Bill Nye is actually kind of a dick.
I’ve gotten that vibe for the last decade or so, but do you have a particular reason?
I think just about everyone (including me and a lot if the people I grew up with) who was in Seattle in the 90s had met him and had similar experiences. Just generally shitty behavior and rudeness, often directed at children because he doesn’t really like kids in particular.
He’s pretty infamous for being a dick. I’m from the area he is from, and he has a pervasive reputation pretty much everywhere around here about it. He has refused to sign autographs without being paid, been rude to countless people in person who have recognized him, and is generally very condescending. He has this misplaced arrogance that is difficult to pin down but can be typical of people with a modicum of fame.
To my knowledge it’s all anecdotal, but the sheet volume of it lenda some credence to it.
I hear it about NDT too. I wonder if the combination of fame and science educator combine to a particularly volatile condescension?
Carl Sagan had a couple of rough marriages and an iffy relationship with his children, but I never heard of him being a “dick” to the public in any way. Similarly Steve Irwin (who I would consider a science educator) was awesome.
I think it’s less that the there’s a correlation between fame and science educator than simple ego and brains. NDT would be an asshole even if he wasn’t famous, because being smart just goes to some people’s heads.
I guess I should have been clearer, maybe that combination leads one to be more susceptible to that kind of condescension.
When you’re always being praised for your intelligence, and not enough people go against you, you end up believing everything you say is right, and even if it technically is, people just don’t want to hear it because it doesn’t matter; it feels like bragging that you’re the smartest one in the room, when no one asked.
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What about Bill Nighy?
