This was unexpected. Alarmists are starting to eat their own over Trump. From “Scientific American”, a once great magazine.
Bill Nye Does Not Speak for Us and He Does Not Speak for Science
By attending the State of the Union with NASA administrator nominee Jim Bridenstine, the Science Guy tacitly endorses climate denial, intolerance and attacks on science
By 500 Women Scientists on January 30, 2018
Tonight, Bill Nye “The Science Guy” will accompany Republican Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK), Trump’s nominee for NASA Administrator, to the State of the Union address. Nye has said that he’s accompanying the Congressman to help promote space exploration, since, he asserts, “NASA is the best brand the United States has” and that his attendance “should not be … seen as an acceptance of the recent attacks on science and the scientific community.”
But by attending the SOTU as Rep. Bridenstine’s guest, Nye has tacitly endorsed those very policies, and put his own personal brand over the interests of the scientific community at large. Rep. Bridenstine is a controversial nominee who refuses to state that climate change is driven by human activity, and even introduced legislation to remove Earth sciences from NASA’s scientific mission. Further, he’s worked to undermine civil rights, including pushing for crackdowns on immigrants,a ban on gay marriage, and abolishing the Department of Education.
As scientists, we cannot stand by while Nye lends our community’s credibility to a man who would undermine the United States’ most prominent science agency. And we cannot stand by while Nye uses his public persona as a science entertainer to support an administration that is expressly xenophobic, homophobic, misogynistic, racist, ableist, and anti-science.
…
The true shame is that Bill Nye remains the popular face of science because he keeps himself in the public eye. To be sure, increasing the visibility of scientists in the popular media is important to strengthening public support for science, but Nye’s TV persona has perpetuated the harmful stereotype that scientists are nerdy, combative white men in lab coats—a stereotype that does not comport with our lived experience as women in STEM. And he continues to wield his power recklessly, even after his recent endeavors in debate and politics have backfired spectacularly.
Wow, harsh. Read the full excoriation here: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/bill-nye-does-not-speak-for-us-and-he-does-not-speak-for-science/
h/t to WUWT reader Clyde Spencer
I have been reading “SA?” since 1977 and it has given me a lot. In later years just getting the plastic cover off have seemed like a waste of work. I (beeing very patient) ended the subscription this year.
Does anybody have an alternative? A magazine wit SCIENCE as their priority.
I like to read from paper.
Physics World. but I get it as member’s subscription from the Institute of Physics, London
Discover magazine is for everybody
http://discovermagazine.com/
In truth, nobody “speaks for science”. The reason they have reached this lamentable state is because they pay lip service to the idea that science can have political representatives who must be taken notice of above others they oppose for purely political reasons.
For crying out loud…. Bill Nye is just a clown…. No really. He is a true clown. He dresses in strange loud costumes with funny bow ties to entertain children…. That’s his job. Why anyone thinks he’s a scientist is akin to thinking Bozo the Clown is a Philosopher….. The freakin’ guy is just an entertainer for children. That’s it. That’s the extent of his expertise.
Stop talking about him. He’s irrelevant.
Once again the American political left throws one of its own onto the tracks. I have a hard time imagining a more UN-scientific statement than “By attending the State of the Union with NASA administrator nominee Jim Bridenstine, the Science Guy tacitly endorses climate denial, intolerance and attacks on science”.
“By 500 Women Scientists on January 30, 2018”
Women is just a social construct.
Say “people scientists”.
“As scientists, we cannot stand by while Nye lends our community’s credibility to a man who would undermine the United States’ most prominent science agency. ”
No, as activists.
Scientists deal with science, not politics.
Interesting story about Mr. Nye. He helped fund the Ark Encounter Museum. How. He challenged Ken Ham, a Creationist scientist to a debate on is Creationism a viable scientific origin of life. The debate was held and millions around the world watched. While scientists agreed that Mr. Nye won the debate, more people became interested in the theory after the debate and money started coming in from all kind of sources. Mr. Ham had wanted to create a life sized Ark and the funding for that was flowing in thanks to the debate. The debate was not the only reason for the Ark Encounter becoming a reality, but it was one of the key reasons.
Mr. Nye toured the Ark after it was completed with Mr.Ham and just kept repeating that the encounter was being used to brainwash our children. I like this sentence that is included in an article on his visit “Nye said the exhibit encourages visitors to trust faith over science and thereby undercuts their ability to engage in critical thinking.” This is rich coming from a man that has bought into man made climate change hook line and sinker.
Seems to me under this logic, if I dedicated my adult life to helping impoverished and poorly educated children in Africa, but missed one of the points in the Progressive playbook, I would become a bad person. Seems pretty self-defeating. Go figure.
Oh no it’s Politics again in well everything! A coin has a head and a tails but it’s still the same coin.
A circle has a left side and right side, a top side and bottom side, split down the middle we have a good side an evil side. (Ying Yang)
yet it’s still the same circle.
You have a left hand and a right hand both are attached to the same body.
Both respond from the same mind which is both evil and good.
[Although the point of this comment eludes the most fervent scrutiny, it has been approved. -mod]
Nancy Pelosi and Dick Durbin were also in attendance at the SOTU. So can we throw them out of the party as well? They were certainly supporting everything the POTUS said.
“Nancy Pelosi and Dick Durbin were also in attendance at the SOTU. So can we throw them out of the party as well? They were certainly supporting everything the POTUS said.”
Ha-ha! Supporting by example, not by approbation.
In Britain, the left is expelling hard core feminists because they won’t support “women with dicks.” Here the left science nerds are trashing popular left-leaning science nerds. They are eating their own. The new generation of leftists are so stupid that they don’t even know what side they are on. Which, as far as I am concerned, is excellent news.
What is The People’s Front for Judea’s position on this?
“Labeling them racist, anti science, hate speech mongers, etc.”
Only one of those things is not true about the current right. And I think they just got lucky on that one. They might be on the correct side, but they do not understand *why* they are correct. They only believe it because it’s the opposite of the current left.
I’m no fan of Bill Nye, but the post referred to is nothing but a series of rude activist ad hominems alleging guilt by association. It’s pure felgercarb.
This Nye Guy must be one real bad dood!
I see that the women who wrote the opinion piece for Scientific American are not very good at verifying evidence. To call President Trump all those hateful names without proof is irresponsible – and VERY political.
Let’s not forget that John Cook, occupation prior to jumping on the AGW bandwagon (and creating the bogus 97% concensus) was being the author and artist of some Sci-Fi parody webcomics, including Sev-Trek, and pretty much blatantly copying “The Simpsons” art style. Hasn’t done any new comics since circa 2002 when he launched his ‘skeptical science, site.