The headline “Bill Nye Does Not Speak for Us and He Does Not Speak for Science” at the Scientific American site caught my eye, never having considered Nye particularly controversial. Its byline is “500 Women Scientists.”
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
The rest is a screed aimed at Bridenstine and, well, pretty much everyone but Bill Nye, who seems otherwise to share most of the same views as the 500 Women Scientists. Nye is, like almost all scientists of any credibility, a believer in climate change and humankind’s contribution to same. Yet, the fact that he’s willing to go on television to debate climate change deniers is part of the attack against him. As is the fact that, by being a nerdy white male, he contributes to the stereotype that scientists are all nerdy white males when, in fact, at least 500 of them—and probably many more!—are not.
Sigh.
