Bill Nye gives advice to beleaguered European Jews: “Get to know your neighbors”

February 22, 2015 • 9:00 am

I know that many readers love Bill Nye, and that I’ll take flak for criticizing him, but I do think the man is a befuddled seeker of the limelight, desperately looking to regain the renown he had when he was Bill Nye the Science Guy. (Full disclosure: I never watched that show, and I do admire his mission and his drive to educate people about science, and to call out climate-change denialists.) But now he’s making pronouncements about things in which he has no expertise, counting, I suppose, on his image as the amiable Science Uncle to give him credibility. (I wasn’t all that impressed with his defense of evolution in his debate with Ken Ham.) But to me he just seems like a befuddled relative, bumbling around looking for his glasses and not making a lot of sense. He will eventually fade away, I suspect, and I won’t miss him. There are plenty of better science popularizers.

Here’s this week’s example of Nye’s cluelessness: a discussion of European antisemitism involving Bill Maher, Nye, Rob Reiner, and Washington Post reporter Elahe Izadi on Maher’s “Real Time” show last Friday. They’re talking about Netanyahu’s misguided suggestion that European Jews should move to Israel to avoid the recent rise of antisemitic sentiment and actions. Then Nye chimes in with his useful advice to mitigate the bigotry:

Nye: “So what do you do about it? I think you get to know your neighbors. That said–it’s gonna take, does it take a century? Something like that.”

The man may be The Science Guy, but he’s not a Human Relations Guy! I exchanged emails about this with my friend Malgorzata, most of whose relatives were killed in the Holocaust, who married a non-Jew, and who was driven out of Poland long after the war because of anti-Semitism. (The wave of antisemitism in Poland started in 1967 after the Six-Day War and culminated with the Polish government advising, or rather urging, Jews to leave the country. She and her husband, who first was forbidden to accompany her because he was an “Aryan,” went to Sweden in 1971, returning to Poland only much later.) Her reaction was much stronger than mine (which was simply “Nye is an moron”):

[Nye] pontificated that it could take a century. Didn’t this idiot know that Jews were living in Europe for millennia? That they knew their neighbours as far as the neighbours allowed? Even Jews who converted to Christianity were killed by Germans as Jews*—but what more can you do than to take the religion of your neighbours and renounce your community? And even that didn’t help. There were writers writing in the language of the country of “their neigbours”, scientists who worked in their laboratories, etc. And they went to Auschwitz together with the Orthodox Jews with payos [sidelocks]—they were all deemed to be the same. Today in Poland there are a few Jews who know nothing about Judaism, are not religious, Polish is their mother tongue, and they even were sitting in jails in the Communist era for the fight for free Poland (not free Israel). There is still so much hatred against them, in spite of the fact they think they are the same as their neighbours. Oh, I could continue but I have no time to write and you have no time to read my rant.

*JAC: A famous example of a Jew who converted to Catholicism, and became a nun, but was still killed by the Nazis at Auschwitz because of her Jewish background, was Edith Stein, later made a saint by the Vatican. She also had a doctorate in philosophy.

126 thoughts on “Bill Nye gives advice to beleaguered European Jews: “Get to know your neighbors””

  3. “Get to know your neighbors”??? What is this man talking about? He may know about science, but he has *no* grasp of history!

  4. Yeah, I’m afraid that I’m inclined to agree with you, Jerry. Sure, he’s a man of science; yes, he goes after climate deniers; yes, he was willing to go after Ken Ham (true: Nye most certainly did NOT wipe the floor with Ham)… and yet there’s something about Nye that makes me feel that he’s not quite in focus. “Befuddled relative” is a good choice of words.

  5. The first guy with the grey beard (forgive me, I don’t know his name) is partly wrong and partly right about European antisemitism. Yes, antisemitism has never fully gone away and probably never will. However, it has changed. Right wing antisemitism has been marginalised in large parts of Western Europe, except perhaps for catholic countries like France (Le Pen) and Poland. The most dangerous form of antisemitism is islamic antisemitism. The jews rejected Mohammed too as their saviour.

    It is hardly a surprise that the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, was a good friend of mr. Hitler. The mufti also blessed the 13th Waffen Mountain Division, made up of Bosnian muslims.

    1. Addendum: this is ofcourse not to excuse protestant antisemitism. But antisemitism seems to be more widespread in catholic countries imho.

    2. I guess I’m only a little bit surprised that you didn’t recognize Rob Reiner. Then again, I’m a guy who doesn’t give a crap about sports and so if Maher had some famous footballer on, I probably wouldn’t have recognized him.

      1. I was shocked only because All in the Family was a part of my childhood and I love the movies Rob Reiner is involved in. Also, his dad is Carl Reiner and that guy is a scream!

          1. They are still friends and meet at Carl Reiner’s house every evening for dinner – Jerry Seinfeld joined them on his show, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.

        2. I always forget he was in All in the Family! For me, it’s enough that he directed one of my favorites movies of all time – Spinal Tap.

          3. It’s why I clarified that I felt that way only because Aron Reiner as meathead was a big part of my childhood. It was the other poster who asked me why I was shocked, probably reading my remark out of context. So please don’t take such umbrage and look at the context; Jerry also made a joking remark and I didn’t see you chastise him.

