#ndgt

No, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Squashing Curiosity And Wonder Is Never Okay

“To anyone who felt excluded like they were being shamed for their own excitement at Neil's comments, I sympathize with you. We all have our own niche, even peculiar interests that we get more excited about than most others will ever understand, and you should never be made to feel bad for that. [...] The wonders of the Universe we all share speak to much more than just our rational minds; they touch every part of what it means to be human. May we all touch each other with kindness and generosity whenever our lives intersect.”

Last week, millions of people across the United States got to experience the awe and wonder of a total solar eclipse, many for the very first time. But in a puzzling event, astrophysicist and one of the world’s most famous science communicators, Neil deGrasse Tyson, decided to use his fame to put down a great many people who were excited about this rare cosmic event. And sadly, when someone explained to him why they would (correctly) say that eclipses are rare, Tyson doubled-down with condescension. Coming from anyone, this would be a damnable act of gatekeeping: using your own position as an expert within your field to make it less accessible for others. But from America’s most famous living astrophysicist, it’s inexcusable. If science is about anything, it’s about the joy and pleasure of finding things out; of learning about the Universe; of increasing your knowledge; of experiencing the wonder of existence itself.