin’s Russia.1  \nThat essay was submitted to a dozen periodicals between early March and mid May 2022. (In the interests of full disclosure, the first two submissions were of a longer version. ) None of these periodicals was interested in publishing it. These periodicals were a mix of newspapers, magazines, and online publications. They ranged not only in prominence, but also in political orientation.  \nProminent publications with large readerships typically receive vastly more submissions than they are able to publish. They must be highly selective. For this reason, rejection by any one newspaper, or even a few prominent newspapers, cannot, by itself,  \n1 More recently, the issue of male only conscription has become more acute than it previously was on the other side of this war. While Russia has long had a male only draft, the scale of Russian conscription and its implications have become much greater. Now, many more Russian males, and only males, are being drafted into fighting an immoral war that many of them do not want to fight. They, but not Russian females, are faced with the choice of fleeing the country, being imprisoned for a lengthy period, and joining a war in which they will kill or be killed (or kill and then be killed) . All of those options are significant burdens – ones which Russian females do not have to bear.  \nbe taken as evidence of resistance to giving an idea a hearing. It is possible that such resistance is part of the explanation, but we cannot assume that it is.  \nHowever, when an article expressing an uncommon and unpopular view cannot find a home in any of a dozen publications, including many that have less competition for space, it is not unreasonable to become suspicious. This is especially so when dominant views are endlessly repeated in one form or another in those and other publications.  \nSuspicions are also bolstered in those few cases in which a reason is given for rejecting the piece and the reason is either unconvincing or revealing. For example, one editor responded that they had “decided for the time being at least to keep everything Ukraine related in house.” Another said that “we have many already accepted submissions on Ukraine and would, therefore, have to pass this one.” While my paper is, in a sense, about Ukraine, it is also about something much broader, of which Ukraine was but a topical example.  \nAn editor at another publication replied that the “argument is fine and I’d ","cbCaifq7rarav0uz","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaifq7rarav0uz","pdf",104442,2,1,5,"English","en",105,"# Editorial\n## Publication rejections and platform access\n## Sex equality and discrimination across genders\n## Selection, selectivity, and editorial rationale\n## Unorthodox views, censorship, and credibility","[{\"question\":\"How does the appendix example illustrate the broader argument?\",\"answer\":\"It discusses the claim that sex equality must apply to both sides by removing wrongful discrimination against men as well as women, using the burden of defending one’s country as a concrete historical example.\"}]",1783316042,13,{"code":4,"msg":31,"data":32},"ok",{"site_id":25,"language":24,"slug":33,"title":13,"keywords":34,"description":14,"schema_data":35,"social_meta":78,"head_meta":80,"extra_data":82,"updated_unix":28},"the-uphill-battle-of-unpopular-ideas","",{"@graph":36,"@context":77},[37,53,68],{"@type":38,"itemListElement":39},"BreadcrumbList",[40,44,47,50],{"item":41,"name":42,"@type":43,"position":21},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":45,"name":46,"@type":43,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",{"item":48,"name":12,"@type":43,"position":49},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":51,"name":13,"@type":43,"position":52},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/the-uphill-battle-of-unpopular-ideas/40862/",4,{"url":51,"name":13,"@type":54,"author":55,"headline":13,"publisher":57,"fileFormat":60,"inLanguage":24,"description":14,"dateModified":61,"datePublished":62,"encodingFormat":60,"isAccessibleForFree":63,"interactionStatistic":64},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":56},"Person",{"url":41,"name":58,"@type":59},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-07-12","2026-07-06",true,{"@type":65,"interactionType":66,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":67},"ViewAction",{"@type":69,"mainEntity":70},"FAQPage",[71],{"name":72,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":74},"How does the appendix example illustrate the broader argument?","Question",{"text":75,"@type":76},"It discusses the claim that sex equality must apply to both sides by removing wrongful discrimination against men as well as women, using the burden of defending one’s country as a concrete historical example.","Answer","https://schema.org",{"og:url":51,"og:type":79,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":58,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":81,"canonical":51},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":25},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":84},[85,89,93,97,101,106,111,114,119,122,126],{"id":21,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":86,"show_sort_weight":87,"slug":88},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":20,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":90,"show_sort_weight":91,"slug":92},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":94,"show_sort_weight":95,"slug":96},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":102,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":103,"show_sort_weight":104,"slug":105},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":107,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":108,"show_sort_weight":109,"slug":110},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},30,"research-report",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":22,"slug":129},19,"General","general"]