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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

Jun 25, 2020

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

Peter Borah

@PeterBorah

Jun 25, 2020

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

Replying to

@PeterBorah

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

4:14 AM · Jun 25, 2020Twitter for iPad

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