but also a bunch of nerds who close their eyes and cover their ears while screeching nonsense the moment something they don’t like comes about.

This is too true.

It seems like a recent thing, not just a Lemmy thing.

But yeah, it’s pretty wild providing linked academic papers and having people just downvote it. Not really dispute or reply to it, just “no, I don’t like this, so fuck its citations.”

Up until maybe 3-4 years ago I don’t ever recall that happening.