# Scientists Who Are Actually Stupid **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 26, 2016, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-who-are-actually-stupid/744306 "2016-01-26T21:33:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-who-are-actually-stupid/744306/101 "2016-02-04T00:19:37Z")
Like “What do you call the guy who finished last in his class at med school?” ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-who-are-actually-stupid/744306/102 "2016-02-04T01:06:57Z")
The variant of that that I like is: there must exist, by the nature and definition of any system of ranking, the worst doctor in the world. And somebody, somewhere, has an appointment with him tomorrow. ---
**Author:** ![KidCharlemagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-who-are-actually-stupid/744306/103 "2016-02-04T01:19:14Z")
First person I thought of when I saw the title was NdGT. Whenever I’ve heard him on shows talking about something other than science his lack of intellectual horsepower shines through. Then when I heard him once say something about IQ meaning nothing, I realized he must have been speaking from personal experience. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-who-are-actually-stupid/744306/104 "2016-02-04T01:36:26Z")
> [@KidCharlemagne](#): > > First person I thought of when I saw the title was NdGT. Whenever I’ve heard him on shows talking about something other than science his lack of intellectual horsepower shines through. Then when I heard him once say something about IQ meaning nothing, I realized he must have been speaking from personal experience. Uh, I would not say that to Stephen Hawking. > **[12 Incredible Stephen Hawking Quotes](https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/32149/11-incredible-stephen-hawking-quotes)** > > When Stephen Hawking was diagnosed with motor neurone disease at age 21, doctors thought he'd only survive a few more years. But the theoretical physicist defied the odds. > [@](#): > > 1. On His I.Q.: > > “I have no idea. People who boast about their I.Q. are losers.” > > — To the New York Times, December 2004 And context is important AFAIR Tyson and Hawking was talking either about the flaws of using IQ as a measure, and also about how likely dumb we all would sound to an Alien from an advanced civilization. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-who-are-actually-stupid/744306/105 "2016-02-04T01:36:46Z")
Meh, the verdict on NdGT depends on who you compare him to. Sometimes I get the impression he fancies himself the new Carl Sagan, and he is no Carl Sagan. OTOH he’s an enthusiastic and reasonably eloquent popularizer of science, and to the extent that he makes science more accessible to the unwashed masses, more power to him. There’s far too much scientific ignorance about, so every little candle in the dark is helpful. ---
**Author:** ![Subterraneanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Subterraneanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Subterraneanus)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-who-are-actually-stupid/744306/106 "2016-02-04T04:46:12Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > This post is unresponsive to the one of mine to which it purports to reply. This is the worst sentence I’ve read all week—and I’ve spent much of the week grading undergraduate philosophy papers. ---
**Author:** ![erez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e47c2d/32.png) [@erez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erez)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-who-are-actually-stupid/744306/107 "2016-02-04T09:26:47Z")
> [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > …Milo, the author of the articles in the OP, is really a disgusting piece of work. > > He has been one of the most prominent figures in the on-going internet sagas known as gamergate: and he is best known for harassing prominent feminists on twitter and for writing hit pieces about these same feminists. Here is my story about the time a random person on the internet decided to come after me: [using Milo’s work as his inspiration.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=18821684&postcount=40) > > Milo is a serial harasser and a fabricator of stories. He isn’t a journalist: he’s a troll. Your attack on Yiannopoulos is obviously biased because you inexplicably financially supported toxic person who got [completely annihilated](http://www.breitbart.com/tag/randi-harper/) by Yiannopoulos: Randi Harper. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-who-are-actually-stupid/744306/108 "2016-02-04T12:20:36Z")
> [@erez](#): > > Your attack on Yiannopoulos is obviously biased because you inexplicably financially supported toxic person who got [completely annihilated](http://www.breitbart.com/tag/randi-harper/) by Yiannopoulos: Randi Harper. I’m not sure if you’re being ironic, but I read Yiannopolos’s piece and Harper’s, and Harper strikes me as more reasonable, although each of them refers to incidents I’m not familiar with so I couldn’t make a final judgement at this time. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-who-are-actually-stupid/744306/109 "2016-02-04T12:46:34Z")
> [@Subterraneanus](#): > > This is the worst sentence I’ve read all week—and I’ve spent much of the week grading undergraduate philosophy papers. It means, “None of the shit you said relates to any of the shit I said.” ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-who-are-actually-stupid/744306/110 "2016-02-04T13:42:10Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > I oppose the idea that a certain level of academic achievement can permanently insulate one from being called “stupid.” I’m sure there are Nobel Prize winners who are deserving of being told at times _“God-damn, you are one stupid bastard…”_ I think you can do stupid things, - and be a complete idiot in some areas - but I don’t think you get through that path if you are what most people consider stupid. (One of my girlfriends has a PhD in Public Health - she is really stupid when it comes to men.) ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-who-are-actually-stupid/744306/111 "2016-02-04T14:05:11Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > I oppose the idea that a certain level of academic achievement can permanently insulate one from being called “stupid.” I’m sure there are Nobel Prize winners who are deserving of being told at times _“God-damn, you are one stupid bastard…”_ In case the Nobel Disease has not already been cited: [http://skepdic.com/nobeldisease.html](http://skepdic.com/nobeldisease.html) The same site features a long list of M.D.s who espouse stupidity. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-who-are-actually-stupid/744306/112 "2016-02-04T15:32:00Z")
