Bill Nye Does Not Speak for Us and He Does Not Speak for Science

Wow how overbearingly stupid.

The author's claim is certainly not the case, as the very first episode of Bill Nye Saves the World shows. By accompanying "the other side" to the dance does not mean they will. MAYBE Nye is just going to hear and is perhaps intellectually curious about the claims to those of which he has challenged before. It does not mean he tacitly agrees. It does mean that the author has inferred that through some partisan "not like me" lens. This is terrible.

"Bill Nye does not speak for us or for the members of the scientific community who have to protect not only the integrity of their research, but also their basic right to do science."

This is a great example of how ideology eats itself.

What's frustrating here is the attitude that if you agree with (or work with) someone on some particular topic, then you are necessarily endorsing that person's views on EVERY topic. In other words, you should never associate with someone unless you agree with 100% of their views.

If we brought this attitude into our personal lives, it would make our interactions with family members and colleagues impossible! I disagree with Uncle Bob about X, so therefore it doesn't matter that we have Y in common; I have to condemn him completely. One of my co-workers has a different attitude towards business aspect X than me; therefore, we can't work together on business aspect Y.

Only associating with people whose views are in complete alignment with your own is a good way to become lonely, angry, and ineffective.

This extreme rhetoric only strengthens the right. By condemning Nye for debating creationists and being a “combative white nerd”, this article reads like the Onion. Attending this event may be bad idea, but with friends like these who needs enemies? Who wants to even try and take part in public life? The moment you stand up you’ll be marked next for the pillory. Do we really wonder why liberal democracy is collapsing?

It's funny, I find that this article clearly provides the counterpoint to its own argument.

If Bill Nye truly valued his own brand more than he valued scientific progress would he not have chosen to boycott the SOTU, disassociated himself from this administration's NASA, and written his own version of this exact article?

I understand that if your agenda is creating a fair immigration process or marriage equality or improving our public education system then you might decide that boycotting this administration is the best way to push that agenda... Since this administration is clearly not serving those interests... But, if your agenda is scientific progress or increasing mankind's presence in space then boycotting this administration probably isn't the best way to push that agenda. If anything, this clearly shows that that, more than the other things, is what Bill Nye cares about...

Yeah I was really hoping for more, this is kind of a joke. For example at one point Nye was very anti-GMOs despite the science and ignoring the science is worthy of such a headline.