Bill Nye is a master debater - Set to debate Marsha Blackburn on climate change

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Escape Goat

Escape Goat

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U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn will will square off against Bill Nye "The Science Guy" on Sunday's "Meet the Press."

Blackburn, a Brentwood Republican, is vice chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Nye is a popular science educator who was propelled to fame by his "Bill Nye the Science Guy" show in the mid-90s.

Nye is apparently in the debating mood as of late. Last week, Nye squared off on evolution with Ken Ham, president of the Creation Museum, in a debate that was widely watched online.

"Meet the Press" will air at 9 a.m. Sunday on NBC.

http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/blog/2014/02/marsha-blackburn-to-debate-bill-nye.html
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Nye is feeling argumentative. First creationism and now climate change. Is he changing any hearts or minds?
 
Go Nye Go.
Still, you can't reason with unreasonable people. It's in the word.
 
It would be better if we could get some credible climate scientists to debate the issue. Nye is a mechanical engineer turned edutainer. And I'm sure hes qualified enough to debate circles around Ms. Blackburn, I think we'd have more of an impact if it were someone fully versed in the science.
 
Escape Goat said:
It would be better if we could get some credible climate scientists to debate the issue. Nye is a mechanical engineer turned edutainer. And I'm sure hes qualified enough to debate circles around Ms. Blackburn, I think we'd have more of an impact if it were someone fully versed in the science.
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I'd agree, but his experience as an edutainer is a huge asset when it comes to explaining complex ideas, theories, and mechanics in ways that are easy to understand.
 
Escape Goat said:
It would be better if we could get some credible climate scientists to debate the issue. Nye is a mechanical engineer turned edutainer. And I'm sure hes qualified enough to debate circles around Ms. Blackburn, I think we'd have more of an impact if it were someone fully versed in the science.
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Climate scientists are too busy doing meaningful shit with their jobs and teaching at universities to entertain stooping down to ignorant people.
 
Escape Goat said:
It would be better if we could get some credible climate scientists to debate the issue. Nye is a mechanical engineer turned edutainer. And I'm sure hes qualified enough to debate circles around Ms. Blackburn, I think we'd have more of an impact if it were someone fully versed in the science.
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The problem is that many dedicated scientists don't have the same ''showman'' skills to deal with the screaming knuckleheads. Bill Nye has media skills honed from his TV days.

The Lamp said:
Climate scientists are too busy doing meaningful shit with their jobs and teaching at universities to entertain stooping down to ignorant people.
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False dichotomy. Scientists need to more involved with public discourse. If not, then you have liars and ignorant people not being challenged on their bullshit propaganda.

It's the problem with academics in general. They tend to be confined to insulated bubbles.
 
Go Bill, crush her!
Bill, Bill, Bill Nye da Science Guy

Edit: I don't know why I'm so pumped, but I want to see this debate and watch our man, Bill, take down these idiotic anti-global warming people
 
Shouldn't he debate like, I dunno, another scientist when it comes to this issue? There are plenty of reputable scientists that disagree with the IPCC's view of the world. Seems lazy.
 
Hopefully he's a bit better prepared for this one, because Lord knows he wasn't on the ball in that creationist debate.
 
This is going to be...fun? Nye's going to talk for a bit and then Rep. Blackburn will say " look outside Bill, there's snow everywhere"
 
BILL BILL BILL BILL BILL BILL BILL BILL BILL BILL BILL BILL BILL BILL BILL
 
I like the idea of these debates hitting a large audience, and then encouraging more conversation about these important topics
 
Scarecrow said:
Wish more smart people would get in the game and step up to these ignorant fucks.
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These debates are being set up for one audience and one audience only - the dumb fucks who believe the shit Nye is debating against, and will continue believing it after the debate is over. Blackburn will throw a million refutations at Bill and when he fails to disprove them all he'll come off looking like the loser. All Bill's doing is making these people look like they're worthy of engaging in an honest debate, which they're decidedly not interested in at all.

sillymonkey321 said:
This is going to be...fun? Nye's going to talk for a bit and then Rep. Blackburn will say " look outside Bill, there's snow everywhere"
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Exactly this. All it takes is for Blackburn to say we've just had the worst winter in a while and boom, she's got the debate on lock-down. There's no winning with these folks.
 
At first when I heard about the bill vs ken debate. I thought "he's not gonna change anyone's mind. Why try " but then I saw the debate and now feel as if, he's not trying to change minds, he's just usibg the debate as means to educate. Which I am a fan of. GO BILL GO.
 
Complex Shadow said:
At first when I heard about the bill vs ken debate. I thought "he's not gonna change anyone's mind. Why try " but then I saw the debate and now feel as if, he's not trying to change minds, he's just the debate as means to educate. Which I am a fan of. GO BILL GO.
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And this is my exact problem with these Bill Nye debates. Don't get me wrong, I love Bill Nye, but if his point with these debates is to educate, then he needs to educate. His approach with the Ken Ham debate was smarmy. He made no attempt to explain his arguments down to their basic components, and he made no real effort to be engaging with his audience outside of a joke about the Superbowl. His approach could really only resonate with people who already knew he was right and understood his points of argument without the requirement of further explanation.

I think these debates have the potential to be educational, but if he's just going to stand there and loosely run through a powerpoint presentation, so secure in his own rightness, then what's the point? Debate these people.
 
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Deified Data said:
These debates are being set up for one audience and one audience only - the dumb fucks who believe the shit Nye is debating against, and will continue believing it after the debate is over. Blackburn will throw a million refutations at Bill and when he fails to disprove them all he'll come off looking like the loser. All Bill's doing is making these people look like they're worthy of engaging in an honest debate, which they're decidedly not interested in at all.


Exactly this. All it takes is for Blackburn to say we've just had the worst winter in a while and boom, she's got the debate on lock-down. There's no winning with these folks.
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I don't know about that. Bill's debate with Ham got a lot more coverage and conversation than I ever thought it would, meaning there's a real possibility that it reached some of those creationists who aren't so set in their beliefs.

After seeing the results of the last debate, I'm actually pretty optimistic about this one.

royalan said:
And this is my exact problem with these Bill Nye debates. Don't get me wrong, I love Bill Nye, but if his point with these debates is to educate, then he needs to educate. His approach with the Ken Ham debate was smarmy. He made no attempt to explain his arguments down to their basic components, and he made no real effort to be engaging with his audience outside of a joke about the Superbowl. His approach could really only resonate with people who already knew he was right and understood his points of argument without the requirement of further explanation.

I think these debates have the potential to be educational, but if he's just going to stand there and loosely run through a powerpoint presentation, so secure in his own rightness, then what's the point? Debate these people.
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I think he tried to both educate and convince. His approach was more of an appeal to the doubt and curiosity within his viewers, as opposed to a real slam jam. Both approaches have their appeal, and I do like when ignorant people get slammed down by logic, but Nye's approach worked a lot better than I thought it would.
 
Escape Goat said:
It would be better if we could get some credible climate scientists to debate the issue. Nye is a mechanical engineer turned edutainer. And I'm sure hes qualified enough to debate circles around Ms. Blackburn, I think we'd have more of an impact if it were someone fully versed in the science.
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No one would give a shit. His name attracts people to watch.
 
Escape Goat said:
It would be better if we could get some credible climate scientists to debate the issue. Nye is a mechanical engineer turned edutainer. And I'm sure hes qualified enough to debate circles around Ms. Blackburn, I think we'd have more of an impact if it were someone fully versed in the science.
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To be fair he was also in an episode of Stargate Atlantis where a guy created a machine that funnelled energy into another universe which caused the weather to go all wacky. That has to count for something.
 
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