People do not laugh at sociology, but they do laugh at many sociologists. It is probably one of the most important skils/understandings modern man can learn. Many if not most problems people come across in life are sociological.

Many academic sociologists on the other hand, have a very warped understanding of society. I very much doubt the faculty of social science team at UC Santa Cruz is well grounded in reality. sociology is so open to confirmation bias it makes economics look like simple math.