38 Comments
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Hollis Brown's avatar

cognitive dissonance is a helluva drug.

once some people lay down a truth claim, their ego can never let them admit error. this is especially troubling for any scientist, since trial and error are some of the foundations of scientific knowledge.

it’s fairly obvious that celebrity “scientists” like Hotez and Tyson are being driven more by narcissistic preservation than a pursuit of truth. perhaps this is one of the more pernicious mistakes of making any scientist into a celebrity.

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Madhava Setty, MD's avatar

It's entirely possible that those folks have been groomed for their position because of their narcissistic tendencies.

I also think it is worthwhile to acknowledge that it is very hard to admit you were wrong if you previously insulted people who now turn out to be right. That can be so unacceptable for certain people that they start thinking in irrational ways to forever avoid facing that.

This is why it is so important to remain civil in exchanges with those we disagree with. If you think you are certain enough to insult someone for disagreeing it's a sign to take pause and consider if you may be fooling yourself at some level.

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Hollis Brown's avatar

you make a good point.

your response makes me think of this quote from Thomas Sowell:

“People will forgive you for being wrong, but they will never forgive you for being right—especially if events prove you right while proving them wrong.”

this might help explain Tyson and friends...

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Andy's avatar

The grooming-culling—begins in nursery school.

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Media Luna's avatar

Great advice to keep in mind!

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Red-Pilled ER Nurse's avatar

You're probably right, and your ability to do self reflection in moments like this is an inspiration. I'm just not wired that way. That is never my first inclination. Not saying my way is the right way... not by a long shot.

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Ian Sampson's avatar

Narcissism is a curious thing....We just fired..or more accurately steered ,one of the contractors working on a house we are getting ready to rent , into leaving the job. We had brought to his attention some elements we were very concerned about and he simply would not acknowledge any of it...actually doubled down on illogical reasons of why he had to do it that way...

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Tom X's avatar

The people I know in the highest ranks of academia almost all show these same narcissistic tendencies as NDGT, and were accordingly very willing to accept consensus as it reafirmed their status in the heirarchy, even when they admitted to me, directly, that they knew better.

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Marice Nelson's avatar

Tyson loves the sound of his own voice

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Haikufarmgirl's avatar

It’s sad and awkward to witness this man’s unmasking. When you discount evidence rather than refuting it, you sound like you’re in a cult.

Cue the apology tour and hit pause instead of post until you’re ready to share how fucking wrong you were for supporting nonsense and acting like we were the idiots.

Mr. Tyson, until you come to terms with how misinformed you were, you will only be valuable as fodder for memes.

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JayBee's avatar

A somewhat related nugget from the UK: https://trusttheevidence.substack.com/p/the-road-to-serfdom

Imagine the FDA chief at the time still not knowing that the public would get a differently produced version of the goo than the one he authorised....

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Doug Nierman's avatar

Another thing Tyson could add to his résumé: ‘Pompous Purveyor of Lies’.

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Ian Sampson's avatar

Tyson is a pathetic schill for mainstream media....and not very bright at that...

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Joanna's avatar

God help me to not hate people…

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denise ward's avatar

Of course we need evidence for everything, but every time this douchebag opens his mouth shows evidence that he is a paid shill. I can't even watch him, he's so repugnant in his lying.

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The Underdog's avatar

"The movie producers highlight an outbreak of measles in DisneyLand which resulted from vaccine hesitancy"

Incorrect. I covered this one many years ago. Patient Zero - much the vaccine shills will not tell you - was actually a vaccine recipient. And the others who got it? Also vaccinated.

Vaccine shills have continuously pushed the myth that patient zero in that case was unvaccinated, or the secondary cases were unvaccinated, but that's actually false.

Here's the proof:

https://www.wired.com/2015/01/vaccinated-people-get-measles-disneyland-blame-unvaccinated/

Neil Degrass Tyson is a dishonest fraudster. Nothing he does is remotely scientific.

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this little authoritarian's avatar

Tyson was just fine with covid 'vaccines'. Even making them mandatory. Yet had he actually read any immunology he would know that these are transfections (that's an actual scientific term). Their LNPs deliver payloads of mRNA (contaminated with DNA) anywhere systemically. Uptake is uncontrolled and any cell that is transfected and displays non-self proteins will be targeted for destruction by T-cells. Heart, liver, brain etc.. they don't discriminate. That's a huge problem.

And all of this to generate hyper-specific serum antibodies that play a minimal role in the body's defenses against a mucosal infection?

Tyson's position is idiotic. People are rightly questioning the entirety of "vaccine science" because if health experts are willing to conflate an mRNA transfection with a traditional vaccine, they're willing to lie about anything.

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Usamnesia's avatar

Fantastic summation of the entire charade of the warp speed miracle. I try to recommend all read Turtles all the Way Down. Immunology is a thoroughly captured discipline .

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karun's avatar

My father passed away from the vaccines suddenly 1.5 years ago, he was completely healthy and could have lived at least 25+ years comfortably, I have the whole chart and we were told the cause by doctors who knew the reason so we connected the dots and it makes total sense, so NDT can go f himself, that mass murdering terrorist from hell.

We have few deaths in the family from this.

It's not a game to me but very very serious, and they might be "ha-ha," "oopsie" laughing but they will face consequences if I ever encounter them in life.

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Andy's avatar

I was very disappointed by Tyson’s appearance on The Highwire. I thoroughly enjoyed his updated version of Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos” and was flummoxed to see how obtuse he really is. Del was way too easy on him.

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Madhava Setty, MD's avatar

Agreed. The shocking thing is that someone of NDGT's intellect should have seen that he was incontrovertibly uninformed after that conversation. Rather than following the threads that BigTree offered he chose to stick to his guns. He's free to do that, of course, but he has chosen to misrepresent himself as a rational, logical scientist. He is a poser.

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original poster's avatar

There's something immoral, perhaps even criminal, about people like Tyson.

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David Clements's avatar

I've watched many of his videos about the universe over the years and always listened with extreme scientism, as he always sounds too good to be true. But recently I've noticed for sure that he's another typically "sponsored scientist" spreading bs. This is a man who swears that man has been to the moon !!! Man has never been to the moon and certainly will never get there until technology has advanced some 1000% from our current situation involving space travel.

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David Clements's avatar

I agree 100%. He seems to tell wonderful make believe fairy tales with such a straight face. NASA get well over $60 million a day to spread BS and certainly pay Niel a handsome some to spread the BS. Man has NEVER been to the moon. Its impossible

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John Cave's avatar

Perhaps the pace of his learning is deliberate?

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