Scientists who are actually really stupid: #1, Neil deGrasse Tyson

Monday, April 11, 2016 by: Natural News Editor
Tags: Neil deGrasse Tyson, celebrity scientist, stupidity

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(NaturalNews) Neil deGrasse Tyson made the decision a long time ago to be a sort of media cheerleader for science instead of an actual scientist, and although he isn't a great communicator, it was the right decision because he was unlikely ever to trouble the Nobel committee. Also, he is stupid and his politics are dumb. (Story by Milo Yiannopoulos, republished from Breitbart.com.)

Tyson, whom liberals love because they are racists who can't believe a black guy could be smart enough to be a scientist and so spontaneously ejaculate and soil themselves every time they see him on TV, hasn't published anything of note for years. The advantage of being a celebrity scientist is that you don't actually have to do any science. You're exempted from the usual "publish or perish" rules.

Even when he was making a go of being a proper academic, Tyson didn't exactly have the most glittering record. He didn't get the PhD he was studying for at the University of Texas and had to go elsewhere for his qualification. Obviously, rather than take responsibility for his academic performance, Tyson has blamed racism. In reality, Tyson was playing in bands and appearing on stage^[1] instead of completing essays. Typical science PhD students are at any given time either studying, teaching or sleeping.

It's tough to avoid the conclusion that much of what is frustrating about Neil deGrasse Tyson stems from identity politics and the victimhood ideology peddled by leftist academics and journalists. Despite all his media success, Tyson insists that racism is responsible for his academic failures,^[2] alluding to sinister "forces" that keep women and ethnic minorities down.

In 2005, he said: "I know these forces are real and I had to survive them in order to get where I am today. So before we start talking about genetic differences, you gotta come up with a system where there's equal opportunity." He of course doesn't address the fact that the only reason Neil deGrasse Tyson is on television at all, given his intellectual shortcomings, is that he is black.

Perhaps realising how ridiculous he sounds, the world's most celebrated populariser of science has stopped talking about race in interviews and says he has never given an interview whose primary focus is race since 1993.^[3] Which is something, at least.

Social justice-inspired grievance culture has flavoured much of Tyson's output during his media career. Indeed, some observers say he's more left-wing propagandist than rigorous thinker these days. His reboot of Cosmos, for instance, was saturated with progressive garbage designed to appeal to liberal-minded students and lefty geeks.

The problem is, every time Tyson plays to this crowd, he has to get his facts wrong to make the argument work. Take his gushing tribute to Giordano Bruno, who was burned at the stake. None of the details are correct.^[4] Bruno wasn't a scientist: he was a cult leader who dined out on wild conjecture and guesswork.

Elsewhere in Cosmos, Tyson makes other serious errors. I say "errors" but for a man of his ostensible erudition you do have to wonder how these mistakes and bizarre claims keep creeping in. He says Venus is suffering from global warming,^[5] for instance. And I think we can live without the televisual trope of space ships making sound in space — unless Tyson is claiming no more astrophysical literacy than an episode of Star Trek.

Because he has given up on the scientific method in favour of progressive politics, Tyson has jettisoned fairness and fact in favour of slipperiness and propaganda: he is caught again and again repeating quotes that he appears to have simply made up, or which at a bare minimum are stripped of essential context or provenance. He shows no interest in correcting the record or addressing these mistakes — we'll be diplomatic and call them mistakes^[6] — which does rather cast doubt on his entire benevolent genius schtick, don't you think?

Read more at Breitbart.com.

Sources:

[1] Alcalde.TexasExes.org

[2] Alcalde.TexasExes.org

[3] En.Wikipedia.org

[4] Blogs.DiscoverMagazine.com

[5] TheFederalist.com

[6] TheFederalist.com