          5. My apologies, I wasn’t clear enough. I didn’t mean to use the exclamation mark as a way of conveying annoyance, but as an excuse for my own ignorance. Sorry for any offence.

          7. Yeah, Diana, I didn’t read EvolvedDutchie as sounding at all chastising!

            Just chiming in to support ED, because I know you (Diana) have a lot of reasons to be in a bad mood lately!

      2. Having read mr. Steiners impressive list, I must shamefully confess I haven’t seen a single film he directed, wrote or played a role in. That explains my ignorance.

          1. He really loves that when people do that to him in the street. 🙂 You might be interested in this interview by Kevin Pollak — nearly 2 hours. The interviews on this chat show are always excellent, and offers lots of insights to the business and people’s careers in a relaxed format.

        2. I blame this on the downfall of “older” media. In talking to students (actually, included grad students and postdocs), that many never watch anything that isn’t quite recent. Now that we can stream movies and TV, even the kind of browsing of old movies we used to do at video stores will become less common. So, while I watched a fair number of old black-and-white TV shows and movies as a kid, it seems like the number of similarly aged movies today are entirely unfamiliar to grad students. Not only have they never seen Casablanca, they’ve never seen Little Big Man or Chinatown.

        3. If I recall correctly All in the Family was a take off of the british comedy, Till Death do us Part with Alf Garnett (Warren Mitchell) Here is a sample of his character from wiki:
          In the episode ‘State Visit’ (20 February 1967) Alf gives his full name as Alfred Edward Garnett. Alf was reactionary, mean-spirited, selfish, bigoted, anti-Irish, anti-Catholic, racist, misogynistic and anti-Semitic. Warren Mitchell himself is in fact Jewish. In In Sickness and in Health he also displays homophobia, largely because he gets a gay black man whom he calls “Marigold” as his home help. The home help calls him “bwana”.

    3. You are wrong. There’s a rise of antisemitism all over Europe. It is often disguised as an opposition to Israel.
      This time, it’s actually coming from the left. The right found a new easier target in the growing Muslim communities. This leads extreme right movements, sometimes with direct links to neo-Nazism, to pro-Israeli positions. Shamefully, some of my fellow Israelis are willing to align with those movements against the “common enemy”. Personally, I don’t buy it, and I think that if they could get rid of the Muslims, they would turn against us.

      On a side note, I understand why people don’t like it, but being the home of all Jews is the raison d’être of Israel. For most of us, Netanyahu stated the obvious in saying that European Jews should come to Israel.

      1. I did not deny the rise of antisemitism. My point is that is has changed. We’re on the same page. By the way, antisemitism on the left is not a new phenomenon. The stereotypical jew was Shylock from The Merchant Of Venice who earned more money in 10 minutes than other people in a lifetime. Such a capitalism-oriënted individual was ofcourse anathema to the 19th and early 20th century marxists.

        Most of the muslims in the Netherlands today were immigrants from the 1960’s. Europe’s economy was booming and more workers were needed to fill the vacant jobs. Especially the political Right was in favor of mass immigration, because that would cut the cost of labor. Most of those unskilled immigrants ended up in jobs with low wages, like in the harbor of Rotterdam. The Left saw the muslim immigrants as victims of capitalist oppression and was willing to bat an eyelid to the oppresion of minorities by the muslim minority. This also applies to women and LGBT people within the muslim minority.

        Right-wing politicians who denounce mass-immigration as a left-wing phenomenon are a bunch of hypocrites.

        On Israel, I’m in favor of a state for jews, but not for a jewish state. Synagogue and state should be separated. I’m in favor of a two-state solution, which is also the opinion of the EU and the USA. And I despise any effort – be it rockets from Gaza or illegal Israeli settlements – that tries to undermine the two-state solution.

  7. I think it’s cool that Bill Nye is/was a science popularizer. And I know people really enjoyed his show. Personally, I grew up with the original Cosmos and Carl Sagan, and never needed anyone to make science “wacky”.

    What I really don’t understand is why Nye would be on a panel like this. He’s an entertainer, right? He’s not a scientist, nor a historian, nor an expert in anything really (correct me if I’m wrong). Nye just seems out of his depth. Oh well, I guess it’s just a TV show, right?

    1. The thing is, if he were an entertainer, he’d be able to participate with that panel but he isn’t really all that entertaining.

      Nye needs to stick to the forum he has found success in or do some work and learn about current events and history before he goes on a show with a smart panel like those on Real Time last night.

      1. Yeah that’s true. Right now he seems to be riding on his past success and needs to find an appropriate niche.

      2. I agree, but Real Time’s panels are most definitely not always smart. Maher himself can often be a source of baffling ignorance, as he demonstrated last week.

          1. That’s always been a problem with Bill Maher’s shows. He tries to spice things up by matching deep thinkers with celebrity nitwits, and ends up with an assymetrical mess.

          2. He tries to spice things up by matching deep thinkers with celebrity nitwits, and ends up with an assymetrical mess.

            I’ve always liked the format. Including celebrity nitwits gives us an idea what the average man on the street is thinking about current events. Without the selective editing found in the standard man on the street interviews.

