Bill Nye and Berkeley, Why?

'Member the 90s?  'Member Ecto Cooler?  'Member Bill Nye the Science Guy?  It was a show we grew up watching, where some funny-looking guy with a BS in Mechanical Engineering taught us all about scientific things.  Fast forward a few decades, and Ecto Cooler made a comeback when a crappier version of a Ghostbusters movie came out.  And Bill Nye is back with a show on Netflix called Bill Nye the Bullshit Guy.  I'm sorry, that's not what the show it called.  That's what it should be called.  Nothing is called what it should be called anymore.  It's called Bill Nye Saves the World.  And one of the groups protesting free speech at Berkeley calls itself Antifa, as in anti-Fascist.  Because trying to silence speech that you don't agree with, especially violently, is a very anti-Fascist thing to do, right?

Bill Nye is trying to appeal to those nostalgic for the 90s by reprising his role as an expert on all things scientific, except that he's peddling Leftist political talking points masquerading as science.  Of particular annoyance to those anywhere to the right of the far left are his commentaries on gender.  As a Libertarian, I really don't think it's my business or the government's business to get involved with peoples' sex lives, as long as those sex lives involve only consenting adults.  I don't care if you're straight, gay, or bi.  I don't care which gender you identify with.  I don't care which bathroom you use.  I really don't.  It's not my business, and I don't want to hear about it either.  But Bill Nye continues to say asinine things from his pulpit of BS (not referring to his Mechanical Engineering Degree).  According to Nye, "By three or four, most kids identify with a gender, and it doesn't always match the sex they were assigned at birth."  That's great.  So should we just roll with that and treat them as what they say they are when they're THREE OR FOUR YEARS OLD?  I know several three and four-year-old kids.  They claim to be a lot of things.  They say they're dogs, cats, princesses, superheroes, and sometimes even the opposite gender of what they actually are, speaking from an actual scientific viewpoint anyway, involving chromosomes.  Hey, if you're an adult and you want a sex change, you get to make that decision.  Let's not start listening to what toddlers say about who or what they are, k?

Oh, but Nye didn't stop there.  "The science says we're all on a spectrum," he says, talking about human sexuality.  What science, exactly?  Sure, there are people who are gay, straight, bi, and whatever in between, but what science says that every person is on a spectrum?  Is this the same science that says that fetuses have their own DNA, or are we confusing science with feelings and Leftist jargon?  Based on a skit involving ice cream cones of different flavors discussing sexuality and then having an orgy (not a parody--this is something that Nye actually had as part of his new show), I'm going with the feelings and Leftist jargon hypothesis.  But it didn't stop there.  In perhaps the shittiest rap song I ever heard (and I lived with white guys who listened to a lot of rap during college), Rachel Bloom performed a song on Bill Nye with potential Grammy-winning lyrics like, "My sex junk is so oh-oh-oh much more than either or-or-or.  Power bottom or a top off, versatile love may have some butt stuff.  It's evolution, ain't nothin' new..."  Yes, you heard right.  Evolution isn't just what you were taught it was in school, kids.  It now involves doing sexual stuff involving your butt.  Because nothing progresses the species forward like inserting foreign objects into your ass.

So naturally, I think we need to shut down Bill Nye.  Let's protest Netflix.  Let's have violent rallies preventing him or Rachel Bloom from talking or rapping wherever they go.  Let's call ourselves anti-Fascists and compare Bill Nye to Hitler.  After all, didn't Nye say something about imprisoning climate deniers and having the Government limit family sizes?  Totally something Hitler would say.  Nye and people like him should not be allowed to speak, because they offend me, and if speech offends me, it's hate speech, and we should shut it down.  Oh, wait, sorry...  Strike this paragraph from the record.  I would never say that.  That's what I would say if I were a complete idiot on the far Left.  Except that then I would like Bill Nye then, so that's what I would say if I were a complete idiot on the far Left and someone like Ann Coulter or Ben Shapiro came to speak at a University near me.

