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Bill Nye “Saves the World” – It Gets Worse

We observed here already the stunningly moronic and inept video clip from Bill Nye Saves the World celebrating the “palette” view of sexuality. Another segment from the program uses ice cream in order to make the same point. Watch that here if you feel you must. It’s also remarkably stupid, though not horrific like the dance number with Rachel Bloom.

However, in scanning this series offering from Netflix, others have noted a panel discussion on global population that goes someplace really sinister. In the context of a conversation about climate change, part of an episode titled “Earth’s People Problem,” Nye has an exchange with Johns Hopkins University bioethicist Travis Rieder. Nye asks, with a note of urgency in his voice, “What should we be doing?”

Nye: “So, should we have policies that penalize people for having extra kids in the developed world?”

Rieder: “So, I do think that we should at least consider it.”

Nye: “Well, ‘At least consider it’ is like ‘Do it’!”

In a country like ours with 325 million or so people, how many are “extra”? And who are these dispensable individuals, in Bill Nye’s scientific opinion?

The Federalist gets it right:

Nye (who, again, decided we all needed to see that abomination from Bloom) is wise enough to set limits on humanity. This whole concept and the ease with which he discusses it is so frightening and evil that I am genuinely appalled at Netflix’s decision to air it.

To their credit, the other two panelists demure. Rachel Snow of the U.N. Population Fund is patronizing about it. She says, “If some families have five or six children, God bless them. I mean, that’s fine.” “Fine”? My wife and I have five children. Thank you for your indulgence and patience with us, Dr. Snow.

Unlike Tom Gilson at The Stream, after watching the transgenderism video, I did not immediately cancel our Netflix subscription. So I watched the population panel for myself. And yes, the exchange with Rieder – the fact that it was allowed to stand without being edited out – is truly disturbing.

Dr. Rieder, would you “at least consider” fining me? Taxing me? Perhaps imprisoning me? What might the legal penalty be per extra “emitter,” as you call babies and other humans? Wait till you meet my brother-in-law and his wife, who live in Jerusalem with their 15 children (not a typo).

“Considering” the idea of punishing people who exceed a maximum allotted number of kids perfectly expresses the eugenicist ethic. It is totalitarian. We see where “Science,” in the hands of people like this, is trending. It’s the kind of thing that many in the March for Science, which Nye served as honorary co-chair, were protesting for. Clearly they were, or the March’s organizers wouldn’t have opted for Mr. Nye as their leader.

Bill Nye and Rachel Bloom can make laughingstocks of themselves with their sex dance video. That’s pathetic, creepy, but not threatening. I do not see foresee Netflix signing up for another season of Saves the World, given that even some folks sympathetic to Nye’s views aren’t thrilled by his persona as an entertainer (“Bill Nye Spends Most of His New Netflix Show Yelling at the Audience,” Gizmodo).

We should take Dr. Rieder’s comments more seriously. The notion of punishing parents for bringing extra “emitters” into the world is spiteful, inhuman, and frightening because academics and “ethicists” aren’t dismissed out of hand for entertaining it.

David Klinghoffer

Senior Fellow and Editor, Evolution News
David Klinghoffer is a Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute and the editor of Evolution News & Science Today, the daily voice of Discovery Institute’s Center for Science & Culture, reporting on intelligent design, evolution, and the intersection of science and culture. Klinghoffer is also the author of six books, a former senior editor and literary editor at National Review magazine, and has written for the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Seattle Times, Commentary, and other publications. Born in Santa Monica, California, he graduated from Brown University in 1987 with an A.B. magna cum laude in comparative literature and religious studies. David lives near Seattle, Washington, with his wife and children.

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Bill NyeeugenicsGizmodopopulation controlRachel BloomRachel SnowThe FederalistTravis Rieder