So for today’s initiative post I wanted to focus on a trend I’ve noticed in a lot of things, but it came up again recently with a show I was really excited to see, Bill Nye’s new science show on Netflix. As a kid and student I was never interested in science, mostly sticking to music and literature, but now as I’ve gotten older I’m becoming more and more interested in science and it is largely thanks to people like Bill Nye, Brian Greene and Neil Degrasse Tyson (and his mesmerising ties). These guys made science interesting to me as they were great communicators and could break down complicated ideas on gravity and the nature of the universe, something I never had growing up.

I was shocked to discover that the reviews for Bill Nye’s new show were miserable.

 

On Imdb 340 users gave it a 1 star review, which angered me to no end. I would have loved a show like this growing up and being exposed to science in an interesting and creative way at such a young and impressionable age. The main critique of this show has been that Nye is too “cringeworthy” and painfully enthusiastic about everything, this is where I think a trend in our culture has become awful and aggravates me; when someone is genuinely excited about something and can barely contain themselves and they want to share it with others, it is immediately greeted with a barrage of cynical people who are disgusted by the energy and enthusiasm of what they are watching.

I despise apathy especially when it is so unbelievably unwarranted, and in this case where it is supposed to be a program with the central goal of keeping younger generations interested in science and inspire future generations just like Carl Sagan did for their generation, it can be incredibly dangerous.

 

“My generation’s apathy. I’m disgusted with it. I’m disgusted with my own apathy too, for being spineless and not always standing up against racism, sexism and all those other -isms the counterculture has been whining about for years.” – Kurt Cobain.