Punching‑down norms chill academic critique

Treating criticism of less‑powerful researchers as inherently immoral (a form of 'punching down') discourages public, rigorous scrutiny of methods and claims. That norm shifts responses from engagement with evidence to identity‑based condemnation, weakening science's self‑correcting mechanisms. — If critique is suppressed by moralized power‑dynamics, scholarly quality, reproducibility, and public trust in science decline—affecting policy, media coverage, and institutional governance.