    2. His background is in mechanical engineering, working on 747’s at Boeing, but for the last few decades, yes, his has been a science popularizer/entertainer. He really is an intelligent man, but he is absolutely out of his depth here. His “wackiness” is a matter of taste. The real question is, why do we, or perhaps, why does the entertainment industry, Maher in this case, seek to discuss topics with people that have no background, no education, no expertise in such subjects?! Wanna know about acting, then as actors. Science? go to scientists, history from historians, and sports, well, never interview athletes, they’ve rarely got anything worthwhile to say anyway but the point is still valid. Ever notice how many popular books (including history and science) are done by journalists rather than experts in the field? Why? I have no idea, and while I’m not making an argument from authority, it does make sense to actually ask the experts about their expertise rather than the entertainers. panem et circenses

    3. “Personally, I grew up with the original Cosmos and Carl Sagan, and never needed anyone to make science “wacky”.”

      Same here. But nowadays the pooh-bahs of education (likely economists) press teachers to “engage” students by appealing to and making connections to students’ pop culture preoccupations/minor obsessions. In other words entertainment – “infotainment .” Why can’t the numinous wonder of science be its own reward for today’s students as it was for you and me as we sat there motionless watching Cosmos? One never sees THAT in a newspaper article as a justifiable reason for exhorting students to pursue STEM careers. Were some Romneyesque character to presume to badger high school students to enter STEM fields (in the furtherance of his own investment interests), how would he respond were these students to claim no less a right to get an MBA/JD and become venture capitalist/junk bond/hedge fund analysts/investors/managers/owners?

  8. I recorded Real Time (as always) and watched it last night. I cringed at everything Bill Nye said. He doesn’t seem to know anything about politics or history. Rob Reiner was, as always, smart and funny and he probably saved the show. Nye just tried to get in on the conversation when he had nothing to say but probably realized he was sitting there saying nothing.

    At the end, when he was discussing climate change (something he would not have done if Maher had not generously asked him to comment), he didn’t make a lot of sense and he kept trying to get the panel to stop making jokes and listen to him – he was completely out of his element.

    1. Yeah, Nye was marginalized for the entire show. He did say some inane things, but at the same time I kinda felt sorry for him.

  9. Sometimes I think the Holocaust blinds people to all the earlier holocausts. As a result, historical illiterates like Nye assume it was an anomaly. The number of Jews murdered in Russia alone during WWI probably runs into the hundreds of thousands. People in the west knew something horrific was going on, but ignored it because Russia was an ally. Massacres and deportations of Jews have been frequent and well-documented for two millennia. Perhaps some mention of the fact in the public schools would temper the tendency to see Israel as an “apartheid state” in the Academy. No people should be required to commit suicide in the name of political correctness.

    1. You said it in your second sentence “historical illiterates”. I can’t abide ignorance like Nye showed last night and it wasn’t just about anti-semitism, it was about just about everything.

    2. ” No people should be required to commit suicide in the name of political correctness.”

      That’s a powerful way to put it. +1 (to your entire comment)

    3. And jews are not the only victims of genocide. Genocide is as old as mankind.

      We want to believe that nazi germany was something so unique that it couldn’t happen again, because the perpetrators were modern and civilized and european. But the reality is that any human culture can commit genocide.

      1. It certainly can. I recently moved an hours drive away from work and needed some podcasts to fill the time.
        A really great discovery, via Sam Harris, is Dan Carlins Hardcore History. Dan brings history to life and I have learned a great deal from him, including the point you make.
        He himself comments on it. From the earliest times through to modern times.
        The Milgram experiments give us a glimpse into what any of us may do in the right circumstances.

  11. I’m not going to lie, I’m a fan of Mr. Nye. Still, I agree he has a bit of Mr. Rogers-style naivete. In one sense, he’s correct in that it is easier to hate what you don’t know. I’m sure the a**hole that murdered people at the Jewish Community center and Village Shalom (I was a frequent visitor to the center, at the time, sometimes 3 days a week) had never seen much less met a jewish person in real life. Unfortunately, history has shown us that hatred is often no match for being good neighbors. This violent remnant of the tribal mentality won’t ever go away. As humans we always find was to separate ourselves into “us” and “them”, be it by religion, ethnicity, nation of origin, region, class, economics, skin color, sports teams, and so on. Even a less violent but still disturbing example like the recent Chelsea FC fans in Paris should remind us of this. Humans are racist, and it does in fact seem that’s the way they (we) like it. At best, we can only hope to continue to squeeze these thoughts and actions towards the extreme ends of the spectrum. Getting to know your neighbors does play a part, a necessary one, but only a very small one in the end.

    2. Short of in-depth examination of Fred Rogers personally and his worldly-wise-ness, I gather that you are not implying that Fred Rogers himself was naïve on account of having a children’s show and on account of his persona in that show?

      1. Only having known of Mr. Rogers what was shown in his wonderful shows, I cannot say anything about his own worldview on anything. I have no idea if he was naive or not, and despite his religious tendencies, I absolutely adore him and his neighborhood. If only the rest of the world could be more like that. My only reason for bringing him up was that both he and Nye have a sort of easy friendliness. I am a fan of both, even when I don’t always agree with them, or in this case, with what Nye has said. I do so wish the problems of the world could be solved by donning a cardigan, feeding the fish, and soothing the nerves of a small child who has little more to fear than going down the drain in the bath. I can also admit that I am the naive one, who grew up with Mr. Rogers and Daniel Tiger, Mr. Wizard and the Science Guy and it breaks my heart that so many people waste so much energy hating and killing instead of being good neighbors.

