Tucker Carlson Induces Cognitive Dissonance in Bill Nye the Science Guy over Climate Change

Guest Post by Scott Adams

Here is the best (and weirdest) example of cognitive dissonance you will ever see. The set-up is that Bill Nye, an engineer by training, and a proponent of science, is defending climate science on Tucker’s show.

The first weird thing is that Bill Nye starts by talking about cognitive dissonance being the only reason that anyone would be skeptical of global warming. But he seems to not understand the concept of cognitive dissonance because he believes only the other side could be experiencing it. The nature of cognitive dissonance is that you don’t know you’re in it when you’re in it. It is only obvious to observers. If Nye had been objective, he would have noted two equal possibilities: Either the skeptics are experiencing cognitive dissonance or the proponents of climate science are experiencing it. But whoever is in it can’t know. It is only obvious to the other side. That’s how it works.

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Yes, I do the same thing all the time. I call out my critics for being in cognitive dissonance and act as if the problem couldn’t be on my end. But in my case, the context is usually that I’m teaching you how to spot it. And I also talk about the specific triggers and “tells” so you can check my work. This video has a clear trigger and an enormous tell. Best example you will ever see.

The set-up for the trigger is that Nye’s self-image is that of a rational supporter of science with a command of the facts about climate science. He has made a career recently of defending science, and climate science in particular. Nye’s ego depends on being consistent with his pro-science, rational stance. That’s who he is.

Tucker then asked Nye a simple question about climate science. He asked how much of the warming is caused by human activity. Nye’s entire ego depended on knowing whether human activity is contributing to climate change in a big way, a medium way, or a small way. Tucker wanted some details. How much difference do humans make? After all, Nye had said this was settled science. Tucker just wanted to know what that settled science said.

Nye didn’t know. And by not knowing that simple answer about the percentage of human contribution to warming – the only issue that really mattered to the topic – he proved in public that his opinions on science are not based on facts or knowledge. Nye tried and tried to dodge the question, but Tucker was relentless. That was the trigger. Nye could plainly see, thanks to Tucker’s simple question, that his belief in science was just a belief, because he didn’t actually know the science. When your self-image and ego get annihilated on live television, you can’t simply admit you have been ridiculous all along. Your brain can’t let you do that to yourself. So instead, it concocts weird hallucinations to force-glue your observations into some sort of semi-coherent movie in which you are not totally and thoroughly wrong. That semi-coherent movie will look like a form of insanity to observers.

Look for Nye to go totally mental in the last minute of the clip, changing the topic to political leaks for no apparent reason. That’s your tell. His brain just sort of broke right in front of you.

People do and say dumb things all the time, and it isn’t always cognitive dissonance. That’s why you look for the trigger to make sure the “tell” was what you thought it was.

To be fair, spotting cognitive dissonance is more like bird-watching than science. Sometimes you misidentify a bird. But this example is like an ostrich sitting on your lap. Hard to miss. Enjoy.

 

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CCRider
CCRider

I’m not a fan of Tucker’s show. It seems to me that he specializes in taking some loud idiot voicing some ridiculous position and making them sound as silly as possible. Kinda like shooting fish in a barrel. But this interview was special in that Nye fancies himself an expert. Scott is correct that the last minute or so was hilarious. He had Nye’s ass nailed to the wall and Nye knew it. You could hear Nye’s butt cheeks flapping across state lines.

RiNS

You could hear Nye’s butt cheeks flapping across state lines….

Good One rider, that’s a great way to describe what happened with Nye. And like SA said in the last minute you could see him breaking down in much the same way as Ben Affleck a couple weeks back on Bill Maher show.

TrickleUpPolitics
TrickleUpPolitics

I am a big fan of Tucker’s show for the very reason that he takes a lib idiot down a peg. How long have we watched lib idiots treated like geniuses by the boot-licking lib idiots on TV? It’s refreshing to see that the all knowing lefties can’t even explain their beliefs coherently.

RiNS

I feel the same way Trickle. It has turned into a daily guilty pleasure for me. Seeing a Libtard getting served. It is surprising that they still agree to come on. But not surprising because in their world everyone wins just by participating.

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Mesomorph

CC,
I wouldn’t call myself a fan of TC either but I’m not a fan of any talking heads on tv. He may “specialize in taking some loud idiot voicing some ridiculous position and making them sound as silly as possible”. The thing is, I see every other host on every other network as someone who specializes in taking some loud idiot voicing some ridiculous position and making them sound as smart as possible.

CCRider
CCRider

Agreed. With the ‘media’ choices we have you get what you can stand. I prefer to read TBP comments instead.

Rise Up

Tucker is a HUGE improvement over Megyn Kelly. He eviscerates his leftist guests with reason and logic that they can’t comprehend, due to their feeble minds.

And he coyly introduced Bill Nye as a “mechanical engineer”, which is what Nye’s college degree is–NOT a climate scientist as he claims himself to be.

Settled science, my ass.

kokoda - the most deplorable
kokoda - the most deplorable
Ammo

Nye is a visionary, and only he saw it, and his cognitive dissonance can’t explain it or prove it; but he saw the vision on Mount Gore so that should explain part of it.

phoolish
phoolish

Also, “Character Displacement.”

Jason Calley
Jason Calley

Just before the 8:00 mark Nye loses it. He claims that if not for humans, the climate today would be like it was in 1750. He claims that you would not be able to grow grapes commercially in England, etc.

