On Being Accused (Neil DeGrasse Tyson)

It's a pretty peculiar thing to say. Maybe even a bad attempt at flirting. But it seems like whether it's creepy depends on how it's delivered and by whom.

Sure I suppose I'll grant that creepiness is subjective and others will find this creepy even if I don't.

But what's more critical IMO is what if anything we should do about it. Should NDT lose job opportunities? Should women fear working with him? Not over 'creepiness' IMO. That said, losing job opportunities and women avoiding him is a natural consequence if the frequency/severity of the bad behavior continues.

The power of #metoo is that through unity, past victims can prevent future ones. If NDT truly victimizes women, this disclosure will help prevent more.

In this case, and the case with Andy Rubin, I immediately thought "these people are guilty" - without evidence, without even knowing them or having spoken to them or otherwise having any sort of real judgement about their character.

I had to step back and realize that I was jumping to a conclusion prematurely.

In case you are not familiar with how the law works (outside of the court of social media), an accusation, no matter how believable, is not damning evidence - even when multiple accusations come to light. Objectivity is extremely important in these situations because it has already been demonstrated that our instincts are not impartial.

I'm not saying that any given person is or is not guilty, just that they deserve a fair trial.

Maybe he doesn't like hugging and the comment was his way of deflecting.

It must be really hard to be in the public eye like this. He probably meets, what? 10,000 people a year? Maybe more? Everyone wants a photo, a snippet of conversation. The chances of saying or doing something stupid go up astronomically.

Yes, there are genuine creeps out there. But no, I don’t think you can judge a person by a few “puts foot in mouth” moments. We all do that sometimes, but when you are a celebrity the stakes are so much higher.

While I'd agree with you 'in the wild' on a random person, if you watch Neil for a length of time on stage,.... he has an energy about him. It almost exudes as a hyperactive type of quality. Not many people are excited about space "stuff" - so I can see him just becoming overly excited when people ARE interested.