I agree that anyone who bases their PhD on the insane ramblings of the misfits at DU is testimony of how completely watered down and useless doctorates have become.
Well now, since 2006, I've actually gotten nine credit hours from the state college located east of here, "independent study" of, specficially, the primitives on Skins's island.
Not that I expect to do anything with it; it's just that with this vacancy of hearing, normal means of diversion and amusement are shut off to me--television, radio, music, movies, those sorts of things--but the brain's the same size as the brains of hearing people, and needs filled with something, anything.
The primitives are my television show, my radio show, my movies, my concerts.
However, if I ever expected this "scholarship" to lead to some lucrative money-making, I should, as the primitives, be committed for gross delusion.
If the boohoo primitive is thinking his research is going to lead to something big, the boohoo primitive too is nuts.
However, there's nothing wrong with doing something just for the fun of it, provided one has no Great Expectations.