  13. I guess it could be said that Nye was out of his element, eh. That’s my poor attempt at a science joke.

    A far more important player in the international politics of this would be Mr. Netanyahu. Not really sure why he wants to invite all the Jews to move but he certainly should know them better than I. What I have problems with Bebe on is his play with the American political systems, as if they did not have enough of their own problems already. To stick himself between the republicans who he panders to and Obama is stupid. He should not be in the middle of American international decisions about Iran the way he is. If he wants to run American foreign policy maybe he needs to move here?

    1. It’s “Bibi” and he has lived in the US. He graduated from a High School in Pennsylvania and also graduated from MIT. As far as him getting involved in US policy, I don’t see a problem with that. The US is Israel’s closest ally, an ally that is playing footsie with a declared enemy of both the US and Israel. I would not only expect him to try to influence this situation in favor of Israel, I would be shocked if he didn’t. I question Boehner’s motivations in this situation more than I question Netanyahu’s. It is Agent Orange’s invitation to Bibi that was a diplomatic blunder, not Netanyahu’s acceptance (although he should have withdrawn that acceptance once he found out what the situation was).

      1. If I were to hazard a guess about Bibi’s motives behind the call for all the jews in Europe to return to Israel I’d say he’s trying to continue his fear-mongering in order to stay in power by setting himself up as the one who protects all the jews of the world, much like Rudolph Ghooli-ani’s constant 9-11 talk in every single political speech; never let a good tragedy go to waste. Boehner of course just wants to undermine Obama in every way, shape, form, and opportunity. anything that keeps the people on edge and fearful will keep them in office I suppose.

        1. “Continue fearmongering”? That’s strange. Is there no Hamas promising destruction of Israel and shooting rockets with differing intensity into Israel? Are there no Palestinians driving their cars into civilians, killing indiscriminately? No people running the streets and stabbing passersbye with knives and screwdrivers? No Iran promising to arm the West Bank as they armed Hamas, and retake the whole Palestine, from the River to the Sea? No highest officials in Iran, from Ayatollah Chomenei, through the Chief of Staff, MPs, ministers, you name it, saying that Israel must be destroyed? No Iranian maps of Israel showing the targets for Iranian long range missiles? No Iranian videos made by the military showing the destruction of Israel by a nuclear bomb? No high officials of Palestinian Authority, where all the maps show the same Palestine from the River to the Sea (i.e., without any trace of Israel) who say that the Palestinian State on the West Bank would be the first step to annihilation of Israel and saying that if Palestinians had the nuclear bomb they would drop it on Israel tomorrow? No Lebanon with Hezbollah, armed by Iran which now has its soldiers on the Golan Heights together with Iranian soldiers? Do you really need to invent fear when you are a Prime Minister of such a country?

          And, about European Jews: taking into account history and all those Jewish leaders who in the 1930s said that there was no need to panic and even those few who would be allowed to immigrate to other countries have no reason to do so, and the subsequent almost total annihilation of European Jewry, is it strange that a Zionist like Netanyahu reminds Jews that this time they have a place to escape? OK, a dangerous place but a place Israelis will do everything to defend. Netanyahu is not playing politics with his going to Congress—neither Israeli nor American politics. He is trying to do his utmost to stop Iran from getting the means to destroy his country.

          1. Sorry, I agree with the late former Prime Minister Sharon who told Bibi to his face, “you were born a liar”. And former France President Sarkozy who was caught on an open mike telling President Obama, “I can’t stand him (Bibi), he’s such a liar.”

            As for his intervention in American politics, he all but openly supported Rmoney in the 2012 election. He wants the US to attack Iran to destroy it’s nuclear capability. Bibi isn’t known as the Richard Nixon of Israeli politics for nothing.

          2. The facts about the open hostility of Iran, Turkey, the Arab League, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Palestinian Authority etc. are not given by Netanyahu but by representatives of these countries and organizations. They are spoken openly (there are plenty of videos with those threats), they are posted on the Internet, they are printed in mainstream media of these countries. Netanyahu being a liar or not a liar is irrelevant here. The threats are relevant and all too real. It is strange how the world prefers not to know about it and finds excuses in their dislike for Netanyahu. And it is strange that for Israeli voters who have chosen Netanyahu quite a few times, and for the majority of Israeli mainstream media, he is still Netanyahu and not Nixon.

          3. Sorry, I didn’t mean to start an argument. I do however feel that Netanyahu is like most politicians who will take advantage of a situation if it means securing his place in power. You are of course welcome to disagree but I cannot imagine that there are many in politics who would not do so. I am not a fan of him, to say the least, but I also do not underestimate the threat by those in the middle east who openly seek to destroy Israel, or those who seek to perpetrate violence on jewish people living outside Israel. That being said, I don’t feel as if I have to agree with Netanyahu’s politics or his methods, nor does it matter, as I am not a citizen and have no vote in the matter. I would only ask that I do not get accused of supporting, even implicitly, the enemies of Israel or jewish people in general. I may not be culturally jewish, my ancestors fled Germany to England and then the U.S. and for some reason chose to hide their culture or simply lost it bit by bit due to marriage. Likewise, when a gunman kills two people at a Jewish Community Center that I had been visiting two to three times a week for two years, then drove down the street to kill another in front of a Jewish retirement villa just two blocks away from where I worked, and was arrested in the parking lot of a school where I often took walks and helped people with disabilities practice softball, I can honestly say it struck me deeply. I know that I am lucky in that I have not, nor am I every likely to experience anti-semitism, as my ginger hair and last name means everyone thinks I’m a “good catholic boy” and thus I have no idea what I would do if I were in the situation that jewish people in France or any other place find themselves.
            I am sorry, Malgorzata, in that I clearly offended and upset you. That was not my intention. Never the less, no current politician I know of, be it Netanyahu, Obama, Holland, (and certainly not Sarko) is above reproach, but I don’t feel that criticizing them means I support the Iranian govt, Hamas, or any other horrid group. I hope I have clarified my intent and my position and will say no more.