Fascists try to stop free speech.  You cannot call yourself "Anti-Fascist" and try to stop free speech, ESPECIALLY when you are doing so violently.  As much as I disagree with Bill Nye, or Peter Singer, or even Richard Spencer, they are free to speak.  If we lose freedom of speech, we lose America, and that includes protecting the right of people to speak even when we vehemently disagree with them and know they are wrong.  Hate Speech is subjective, and thus protected under the first amendment unless it's an actual call to violence.  For example, a KKK member can freely say that he doesn't like Black people and thinks they are inferior, but he can't say, "let's go beat up the next Black guy we come across" or "I'm going to hurt you because you are Black."  Bill Nye can say whatever he wants about climate change and gender, as long as he's not threatening people.  Peter Singer can say whatever he wants about abortion, although he's walking a fine line when he says that killing newborn babies should be legal, but since he's not actually threatening someone's life, it's protected speech.

I disagree with a number of things that Ann Coulter says, but she should be able to say them without the threat of violence.  What happened at Berkeley is not right, and the failure of Democrats in power to assure protection is disgraceful.  I disagree with very few things that Ben Shapiro says and hope that he runs for President one day, but he is protested on so many of the campuses he speaks at, mostly because a lot of college students are afraid of facts, logic, and hearing opposing views.  Otherwise, why would they try to stop a Jewish guy the same size as me, who also isn't fond of President Trump, from speaking?  Aww, do Ann and Ben threaten your safe space?  You poor baby.  Let's make the bad people go away so you can go on pretending that the world is a safe space where you don't have to deal with opposing viewpoints.  I think Bill Maher (Good Lord, I'm quoting Bill Maher) put it best when he said, "Berkeley used to be the cradle of free speech, and now it's just the cradle for fucking babies."

I've dealt with two issues here, but they are related.  Bill Nye should be allowed to continue spouting his garbage and calling things science that are not science.  And Ann Coulter should be allowed to continue spouting her viewpoints in her shrill voice, without the threat of violence.  Based on merit alone though, I can't imagine Netflix would want to sign Nye up for additional seasons of his disastrous show, but if they're trying to push a Leftist agenda with 90s nostalgia, then great, they should go for it.  Heck, they got a hit with Fuller House.  While they're at it, let's find a few other 90s stars to throw in the mix.  Bill Cosby can teach us about family values, Roseanne Barr can teach us how to sing the National Anthem, and Stephen Collins can teach us how to act around children.

Mr. Bill, Oh No!

It's weird how things work sometimes.  Bill Cosby had been accused of raping women for decades, but it never gained much traction until a comedian made a joke about Cosby being a rapist.  Suddenly, the accusations resurfaced, reinforced by loads of new claims, bringing the downfall of the once-great comedian and destroying the childhoods of those who grew up with Dr. Huxtable.  Bill O'Reilly had been accused of sexually harassing women for decades, but that didn't gain much traction either, until he made some fairly obvious and accurate observations about the hair of Representative Maxine Waters resembling that of that of James Brown. This offended the Left, which accused O'Reilly of being sexist (and, of course, racist).  O'Reilly being a sexist isn't exactly inaccurate (although not because of his comment on one of the worst Representatives in the country), so with a target on his head, out of the woodwork came everyone who had ever accused him of sexual harassment, along with some new accusations and investigations of millions of dollars in payoffs.  The Left claimed victory when Fox News finally fired the man who had been at the top of the cable news ratings for the last 15 years.

Bill O'Reilly was good at his job, but he was bad at being a nice or even decent person.  Some of the things he said were just mean, and others were sexual harassment.  Did he deserve to get fired for it?  Well, that was up to Fox executives, and they said yes.  Did Bill Clinton deserve to get fired for his sexual indiscretions?  That ultimately ended up being a no (though almost a yes for lying about adultery under oath), but Clinton's list of alleged sexual misconduct accusers included several alleged rape victims, and like O'Reilly, millions in payoffs.  He deserved to be fired and jailed for those things, if any of them were true, though he never deserved to be President in the first place.  But Bill Clinton was good at his job in that he was probably the best Democratic President since JFK.  The list of people who were worse at the job since then includes LBJ, Jimmy Carter, and Barack Obama.  So even though I'm no fan, I'll even admit that Clinton did at least a few good things while he was President, but my opinion is that, regardless of political persuasion, workplace sexual misconduct should generally result in firing, no matter how good you are at your job or what that job is.

Rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment are all terrible things, and we as a society need to do what we can to encourage women (and men) who are victims to speak up and report these things to the authorities immediately when they happen.  We need to create an environment where victims will not be shamed for having the courage to report assailants, and where they will know that if they do not report these things, there will likely be other victims.  But we also need to stop conflating everything.  Sexual harassment is bad, but rape is way worse, and not everything is sexual harassment, nor is all sexual harassment equal.  Some of the things O'Reilly is accused of, if true, should have absolutely resulted in his firing.  Calling someone to harass them while audibly masturbating is not an acceptable thing to do, and telling women that you will help impact their careers for better or worse depending on whether or not they have sex with you is terrible, but there are other mean-spirited and morally questionable things that people say, including O'Reilly, that should not be classified as sexual harassment.

Parading people on television to talk about things that O'Reilly said that they didn't like should be a bit more selective, because it can diminish the seriousness of the truly problematic things he (or others) said to other alleged victims of harassment if we're calling everything harassment.  Saying that someone looks good is not sexual harassment.  If you're saying it constantly, and the person makes it clear that it's bothersome, then it is, but otherwise, my goodness, give me a break.  If I tell a female (or a male) co-worker that her (or his) shirt looks nice on a day when it looks particularly nice, that is an observation and a compliment, but it has nothing to do with sex, and it is not harassment of any kind.  If I say something of that nature to you and you don't like it, act like an adult and tell me before going to HR.  And, in the particular case of O'Reilly, saying that you forgot someone's name because there are a lot of blondes on the network, and then later thanking her for her blondness is not sexual harassment.  It's not nice, it's not professional, and the picture of O'Reilly that has been painted is that of a giant asshole, but it's also not sexual harassment.

I don't understand the comparison of O'Reilly to Cosby though.  I really don't.  There are people calling for O'Reilly to be publicly shamed the same way Cosby was.  As far as I'm aware, no one has accused O'Reilly of rape or drugging.  In the hierarchy of terrible famous people named Bill, if even a few of Cosby's accusers are telling the truth, Cosby's crimes should be punished far more than O'Reilly's.  He deserves to spend his life in jail, even though he too was very good at his job.  Say what you want about Cosby, but he could be pretty damn funny, yet he deserves to never see the light of day again.  And as far as Clinton?  Well, if any of the rape allegations against him are true, he's even worse than Cosby.  At least Cosby had the courtesy to knock the women unconscious before raping them.  In all seriousness though, both of those guys should be in prison for the rest of their lives.  The only time I can turn a blind eye to rape is when rapists are raped in prison for raping other people.  It's still wrong, but I don't have much sympathy for the criminal victims there.

What would be a fitting punishment for O'Reilly, in addition to the firing?  Maybe forcing him to have a show on CNN where he would be doomed to have terrible ratings, eventually fading into irrelevancy?  Or maybe they can strip him naked and walk him through town Game of Thrones style, where people can just keep yelling "Shame" at him while they laugh at his tiny Irish penis (that statement is both racist and sexual harassment if you don't know what a joke is).  Regardless of what becomes of O'Reilly though, his firing means that mainstream news media political pundits have become even more irrelevant, which is a win for Independent podcasts and Internet stars.  But the real question is: Which famous person named Bill will be accused of sexual misconduct next?  Maybe Bill Nye?  He looks like a mean-spirited guy who's into weird shit.  Or Bill Maher?  The far left doesn't like him anymore since he's in favor of free speech, so maybe they're trying to dig up some stuff up on him.  Maybe it's a good idea to avoid being alone with famous people named Bill for a while, which is a perfectly reasonable thing to do if you're a woman, but only if it isn't Vice President Mike Pence's idea.