Does Ben Carson count as a scientist? ---
**Author:** ![Meed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Meed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meed)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-who-are-actually-stupid/744306/113 "2016-02-04T16:50:39Z")
> [@Doyle](#): > > Are these just hit jobs or is there some truth to them? I got this from a very liberal friend of mine who just happens to have a PhD in EE and he seems to agree. A lot of it is easy to fact check. From the article: > [@](#): > > He didn’t get the PhD he was studying for at the University of Texas and had to go elsewhere for his qualification. Obviously, rather than take responsibility for his academic performance, Tyson has blamed racism. > > […] > > Tyson insists that [racism is responsible for his academic failures](http://alcalde.texasexes.org/2012/02/star-power/), alluding to sinister “forces” that keep women and ethnic minorities down. From the source Milo links to support his claim: > [@](#): > > Tyson says that racism, while an everyday reality, didn’t play a major role in his leaving the University. > > “With or without skin color, I wasn’t the model student,” he adds. “There was simply no room for me to be the full person that I was. If race was at play in all this, it was only at the edges of the experience.” Evidently a fairly bold faced lie by Milo there. Or just very very sloppy journalism. Back to Milo: > [@](#): > > he is caught again and again repeating quotes that he appears to have simply made up, or which at a bare minimum are stripped of essential context or provenance. He shows [no interest in correcting the record or addressing these mistakes](http://thefederalist.com/2014/10/02/neil-tysons-final-words-on-his-quote-fabrications-my-bad/) Partly true. I don’t know about “again and again”, but he did misquote Bush. And it isn’t fair to say that he showed _no_ interest in correcting the record or addressing the mistake, but he did give a very grumbling, downplaying admission of error with words to the effective of “I can’t believe you jerks are making a big deal out of this”. Most of Milo’s article is not worth addressing, though, for what I’d hope would be obvious reasons. ---
**Author:** ![Subterraneanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Subterraneanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Subterraneanus)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-who-are-actually-stupid/744306/114 "2016-02-04T17:04:19Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > It means, “None of the shit you said relates to any of the shit I said.” No shit. ---
**Author:** ![erez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e47c2d/32.png) [@erez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erez)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-who-are-actually-stupid/744306/115 "2016-02-04T20:24:10Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > I’m not sure if you’re being ironic, but I read Yiannopolos’s piece and Harper’s, and Harper strikes me as more reasonable, although each of them refers to incidents I’m not familiar with so I couldn’t make a final judgement at this time. This is getting way off-topic but I’m not really sure what pieces you’re talking about and what strikes you as being or not being reasonable? My point is that **Banquet Bear** made an ad-hominem attack on Yiannopoulos without any content related to the “scientists” topic. Still, I wondered what his/her problem with Yiannopoulos was, so I actually read the post (s)he linked and it turns out (s)he gave money to Harper and Harper’s terrible behavior got exposed by Yiannopoulos. Recently, the FreeBSD foundation even asked Harper to stop using their name in her username. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-who-are-actually-stupid/744306/116 "2016-02-04T22:54:12Z")
> [@erez](#): > > This is getting way off-topic but I’m not really sure what pieces you’re talking about and what strikes you as being or not being reasonable? My point is that **Banquet Bear** made an ad-hominem attack on Yiannopoulos without any content related to the “scientists” topic. Still, I wondered what his/her problem with Yiannopoulos was, so I actually read the post (s)he linked and it turns out (s)he gave money to Harper and Harper’s terrible behavior got exposed by Yiannopoulos. Recently, the FreeBSD foundation even asked Harper to stop using their name in her username. I started to read some of the backstory of this particular nerdwar until I got the uneasy feeling the abyss was gazing also into me, so I’m just left with the impression that Yiannopoulos is an asshole based on his own writing, Harper’s writing strikes me as more reasonable and leaves me with a neutral opinion of her, I don’t care in the least what the Banquet Bear budget gets spent on, and if you want to defend or champion or even mildly praise Yiannopoulos, that’s your right, but keep in mind (or don’t) that he’s an asshole. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-who-are-actually-stupid/744306/117 "2016-02-04T23:21:11Z")
The Tyson one is BS. It mentions he failed to get his PHd at University of Texas it fails to mention he transfered to Columbia and got it [there](http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1992PhDT.........1T). The rest of it is basically complaining about Tyson posting stuff that he disagrees with politically. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-who-are-actually-stupid/744306.md?page=5)