So, over the past day or so, this link has been making the rounds. It is a series of photographs of self described creationists who, in response to the debate between Bill Nye and Ken Ham over creationism, intelligent design, evolution, and science in general, thought it'd be amusing to make one of those, "We're real people and our words are important!" picture feeds where they all hold up pieces of paper with witty phrases on them. There were a lot of these going around when Occupy was at its height, and I guess they're still a thing.
Click For Imgur Gallery
Anyway, the questions are insipidly thick, and generally either contain some sort of pithy bumper-sticker worthy turn of phrase or a gross, almost criminal misunderstanding of basic scientific principle. A few of the true gems contain both! Now, when I say basic? I'm not saying that they don't quite grasp the intricacies of unified field theory. I'm saying that I don't think they know what the word "science" means. At first, I thought I should just leave it alone. It's just a bunch of people expressing their opinions on the internet, and fuck knows I believe in the right to do that.
But the more I thought about it, the more annoyed I got. Because these were smarmy, self satisfied, stupid questions being asked in a format that allows for no genuine response or explanation. And they were "ordinary folks" asking questions of a celebrity. Quite frankly, Bill Nye is too classy a guy to individually tear these inane messages apart. I, on the other hand, am pretty much a huge prick. I'm also just another "ordinary guy" on the internet. Hell, without Buzzfeed pimping my replies, I'm practically the underdog! So when you stick your head in front of a camera and decide you want to run down a chunk of your fifteen minutes being a smug asshole? Well, that makes you fair game.