Bill Nye can't wait for more old people to die
Commentary: The Science Guy says in an interview that climate change deniers skew older, so climate science can only progress when they "age out."
Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.
Is death the only cure?
They'll laugh at us one day.
They'll wonder how we could be so ignorant. Yes, just as we laugh at previous generations.
As the world crumbles all around, scientists work, warn and worry that their words won't be taken seriously.
One of their more vocal PR representatives, Bill Nye, offered some chillingly rational thoughts on the subject of science-based progress to The Los Angeles Times.
He railed against the current climate in which truth is tattered and experts are scorned.
Nye said fear is behind science being discarded. And the most fear, he said, came from one group.
"The people who are afraid in general -- with due respect, and I am now one of them -- are older.," Nye told the paper. "Climate change deniers, by way of example, are older. It's generational."
Can it really be the nation is split along generational lines, rather than political ones? If it is, what should we do?
"We're just going to have to wait for those people to 'age out,' as they say," Nye said, adding that "age out" is a euphemism for "die off." "But it'll happen, I guarantee you -- that'll happen."
Death is, indeed, inevitable. But the received wisdom has it that people become more conservative as they age. Well, everywhere but California, where they simply smoke more pot. So won't today's young people become more like previous generations, grizzling at those who claim to have new answers?
Nye, though, came dangerously close to suggesting older people were dingbats.
To him, science began to become a dirty word in the 80s, when today's older generation was in its prime. Science was, he said, replaced by the worship of money.
"It's hard not to be critical of people who want to be ignorant but I don't think it can last," he said. "I don't think the celebration of dingbatitude can stick with us because we'll get out-competed by the non-dingbats."
In its way, then, it does come down to money. The reason for scientific progress, in Nye's view, is to keep America ahead economically.
"People will want to look to non-dingbats to innovate and keep the United States competitive," he said.
Perhaps Nye might get together with a few rich, sensible types and start a new political movement. Wouldn't you want to vote for the Non-Dingbat Party?