      2. Yet every time the NY Times or other moderate American voice pleads with Israel to make minor concessions that could lead to harmonious relations – like withdrawing support from further Jewish settlements, or sharing authority over Jerusalem with the Palestinian Authority – Bibi is handwaving and accusing the U.S. of betraying Israel. He wants it both ways: America should sit down and shut up, and Israel should have free rein to treat innocent Arabs like stateless persons.

  14. I’m sure Bill Nye is kind of like Star Trek to lots of modern engineers and scientists: a source of childhood inspiration, which got them interested in whatever field they currently work in. I totally understand the love many people have for Nye, and might even count myself among them, though I don’t agree with everything he says, on every subject. Much like I agreed with a lot of what Hitchens had to say/write, but definitely not all of it.

    In this case, he clearly gave an opinion on a matter he’s unfamiliar with.

    He’s an imperfect flag bearer for science, sought after by a lazy news edutainment media which values name recognition over bringing in specialists on topics like climate change or evolution.

    His performance in the debate with Ken Ham was always kind of immaterial to me, because anyone watching that debate who was a follower of Ken Ham, had a zero percent chance of being reached by Nye. I think Nye “won” that debate pretty convincingly… but then again, I’m incapable of approaching it from the perspective of someone who thinks a guy like Ken Ham talks sensibly.

    I hope he retires from the spotlight sooner than later, if only so someone with way more general scientific knowledge like NdT can take his place as “the science guy the media always calls”.

    1. ‘I hope he retires from the spotlight sooner than later, if only so someone with way more general scientific knowledge like NdT can take his place as “the science guy the media always calls”.’

      Fine by me, so long as a bit of Nye’s congeniality, and predisposition not to borderline-yell and interrupt others in mid-sentence, rubs off on NdT.

  15. The spectacle of a intelligent and well educated expert in some more or less specialised field making a fool of himself commenting outside of that area is so common as to be a cliche.

  16. What a dispapointment. Bill’s comment reads suspiciously like an ugly trope I’ve heard repeated that the Jews somehow invited the Shoah with their social separateness and failure to assimilate to Eurooean culture and dress. To Jerry’s and Malgorzata’s point, the Jews in the footage of death trains mostly looked pretty “European” to me. And famously they knew their neighbors quite well, doing business with them and so on.

    The point made by HelianUnbound about the history of genocide is well taken. And modern genociess, too: did the victims of the Rwandan genocide not know and interact with their eventual killers? There’s just too much blaming of the victims in most conversations these days, whether it is the campus rape issue, or the incidence of black victims of police violence, or the Charlie Hebdo massacre. It seems to be we should not have the death penalty for failing to assimilate. If there is a group that needs to develop familiarity with and empathy for its neighbors, it’s the one whose members tend to be behind the gun, not the one in front of it.

    1. All this, highlighted by Nye’s ignorance, is why people really need to understand history. I just don’t consider you literate if you lack an understanding of history, science or current events.

      1. There is a reason we call history a “social science.” When you talk about literacy, that’s really the point: applying the scientific method to understanding current events in light of what used to be current events. I’m not sure what the equivalent would be, but if a panelist were to make a similarly uninformed or myopic comment about, say, climate change, I’m sure Bill Nye would be highly critical. Like I said, it’s very disappointing.

    2. “If there is a group that needs to develop familiarity with and empathy for its neighbors, it’s the one whose members tend to be behind the gun, not the one in front of it.”

      Wonderfully put!

      Tangentially related–part of handling the bully problem in schools is teaching bullying victims how to understand their nemeses. WTF?

      2. Quite right,. The schoolyard bully is arguably more deserving of sympathy and care since s/he is a minor and likely acting out from trouble at home; as far as I can tell, it’s suspension and other consequences for “bad” kids, and precious little support. Teachers and counsellors are the ones who need to do the understanding, not the kids who are picked-on.

        1. ” . . . as far as I can tell, it’s suspension and other consequences for “bad” kids, and precious little support. Teachers and counsellors are the ones who need to do the understanding, not the kids who are picked-on.”

          I agree. I myself having not a little experience in the classroom, there should be rivers of money to provide understanding and support from teachers, counselors and other specialist staff – in a facility separate from the regular classroom so that kids are not picked on by these troubled, challenged youths, and the teacher can focus on learning and not quite so much on high-octane, high-maintenance baby-sitting, which is not a “carrot” motivating one to become a teacher.

  18. It’s quite popular right now for people to claim that they have the solution to racism. I’ve been assured by countless Facebook posts that overt racism is now marginalized and irrelevant, and if we all just “check our privilege” and be honest with ourselves and our communities, then the problem will somehow be solved. Unfortunately I think the supremacists and xenophobes are well aware of their privilege and they like it just fine. What we need to be honest about is that conscious supremacism is still a very prevalent attitude hiding all around us, and can bubble up at any time, any place.

