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

blogs.scientificamerican.com

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

#31

Post by timmytwotime »

mattferderer wrote: post #20

I think there are two ways of looking at this. Bill Nye is showing he supports the current policies by appearing at a State of the Union with Republicans. Bill Nye is choosing to work with those in power to try to have influence in the directions they choose to go. Elon Musk often argued this was his reasoning as well. I personally think the first opinion is very sad & results in a country that is torn apart by confl…

There is a third option: maybe he's going there to lay his case. And even a fourth option: maybe he wants to go to learn what the administration has to say in order to prepare to challenge it.

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

#34

Post by MisterBastahrd »

volgo wrote: post #2

This is ridiculous. They're claiming that merely associating himself with the government is a tacit support of Trump's attack on science. Bill is there to promote NASA's space exploration initiative. If you withdraw from participating in the government for the mere reason that it's connected to Trump in general, you're not gonna push any of your agendas forward.

At the SOTU? Nonsense.

the SOTU is simply a way for a President to campaign for himself. Always has been, always will be. I give Congress and the Supreme Court a pass because of their traditional role in being there. Everyone there who is not a government employee is there out of fealty, not obligation.

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

#35

Post by CivBase »

The article starts by highlighting Bill's explicit statement that his presence “should not be … seen as an acceptance of the recent attacks on science and the scientific community.”

Then it says to ignore his _explicit_ rejection of the administration's actions and just accept that his presence is an _implicit_ endorsement.

Then it goes on to assert that Bill Nye's popularity damages the scientific community's image because he is a nerdy white man. Apparently he also shouldn't hold public, civil debates with anyone either.

The whole thing reads like a hit piece to me. I haven't heard of the 500 Women Scientists organization before, but this does not leave me with a good first impression.

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

#36

Post by joshuawright11 »

This is absurd. Maybe the reason Nye has decided to accompany a man whose views are so different than his own (afaik, Nye himself is not a climate denier...) is because he believes space exploration and science is more important than political associations. Putting articles out like this undermines that and imo shows that the writers are far more interested in political virtue signalling than actually promoting science and research.

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

#37

Post by chillingeffect »

The article states:

> run by someone who votes against their civil rights.

with a link to: https://slate.com/technology/2018/01/this-is-the-first-time-...

but with multiple skimmings I can't find a reference in that article to where Bridenstine had voted against civil rights. Can anyone help clarify, please?

I do see references to "comments" and "barbs," but not votes:

> past comments deriding the Supreme Court decision to declare same-sex marriage constitutional and legal protections for transgender students using bathrooms, as well political barbs

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

#38

Post by 09wuruweu »

Well reasoned piece from so-called "scientists".

This is authoritarian think itself.

"People that don't behave the way we think they should, people who are not known/shown to be violent, oppressive, or authoritarian, are people who unwittingly (despite their statements/behaviors that show the opposite) in support of authoritarianism, abuse, and disinformation."

It completely disregards character evidence of the people involved for generalized grand-standing.

I suppose all the women attending are self-loathers, the men all abusers, and ...

Congrats, America. Both your political wings are ideologues with no critical thinking skills.

Both sides seem to think individuals are just cogs, there to serve whatever motto they choose.

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

#39

Post by glitchc »

I, for one, am thrilled to see Bill Nye support the current U.S. government. He has always been a strong proponent of climate change as evidenced by multiple speeches, debates, arguments and written material over the last decade. This latest move should be seen as a way of promoting growth and understanding regarding core scientific issues within the new administration.

The authors of this article displays a fair bit of hubris in assuming that they and their organization speaks for all scientists. It certainly does not speak for me. As a former scientist (worked in a government lab) who does not practice science anymore, I find the current model of conducting and reporting science in the U.S., and in general the western hemisphere, to be fundamentally flawed. My position is not based on sour grapes persay, as I was very effective at attracting funding and publishing papers. Rather I've found that scientists display a high level of self-righteousness in what are moral topics from a philosophical perspective, yet exhibit by the very same characteristics that motivate other "lesser" mortals, including politicians, such as greed (funding), recognition (paper count), and appeal to authority (reputation of authoring organization/university).

In my humble opinion, scientists have strayed far from their mandate to understand and discover nature and entered politics for personal, self-serving reasons. The field of science is suffering as a result.

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

#40

Post by TallGuyShort »

Scientific American doesn't necessarily speak for us or science either. One of the few things I don't like about Bill Nye and Neil Tyson is that they talk about "science" as though there's some single source of truth and ignore the messy realities of the process that make it hard to reach a perfect consensus. And then Scientific American does it even worse with some very silly and petty generalizations and assumptions. I'm not a big fan of Trump either but just boycotting arbitrary things because they're related to him is just stupid: it's like complaining about someone because they follow Trump on Twitter.
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