Neil deGrasse Tyson Apologizes for Viral Tweet About Mass Shootings

[saintclaire87]

Following the terrible mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton over the weekend, Neil deGrasse Tyson tweeted this:

In the past 48hrs, the USA horrifically lost 34 people to mass shootings.

On average, across any 48hrs, we also lose…

500 to Medical errors
300 to the Flu
250 to Suicide
200 to Car Accidents
40 to Homicide via Handgun

Often our emotions

Comments

[cbluechicken]

Does it really matter about sharing more realistic ways people can die when like over 30+ people died in 24 hrs.

Like, his downfall has been surprising but a mess overall

[andisprohi]

I hate that he's "my science friend" to so many celebrities.

[myxlittlexporny]

I mean, he’s definitely very book smart. Doesnt cancel out all the asshole in him..

[littlelistmaker]

republicans in the comments of my representative's facebook page were using his tweet to argue against gun control. so i hope he's fucking proud of that. people who would literally never agree with or pay attention to anything he says on science, especially life-saving science like climate change or health, are using him as "proof" that there's no point in doing anything about guns.

[march_runaway]

god that enrages me

[koushiba]

ugghhhhh that makes me so mad.

[neev]

That's doubly infuriating because two of the things he listed (handgun deaths and suicide) are DIRECTLY IMPACTED by lack of gun control. I literally don't know what point he was trying to make because it was just incoherent posturing about how people are "too emotional"...I guess compared to his supremely logical mind (that couldn't even pull an actual point out of the random statistic he posted).

[vivahodie]

Bill Nye would never.

Also, one of my college alum (friend of a friend, we had a class together) was at the Capitol Gazette shooting. She lived but she was in the newsroom when the others were killed. She was on CNN and also the cover of Time Magazines “Guardians of Truth” .

Being two degrees away from a mass shooting is horrifying and shameful.

[trancexperiment]

Bill Nye and NDT are best buddies, don’t put it past him

[nene718]

and the sad thing is people already forgot about that

[march_runaway]

i really did 😞

[turtleisland]

He should have lost popularity for being a rapist, but if it's this instead, fine.

[flowerboymalik]

The tea is scalding.

[slinkydinks]

That tea was not scalding. He was exposed right here on ONTD months/years? ago, but nothing came of it. He's also had a reputation in the astrophysics world as being egomaniacal.

It's sad because so many non-scientists look up to him. But for real, having a science "spokesperson" is just bad... better to have a community of advocates or cartoon characters like Miss Frizzle.

[rhapsodeeinblue]

Yeah I was surprised (although ofc also not surprised) to see he still had fans up until this point (not here on ONTD but Twitter and elsewhere), but I was also glad to see some people replying to his tweet by bringing that up again.