  19. Nye certainly spoke about a topic he probably shouldn’t have, but the post and comments seem to me like harsh assessments of a very brief and almost off-hand comment. You may be right he’s ignorant on the topic, but I bet a longer conversation with him would reveal it to be less so than you allege. If Nye starts appearing on talk shows that focus on the middle east I’ll change my tune.

    I really take issue with the “Nye needs to retire” stuff in some of these comments. Do you really think the battle to spread the goodness of science in American culture would be better without him? He may fall short sometimes in our rarified chat house arguing over how evolution should be presented, etc., but just on his history alone I give him some leeway. We can count probably a thousand times more young people interested in or at least sympathetic to science due to his teachings as the Science Guy than this blog or a hundred others like it (and yes, I know that’s not the mission of these blogs…), and that’s worth a lot. And who knows – his recent pleading to parents (paraphrase “you may not think evolution is true, but for the sake of our country, please let your kids learn it, become literate in science, etc.”) may have had some impact. Again, do you think we’re worse off for him having the exposure he does and saying that?

    2. Okay, maybe I was too hard on him by implying that he should retire, because I don’t think that. But I do think that a. he should bone up on evolution more, b. stop debating creationists, and c. stop sounding off on stuff like he did above.

    3. Nye was ignorant on just about every topic on Real Time that evening. If you watch the full episode, he makes weird, clichéd remarks throughout in a way that appears only to get himself into the conversation. He needs to educate himself outside his specialities if he is going to participate in conversations with other intelligent people and inspire those intelligent people to better understand science – for instance, if he could reach Bill Maher and teach him science (I’ve always felt Maher is weak on science knowledge), that would be a huge win. He really missed the mark last night.

    4. I agree with this too.
      I have only recently become aware of ‘the science guy’, we have Dr Karl here and others years ago, but it seems that Nye has been a pretty big positive voice in the areas everyone here wants promoted.
      Same for Bill Maher. He may be lacking in a couple of areas but what other person as high a profile as him spreads a consistent atheist evidenced based view of the world.
      I don’t know how many here are atheists but i am and to me, spreading atheism is vitally important and Maher is a big if not the biggest voice doing that.

  20. It’s easy to pick apart stupid things people say when they are on the spot on TV in front of a live audience.

    But I don’t see anyone making any suggestions here that would alleviate the problem of antisemitism in Europe.
    I’d also point out that there are more than a few antisemites in Canada and the USA. We haven’t eliminated the problem here either.

    Now, you all have 10 seconds to tell us how to solve violent religious extremism. Go!

    I avoid things like answering questions on TV, or would if anyone ever asked me. Coming up with clever answers to intractable problems on the spot while the people beside you have been yammering on and over you is more than I can handle. But I suppose people have to make money somehow.

    Yes, it was a stupid answer. But I think if your looking for a comprehensive solution to any sociological problem, your very unlikely to find it on Real Time with Bill Maher.

    That’s my two cents worth, and that’s probably overly generous.

  21. Here in Berlin last summer demonstrators with police accompaniment were chanting an old song taunting Jews as cowards and telling them to “come out and fight”. (The police allowed it as “free speech”, but later said they wouldn’t allow it again.)

    And Nye thinks Jews should go out and “get to know them”? The few Jews who live here already know that kind of neighbor well enough.

    What an ignorant attention seeking fool this Nye character is.

    1. Nye was just spouting clichés. I’m surprised he didn’t say something like, “turn that frown upside down” too.

  22. If we have a secular society, will anti-semitism finally go away? Jews are minority in a society where Catholics or Christians are majority. And the minority Jews achieved so high in many fields, they should be well respected.

    1. A “common enemy” is the easiest way to build unity in any group of humans. “All the problems of society is the fault of those people.” Look how abortion and gays unite American christians.

      I think a secular society will help, because religion creates and needs common enemies. But secularism isn’t enough. We need to guard against any form of thought crimes and anything that places ideology above hum a n life.

    2. I like to think so!

      The experience in US universities (a pretty secular community) hasn’t been too encouraging, though, to the extent that lib-arts departments have fallen prey to the Palestinians-as-underdogs mentality.

      1. That is disappointing.
        And, while I left the left left a long while ago I am still disappointing to see socialist left type organizations siding with theocracies because of alleged crimes of imperialism (and whatever else).
        It is a core tenet, a fundamental philosophical underpinning of that kind of left philosophy that we live in a material universe, that we are a product of, and can interact with and change the world and society around us.
        That is what socialism means, and yet they are aligning themselves with those with the exact opposite philosophy. Immaterialism and god. To say nothing of the fact that they are supporting theocracies that don’t allow change by people.
        I don’t get it.

  23. Ouch. I hope Bill Nye apologizes and/or clarifies is comment. I hope I’m not mistaken to think he is capable of a retraction.

    Fran L., on the other hand got away with saying the only disease she has seen cured was polio and that doctors, she strongly implied, were simply more interested in inventing Viagra. I don’t watch that show precisely because of its warm embrace of Big Placebo. And I don’t expect, unlike Nye, for Fran to issue a clarification for what looked like a slam against all doctors.

