Last Friday, famed astrophysicist and follow-up host to Carl Sagan's documentary series Cosmos, Neil deGrasse Tyson, appeared on Bill Maher's Real Time and, in response to being shown a National Review cover story that poked fun of the "nerd culture" that deGrasse Tyson had been fostering, brilliantly broke down what the conservatives disliked so much about him. In the process, he illuminates some of the most rudimentary flaws in the ideologies and mindsets of our modern-day Republicans.
1) Bill Maher started out by joking that just like how the right was partially discontent that Obama was occupying a traditionally "white-man's job", the right was jealous of the reputation deGrasse Tyson has built up. Drawn out controversy over Barrack Obama's birth certificate makes these words uncomfortably real.
2) Republicans are jealous that the "geeks of America" tend to overwhelmingly vote Democrat. deGrasse Tyson argued that taking a survey of current goers at Comic-Con would yield results that would heavily favor Democrats, causing Bill Maher to quip that that might not necessarily be a good thing.
3) Akin to the Catholic Church and its prosecution of Galileo, Republicans are not the biggest fans of being told that under the broad scope of the universe, despite overwhelming scientific evidence, human beings and Earth are insignificant and that life for the most part is different. deGrasse Tyson argued that what the right was missing in their narrow-minded thinking was the fact that the connection between human beings and all life on earth was beautiful and nothing to be looked down upon.