Neil deGrasse Tyson Hates Freedom | Hn 275

Adam (0:07)

Hi, Bob.

Bob (0:08)

Hey, Mr. Haman.

Adam (0:10)

You know, as good libertarians, heck, as good people, we are trained, encouraged, to not be collectivist and group certain people, certain groups of people all together, and ascribe poor characteristics to them that might not be fair. We're not supposed to do that.

But I got to admit, there is a group in society that I have negative feelings for just out of the gate. You tell me this is this kind of a person, and I just don't like them.

Bob (0:45)

Is it people who take a long time to make a point?

Adam (0:48)

No, I love them.

Those are my people. No, it's well, Neil deGrasse Tyson is one. Does that give you a hint?

Bob (0:58)

Uh, scientists?

Adam (1:01)

It's public intellectuals. Men? Public intellectuals. I don't, I just don't like him.

Bob (1:07)

Yeah, that guy, I don't know what, well, I think I do know what it is. He, yeah, like you said, it's the way he just talks on behalf of science bothers the heck out of me.

Adam (1:21)

Yeah, I said it. He is remarkably condescending, and he's not a stupid person, but his level of talking down to people in condescension is not warranted for whatever his IQ or depth of knowledge is.

He's very insulting, and it does not, it rankles me.

Bob (1:42)

There's actually a cute story of my oldest son when he was younger, was watching, is it Cosmos? Is that the show that he was, that he like took over from?

Adam (1:50)

Took over from Carl Sagan?

Bob (1:53)

And so my son was, yeah, my son was like, I don't know, he may be like around 10, like just ballpark. And so he was telling me, he had been watching that show and was telling me stuff about it. And then he was going on about like the history and how like, you know, the famous like church versus science kind of stuff.

And he was saying, you know, we were like shopping or something. And I was just going through it. I was like, well, you know, that's a convenient thing, but it's actually way more nuanced. And I was going, I wasn't just saying, Catholic Church, there's nothing wrong, you know. But I was just pointing out that, yeah, we all learn that story. And then you get older and you read about it, you realize, no, they're kind of just.

Adam (2:30)

Quite so much.

Bob (2:30)

So anyway, so then during that same grocery trip, like we're getting to the checkout and he started talking about how it was something like how the earth was eight light minutes away from the sun.

And then he went, oh, wait a minute. I heard that from, I don't know if that's right. Like, cause he no longer trusted Neil deGrasse Tyson, and it came out like so. And I went, no, he's all right on that.

Neil deGrasse Tyson (2:50)

He's gonna get that stuff right.

Adam (2:51)

Yeah, for sure.

So yeah, I'm done ranting. I think I made my point in a reasonable amount of time.

Bob (2:59)

Yep, you ranted. I told an anecdote that was only loosely related to the topic at hand. And so people are probably saying, maybe you guys should start giving us some contact.

Adam (3:05)

Yeah, we're three minutes in. Why don't you tell the good people what the heck we're talking about?

Bob (3:10)

Sheldon Richmond sent us this as possible fodder, this episode, I guess you'd call it. It's Neil deGrasse Tyson going through his concern over the fact that America is losing its edge, used to dominate the world in science and technology, and we're furthering it away, and he just wants to make sure we're aware of this because, gosh darn it, this country is amazing.

Adam (3:35)

Yeah, that's true. We have some clips, we have some points.

I guess I'll just ask you first, Bob, do you want to just launch into what Neil has to say, or do you want to make a few points in preparation?

Bob (3:53)

I guess the only thing I'll say in terms of context is, I noticed Eric Weinstein has been making similar, giving similar warnings and talking about, like he even linked it to the Epstein stuff, and was saying how, like what Epstein was doing, because he was offering bounties, he was like going around to top thinkers in various fields, and kind of like, you know, recruiting them and like making them feel like they were really cool, and, you know, so anyway, and he was saying, you know, part of the backdrop to that is that, yeah, you know, in the 50s and the 60s, America was just, boom, the place to be, and there was all this Defense Department money getting thrown around and stuff like that, and how the American universities were, like, part of our national prestige, and like really important for the military industrial complex and all that kind of stuff. And he was just pointing out, hey, you know, we're losing that because of, you know, the budget cuts and just the lack of prestige now that's afforded to the top scientists in various departments and things. So anyway, I would say that Neil deGrasse Tyson is not talking in a vacuum. Also, by the way, I think Eric's...