Conversation

Here's an excellent example of how "scientific" "skepticism" is actually mostly about uncritically dunking on people. (I expect aliens who evolved on a planetary surface to look basically like any other animal, because convergent evolution is a thing.)

Quote Tweet

Neil deGrasse Tyson

@neiltyson

· Jun 24, 2020

Note to HOLLYWOOD: A space alien with no DNA in common with life on Earth should look more different from life on Earth than **any** two life forms on Earth look from each other.

QC (in Berlin 7/29-??? w/ COVID

)

@QiaochuYuan

Jun 25, 2020

this was also my response but then i decided neil is being bad on purpose to make us click and i stopped myself from executing the sweet, sweet dunk

Peter Borah

@PeterBorah

Jun 25, 2020

Do you think it's bad on purpose? The comments under the post mostly seem to agree with his premise.

QC (in Berlin 7/29-??? w/ COVID

)

@QiaochuYuan

Replying to

@PeterBorah

i think a guy like neil who’s been on twitter for awhile knows at least subconsciously exactly how bad his takes need to be to generate controversy and attention and has been trained, possibly without realizing it, into delivering takes at that level of badness

4:06 AM · Jun 25, 2020Twitter for iPad

Replying to

Hmmmmmmm, interesting. I think my theory is that he's just bullshitting, because he's judged based on making people feel smart, rather than anything to do with accuracy. Surely people engaging based on him being wrong is a small percentage of his engagement for this tweet?

QC (in Berlin 7/29-??? w/ COVID

)

@QiaochuYuan

Jun 25, 2020

fair point, there are a few replies pointing this out but most of the negative feedback is “lol who cares nerd it’s entertainment” and then there are a couple people who don’t seem to understand that science fiction is fiction hmm

QC (in Berlin 7/29-??? w/ COVID

Replying to

and

so the way i use “it’s bad on purpose” i don’t necessarily mean to imply that the purpose is *neil’s*, exactly

Kimoto's Gravity Farewell

@wr1nkl3

Jun 25, 2020

Nevertheless the end result is that Neil on Twitter has exactly one personality trait and that trait is "pedantic".