{"id":27877,"date":"2014-09-18T09:38:12","date_gmt":"2014-09-18T13:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=27877"},"modified":"2015-02-22T11:25:19","modified_gmt":"2015-02-22T16:25:19","slug":"the-cosmos-reboot-flatters-the-sensibilities-of-the-i-love-science-sexually-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2014\/09\/18\/the-cosmos-reboot-flatters-the-sensibilities-of-the-i-love-science-sexually-camp\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cosmos<\/em> reboot “flatter[s] the sensibilities of the I Love Science Sexually camp”"},"content":{"rendered":"

I didn’t watch the original Cosmos<\/em> TV series, but I’ve heard retrospective rave reviews of the original show. I also haven’t watched any of the reboot, but Ace has, and he’s not impressed at all<\/a>:<\/p>\n

More Tyson “quotes” that serve no purpose except to stroke his own ego while he simultaneously strokes the egos of his fanbois and fangurlz.<\/p>\n

I was taken aback by the first episode of the Cosmos<\/em> reboot. That episode also contained, get this, a generally dishonest accounting of a mad monk named Giordani Bruno who challenged the prevailing theory that the sun was singular in the heavens in its possession of a planetary system.<\/p>\n

That story was fable-ized — stripped of the complicated reality of truth, turned into a simplistic Aesop Fable for children — in order to flatter the sensibilities of the I Love Science Sexually camp while insulting anyone of even a mild religious disposition.<\/p>\n

This is quite jackass, if you assume that the show’s creators actually wanted to evangelize for science among those who had come to distrust science. The show began by making things up in order to denigrate those who distrust science — certainly not evangelizing them to join Team Science at all.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

But this approach does make sense if one assumes their stated motivations for the show (evangelize for science among the “science pagans,” if you will) were not their real motivations.<\/p>\n

It makes sense if you assume their actual motivation was to tell the Science Flock that They’re Awesome and that the people who do not believe in The God Science are apes and monkeys.<\/p>\n

Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s position grants him power; it also imposes on him responsibility. I would never myself have nominated what is essentially a planetarium manager as Head of Science of the Western World; but the I Love Science Sexually brigade, the fanbois and fangurlz, did, so this is what we have.<\/p>\n

By Tyson’s own lights, is he actually popularizing science, or is making science look rather shabby and stupid by confusing actual science with its sorta-lookalike, “Science”? <\/p>\n

I think the latter. He doesn’t seem to be talking about science; he’s talking about “Science,” which is not an intellectual discipline, but a tribal signifier and I Win Button for stupid internet political arguments.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Update<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

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Let us all bow our heads in reason. pic.twitter.com\/QNX42Byn2r<\/a><\/p>\n

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) September 17, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n