    Come on Bill Nye, apologize and clarify. Don’t make me think of you as anti-Semitic.

    Mike

    1. As the wife of a scientist with Big Pharma, I’d like to point out that it wasn’t doctors who came up (ha!) with Viagra.

      Interestingly, of course, it wasn’t even a research goal, just a sort of “spandrel” that appeared while working on a blood pressure drug. Which was exactly the same story with Rogaine.

      2. It’s always the blood pressure drugs! Pfizer came up with Relpax (of which I am forever greatful to them), a medication for migraines when they originally made it to treat blood pressure.

        They weren’t sure why it worked for migraines but the theory at the time was that it stopped the blood vessels around your head from getting swollen all up. That has since been disproven as migraines don’t cause this….so it’s thought that Relpax stops the neurons from chatting so much and causing a migraine.

  24. I have never been a Bill Nye fan. From the beginning, I felt the science guy is a bit too noisy for me to appreciate. But he does have a lot of followers. Just listened to a podcast ( I tried the Big Bang first) introduced by professor Jerry Coyne, “the infinite monkey cage”, it’s quite fun. I plan to listen to more episodes.

    1. Bill Nye has to realize that if he is going to maintain his spotlight, he needs to,mad Brittany Spears would say, work bitch! 🙂

  25. OK, Nye’s comment wasn’t all that smart, but I don’t think it needs to be singled out as being particularly clueless. I think Nye’s heart’s in the right place, and don’t forget – he’s on our side! I hope Jerry Coyne, who I really admire, doesn’t go the way of PZ Myers and start needlessly picking on other atheists. If someone really oversteps the mark, fair enough. But Jerry’s going after a soft target, and Nye doesn’t deserve public censure on such trifles as this. The irony is that such unnecessary criticism is more likely to make me think less of Jerry than Bill Nye. And I don’t want to think less of Jerry.

    1. Although this comment is a Roolz violation (telling me what and what not to say), I’ll let it through. I’m sorry to disagree. but what do you mean by “Nye is on our side? He is on the side of science and evolution, but I think his comment about how to deal with the Jewish “problem” is way off the mark. On that he is not on my side, and neither is Nye a soft target, as he is famous. And really, I post about what I feel strongly about, not to court the “respect” of my readers. I’m sorry, but I was criticizing what Nye said, and didn’t label him one way or the other. If you’ve read this website, I think you’ll see that it’s quite different from Pharyngula. I criticize other atheists (like Michael Ruse or Massimo Pigliucci) when I think there’s an intellectual disagreement that needs vetting. I don’t go after other atheists willy-nilly, repeatedly, or viciously. If you can’t see the difference, then you either haven’t read this site or you’re blinkered.

      1. Jerry, I wouldn’t presume to ‘tell’ you what to write or say. It’s your website and your prerogative to write about whatever you want. And I love your website, visit it frequently, and share your perspective on almost all issues, including my disagreement with some other atheists, e.g. Michael Ruse. I’m not sure why Nye made the ‘neighbours’ comment, which did seem clumsy and naive. But as it was a live show he may have mispoke, so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. I know you’ve criticised him before and I’m fine with that. But you now say “Nye is an moron”, whilst also saying you “didn’t label him one way or the other”. Doesn’t calling someone “a moron” count as labeling? It certainly seems a bit harsh! You are generally very fair to your opponents. In expressing my hope that you won’t resort to personal attacks against fellow atheists (as I feel PZ Myers does on occasions), I’m not saying that you do – although I think the word ‘moron’ is uncalled for – but simply that I don’t want you to, although you may think my stating this is a “Roolz violation”. Anyway, thanks for the great site and keep up the good work!

        1. I agree with on the Nye thing. I think he was naive or simplistic or something. He qualified with ‘how long will it take 100 years’ which I think indicated he realizes the reality and was just wishful thinking.
          However, and I shall be careful to not be too nasty, there is no comparison between what is going on here and PZ Myers and Pharyngula.
          PZ and crew have denigrated and attacked and accused any number of reasonable decent people. They have done so without evidence, with much nastiness and vitriol sometimes for as little offence as asking for evidence.
          If one is not fully in line with his narrow view of what a real proper atheist is, and what real proper morality is, you can expect to be castigated. I don’t know what he said about the recent Hicks murders, I don’t want to know but I do know what one of his closest allies, R W said and it’s typical.

          So really there is no comparison.

          1. Michael, I agree that “there’s no comparison” while also being disappointed that Jerry opined that “Nye is an moron” – a statement that perhaps he realises was going too far, certainly based on the flimsy evidence of this video. Fortunately, Jerry does not normally label his opponents in this way, which seemed a little too PZ-like to my way of thinking.

          2. That wasn’t Jerry’s opinion, but a quote from someone else. Perhaps you can be reasonably intelligent in some areas but still make moronic comments, as Nye did in this case. As others have suggested, he must have been desperate to be in the conversation and put his oar in, even if it was grossly misjudged.

          3. Sarah:the quote, given just below the video link above, is “Her reaction [i.e. Jerry’s friend friend, Malgorzata] was much stronger than mine (which was simply “Nye is an moron”):”

            I may be wrong, but this reads to me as Jerry saying “Nye is an moron”. I don’t want to make too much of this as perhaps Jerry only meant that Nye was making a ‘moronic’ statement. Jerry himself may want to clarify this and clear up any misunderstanding.

