I've seen this play before. It doesn't end well.
The people over at The Federalist are on a mission from Go...err, Koch. They are out to destroy Neil deGrasse Tyson.
Why? Well, The Federalist is one of those octopus tentacles in the echo chamber, reaching forth as a new voice with credentials (from all the same old voices of the chamber). The founders are from a place you might have heard of before - the Heartland Institute.
Tyson has become a star, mostly because of his ability to engage a layman into the wonders of science and intellectualism, and also, for people like me, because he has been very blunt and straightforward, concise and instructional, on the data, implications and science of Anthropogenic Global Warming.
He must be stopped.
If you have conservative friends on social media, you may have seen the opening salvos against Tyson, and against COSMOS.
On Tyson, there's a whole list of attacks running.
In trying to make a point about the overlap of ancient religions, he misquoted President Bush. Or more to the point, he took a quote the former President said after Columbia and juxtaposed it to 9-11.
At another speaking engagement, he recalled a headline that maybe wasn't a headline. He apparently embellished an oft-used anecdote about jury duty, or some such.
Not to worry, Sean Davis and The Federalist are on it! They are gotcha'ing Tyson on his gaffes, memory lapses and anecdotal embellishments. They'll get him, not to fear!
But why?
because they know it works to serve their larger purpose.
This is a technique. It is purposeful. It is designed to give people who have been denying AGW the ability to scoff and wave their hands at anyone who brings up Tyson's remarks about AGW. it's the "Gorification" of the man.
They're going to comb every word the man says. Who does that? Why would anyone do that? And who could ever stand up to such scrutiny?
No one could. Take any public speaker who riffs without a tight script and you'll find inconsistencies in anecdotes, usually embellishments, both because of faulty memory and a very human need of acceptance. When you speak in front of a crowd, certain phrases get attention and applause, and so gradually those punch lines become the bullet points of your presentation.
None of which has anything to do with science.
But that doesn't matter, because now the people who want to go on Facebook and pretend to be the best and brightest most cleverest-ever science investigators because some paid propagandist told them the super-double-secret truth about the global warming conspiracy will shut down the minute anyone tries to explain the science behind it....because "GORE!" and because "TYSON!"
This is exactly the kind of effort that has shut down reasoned discourse in the United States - and it's been done purposefully by the people who stand to lose the most if the status quo is deemed unacceptable. And we wonder why politicians are like programmed robots, just uttering the same talking points and stump speeches over and over again.
Neil deGrasse Tyson is guilty of being a human, of playing to the crowd, of misremembering little details around a larger event. Memory is NOT a fact, nor is it empirical, nor is it reliable. People "remember" things that never happened with absolute certainty.
None of which has anything to do with science.
I know many will poo-poo this as "who cares?" But consider: when is the last time you mentioned Al Gore in a debate with a conservative regarding AGW?
Tyson is poking two big bears: the fossil fuel industry and Christian fundamentalists. This isn't going away until his name becomes synonymous with charlatan.
I think that matters.
2:50 PM PT: Top of the Rec list? GOOD! We have to be aware of this, we have to fight this. We can't keep allowing important voices espousing, oh I don't know, the freaking Enlightenment?, be assailed without rebuke.