social-science
Explanation
The Joke
The comic presents a 2x2 matrix of views about social science. In the top-left ("A consistent view"), a person says social science is good because it is a rigorous way to learn about everything, involving hypothesis generation and the scientific method. In the top-right ("Also a consistent view"), a person says social science is not really like any other science -- it is more like theorizing, doing some experiments, and collecting data (stated more dismissively but still internally coherent).
The bottom row shows the inconsistent but common view: "Not a consistent view, but a very popular one." On the bottom-left, a person with a red paper angrily declares "Social science is wrong about everything!" On the bottom-right, the same person holds up a paper and says "My personal intuitions about human nature and society are not mere opinion -- therefore, my intuitions are better than the science." The comic highlights the hypocrisy of dismissing social science entirely while simultaneously treating one's own untested personal beliefs as superior knowledge about the very same subjects social science studies.
The Humor
The humor lies in exposing a very common cognitive contradiction: people who loudly reject social science findings they dislike while simultaneously holding strong, unexamined beliefs about human behavior and society -- which is exactly what social science attempts to study rigorously. The comic points out that dismissing social science while trusting your gut feelings is essentially saying "systematic investigation is worthless, but my casual observations are gospel." The 2x2 format makes the logical inconsistency visually clear and inescapable.
References
This comic reflects ongoing debates about the "replication crisis" in social sciences, where many published findings have failed to replicate in subsequent studies. However, the comic's point is that even flawed systematic inquiry is more reliable than untested personal intuition about the same topics.