  26. I agree that part of Bill Nye’s comment is naive at best, but Real Time is not about gathering a bunch of experts to discuss some subject (is Rob Reiner an expert in anything?), but rather an effort to have a short provocative (perhaps dangerous?) and uninhibited discussion among people who are likely to have diverse viewpoints. Obviously, no one has a solution to hatred of jews, blacks, homosexuals, immigrants or any other group that can be somehow distinguished from the herd. Fwiw, I don’t think Netanyahu is on the right track to protect either jews or Israel. And Bill Nye’s support of wikipedia in opposition to Maher and Reiner (at some point in the program)is a point in his favor.

  27. I’m not so enthused by Nye’s antics, but I want to remind people that Nye is helping science. He is the CEO of Planetary Society, and PlanSoc is engaged in lobbying planetary science in Washington. (Over and above manned exploration, if it comes to that.)

    “We want NASA and lawmakers to support and follow the National Research Council’s Decadal Survey for planetary exploration. We also want at least $1.5 billion for planetary science (the historical average for planetary science). This is an accounting line item within the NASA budget. It’s a line item within the larger line item, if you will. And, we very much want to mount a mission to Europa, the moon of Jupiter that, last year, was found might be spewing seawater into space.”

    [ http://www.planetary.org/blogs/bill-nye/20140604-making-the-rounds-on-capitol-hill.html ]

    “His latest effort is pretty tantalizing: Along with the rest of The Planetary Society, Nye is getting ready to launch a satellite powered by the sun.”

    [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/01/27/bill-nye-and-the-planetary-society-to-launch-a-satellite-that-will-sail-on-sunbeams/ ]

    If Nye’s PlanSoc engagement makes up for the damage he does science (helping Ham limp on with his anti-science part project, say) is an iffy question though.

    On another tack, Nethanayu’s comments have infuriated politicians all over Europe I think, or at least In France and Sweden). They feel that it is each nation’s duty to protect all citizens. On the other hand, some citizens do feel more unprotected recently.

  28. My first thought when I heard that was “I suspect the Jews in Germany in the 1930’s knew their neighbors”. I hate to suggest this, but I suspect Nye is infected with the stereotype of Jews being elitists who live in enclaves where they associate, and support each other, and that antisemitism is their fault for fostering a separatist mentality. I suggest this because of the way he seemed to bristle at the idea of Jews “coming home” to Israel. In other words he thinks if they behaved as though considered western European countries their homes, which he thinks they aren’t, they wouldn’t be treated poorly.

    1. I suspect it’s possible for Americans to only recognize Jews as Jews if they’re wearing skull-caps or dressed in Orthodox style, or speaking Yiddish, or whatever.

      The majority of American Jews blend seamlessly with the rest of the melting pot, IME*, the more so because so many of them are secular. I think there are vast swathes of the US who have little idea what a “Jewish name” is, or recognize any supposed Jewish phenotype. By and large that’s probably a good thing. Funny, though, that Nye would not reflect on the American experience, which he should be used to.

      *This is more true of the western US than the urban east. And it is not to discount the vile anti-Semitism that lurks in many pockets of the US.

  29. What I see is a lack of sensitivity due to ignorance.

    Non-Jews can’t truly fathom what savagery and discrimination Jews were subjected to before, during and after the Holocaust.

    In the same way, non-blacks in the U.S. can’t truly fathom what it’s like to have descended from slaves and to have been discriminated against all of one’s life.

    There needs to be much more awareness, sensitivity and empathy in one’s speech and actions, particularly in very public forums.

  30. I do think that getting to know your neighbors, in the sense of actually developing friendly relationships with them and not just learning facts about them, is a good defense against bigotry, but perhaps only from those particular individuals. It might also have a wider effect – a lot of people say that their opinions on gays were changed for the better after they personally got to know some gay people – or it might not. It’s almost surely not a complete solution in itself, but it seems to me that developing more and more personal relationships across group boundaries is a necessary part of defeating any kind of bigotry.

    So I don’t think Nye’s suggestion is offensive or counterproductive or worthy of all the criticism it’s received here. It’s just incomplete.

    1. Implying, as Nye does, that Jews who lived in Europe for millenia and were a part of society with good relations with the neighbours (previeusly I gave an example of a German nun of Jewish descent who was murdered at Auschwitz for being a Jew) are somehow not doing enough and are guilty of giving rise to hatred towards them, is quite offensive.

      Moreover, being a good neighbour is definitely not enough when leaders are inciting hatred. Just look at the Balkan wars after the collapse of Yugoslavia: people killed and raped their former classmates at school. Look at Rwanda – neighbours killed neighbours, and husbands even killed their wives for belonging to the wrong tribe. Pogroms in both Russia and Poland were also done mostly by neighbours.

  31. Any number of Jews fought as bravely as anyone in the first world war FOR Germany. They were then still subject to anti-Semitic rantings, even before the Nazi’s came to power.
    No need to say what happened then.

  32. I like Nye, and I think it’s snobbish to make too much of the fact that he doesn’t have an advanced degree in science. He’s charismatic and helpful to our cause. Also, I think he certainly did win, by a wide margin, his debate with Ham. Obviously, geopolitics is not his field and he should have kept his mouth shut until a science question came up. Let’s not start shooting our own.

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