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Goes around, comes around: 500 Women Scientists are eating Bill Nye…

Denyse O'Leary
January 30, 2018
Culture, Intelligent Design, science education
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Bill MFS thumbnailThe way activists eat their own. From 500 Women Scientists at Scientific American:

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.More.

Dear 500 Women Scientists: UD News is taking a pass on most of the politics you mention, so this only: Canada generally performs better than the United States in public education and we do not have a Department of Education. (We have other useless money pits, alas.)

Save your rage for something more worthwhile.

PS: No claim is made here that Bill Nye is a great guy. But this is not worth your effort, compared to the problems back at your desks.

See also: Bill Nye would criminalize dissent from human-caused global warming claims.

and

Marchin’, marchin’ for Science (Hint: the problems are back at your desk, not out in the streets)

Comments
Molson Bleu at 10: Yes but size matters. Distance from the top matters too. By American standards, most Canadian jurisdictions are small. It is much easier to prevent edu-crackpots from taking over or special interests from fleecing a small system than a big one (provided that prevention is actually a goal). Some of us would prefer much more decentralization than now exists, for more direct accountability. Nonetheless, we at least don't need to deal with Big Ed driving down performance here. News
"There is no Big Education and none wanted." Correct me if I am wrong, but don't the Provincial departments of education establish the curricula that all school districts must follow within each province? And if a Province develops a curriculum that violates the constitution, could it not be argued in your supreme court? Molson Bleu
Calling Bill Nye a fraud is strong... but deserving. This is not to say that he isn't intelligent (he clearly is), but only to say that he uses his intelligence and academic standing to mislead people into thinking that he knows more than he really does. Truth Will Set You Free
No backing down. He is a fraud. He certainly does not represent science though he is falsely portrayed as representing it. He represents, if anything, a dogmatic scientism that is, in reality, the antithesis of science since it seeks to convince through coercion rather than an honest seeking of truth. You mention Nye's mathematical aptitude, in my opinion, that gives him even less of an excuse for his scientific dogmatism, especially where his scientific dogmatism concerns Darwinian evolution versus the Intelligent Design and/or Creation debate:
Darwinian Evolution vs Mathematics - video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3gyx70BHvA
I guess you would think that Christ himself wasn't very Christ-like when he said:
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!,, “Woe to you, blind guides! You blind fools! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+23:13-33
Me calling Nye a fraud, which is what he actually is, is mild in comparison to what Jesus called the religious frauds of his day. bornagain77
ba77: He is a fraud. A bit of over the top there; character assassination really. Which does us no good in the culture war IMO. Nye has a mechanical engineering degree from Cornell, a prestigious engineering school, which indicates he has an aptitude for higher mathematics. And I'm thinking is way more than most of the contributors on this thread and I'm wondering if beyond the ability of ba77. Such an ability helps enable one to grasp a feeling for the abstract complexities of the modern hard sciences. Bill Nye is misguided about areas of science however. I doubt he has ever seen proof that humans can and do influence the temperature of a whole dang planet, which is a pretty over the top belief without basis. And I doubt that he has ever seen proof that genetic mutations are random. Yet he is a true believer in politicized science based on such. I would be careful about such wild statements about someone's character, it isn't exactly Christ-like. groovamos
I’d just as soon Bill Nye not be associated with Republicans
Well embedded within the nature of DC politicians today is a compulsion to parade their dysfunction around, and while one party has it worse than the other, we get to see/smell how stinky the whole dung heap is. Andrew asauber
Bob O'H at 2, nice try. They are all at subordinate levels of government, with equal status. There is no Big Education and none wanted. News
Always fun to watch the icepick approaching Trotsky. polistra
Oops, screwed up the formatting & didn't notice in time. Bob O'H
Canada generally performs better than the United States in public education and we do not have a Department of Education. </ Actually, you have 21. So I guess having more departments of education is better. :-)
Bob O'H
Of personal note, I'd just as soon Bill Nye not be associated with Republicans in terms of science. As far as I'm concerned, Democrats can parade him all they want as their mascot. They deserve him. :) He is a fraud. As well, this reminds me of the banishment of Dawkins from Berkeley: Richard Dawkins Event Canceled Over Past Comments About Islam By JACEY FORTIN - JULY 24, 2017 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/24/us/richard-dawkins-speech-canceled-berkeley.html bornagain77

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