The man is an idiot. Anyone with a perfunctory knowledge of climate knows that throughout history climates have changed, sometimes warmer, sometimes cooler, sometimes drier, sometimes rainier. Why on earth would the climate today be like it was in 1750? And why is it a disaster that they can grow grapes in England? That is nothing new, it has happened before. They did so back during the Medieval Warm Period and everyone thought it was pretty nice.

Nye may once have been given a degree in engineering, but for the last few decades he has been employed as a children’s entertainer. It shows. It is even possible that he knows more science than the eight and nine year old children he performs for. Maybe.

Fatty
Fatty

I have a 7th grade understanding of the carbon/oxygen cycle,and it seems to me that the more co2,the greater the quantity and quality of life on the planet. You know,more trees and plants to produce moar oxygen and food for animals. Oh,and moar animals. How is it a bad thing that formerly Great Britain can now grow grapes?

The Obama decree that co2 is a pollutant to be regulated by the Feds is particularly concerning ( at least to me) because these watermelon enviros
are the descendants of Marxist’s that murdered 100 million people.
The victims of those bloodbaths were either the wrong ethnic,economic,culture,nationality,party or whatever.
Some of these victim groups survived,but how can you avoid being a co2 offender? Oh I almost forgot: http://www.oism.org/pproject/.

Jason Calley
Jason Calley

I have seen estimates that the Earth’s biomass has increased about 13% because of the extra CO2 from humans. Not only is the CO2 fertilization specifically part of the reason for the increase, but because the plants do not have to open their stomata (the little pores on the leaf) so wide, the plants do better in drought conditions as well. Faster, increased growth, more efficient water usage… Sounds great!

CCRider
CCRider

Do you suppose this charlatan has ever heard of GREENland?

Anonymous
Anonymous

Bill Nye, the pseudoscience guy.

Ouirphuqd
Ouirphuqd

I’m an expert on experts, I know nothing therefore I can spout anything I wish just because I am an expert. Absurdity is the only thing I’m an expert on!

Trapped in Portlandia
Trapped in Portlandia

As an engineer, I’m embarrassed that Nye is also an engineer. Engineers and scientists are supposed to use data to analyze questions. Nye instead, is simply saying, over and over again that man is causing climate change and then talking about what the results are. And WTF was Nye talking about Presidential leaks at the end.

Carlson’s question about how much of climate change is caused by man was very reasonable. The two correct answers Nye could have provided were: (1) ___% is caused by man or (2) I don’t know, but that info exists and I can get it for you.

If Nye is the best spokesman that the climate-change side has then they are screwed. The Atlantic could wash over Manhattan and oranges could start growing in Saskatchewan and people would still not believe the climate is changing if Nye is the one telling them so.

Tator2
Tator2

My dad was prophetic. In the 1970 he told me Democrats would tax the air we breath if they could figure out how…now we know.

Fatty
Fatty

Erv,you made me laff. My dad was completely gobsmacked when bottled water became a thing. Buying shit that is free? He then predicted that people would buy shit in a bag at the store.
Cracks me up every time I see it at the store.

Back in PA Mike
Back in PA Mike

I know everyone bashes TV on here, & I watch very little, but I love Tucker Carlson. Watch him on Youtube every morning when I’m getting ready to take on the world. I really enjoy him destroying lefty after lefty even if it is like shooting fish in a barrel. They keep coming on, no one is forcing them to.

kokoda - the most deplorable
kokoda - the most deplorable

Possible:

I believe you would all agree that Nature itself is awesome.
Due to massive and continuing deforestation by humans, is it possible that Nature is increasing CO2 to assist the remaining vegetation to go forth and multiply?

RT Rider
RT Rider

Very possible. An estimate, and only an estimate, is that the minimum atmospheric CO2 level necessary to support life is 180 ppm (.018%). Where we are now could very well be less than optimum for vegetative growth.

Fatty
Fatty

Yes it’s possible. I think George Carlin might have had it right https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rld0KDcan_w

Ottomatik
Ottomatik

It doesn’t matter, if we did or did not change the carbon levels, the plan, carbon tax, isn’t going to change shit.
Well, its obviously going to make a select few, filthy fuckin rich. Probably the main culprits in the excessive carbon emissions, the four horseman of oil and banking, have positioned themselves to be net positive on Carbon Tax.
Meanwhile we will continue to eliminate biodiversity, expand the toxic nuclear industry, expand and update the chemo-gmo-chimmera-techno food supply, extinguish fresh water supplies through overuse and pollution, in unrestrained fashion, across the globe.
With zero impact from Carbon tax.
Perhaps the trick is; this stupid fuckin debate will rage back and forth perpetually, eternally distracting IYI’s from prescriptive conversations regarding plainly observable health.
If these motherfuckers were so concerned about the Earth, why hasn’t one of them planted a flag at Fukushima and poured money and talent into a real time Class 1 Mega Fuckin Disaster.
Because there is no money in it.

Boat Guy
Boat Guy

Fukashima burning a hole to the planets core while polluting billions of gallons of seawater shit I forgot about that ! Thanks for the reminder better stock up on cianide

Rise Up

Fukushima will kill millions before “globull warming” does. It will take a few decades due to the slow accumulation of the radiation that will bring on cancer, and by then it will be nearly impossible to blame it on Fukushima. But the undeniable link will be there for those who know how to connect the dots. Mass fish die-off in the Pacific has already occurred, and will spread to all oceans in time. All efforts to contain the radioactive waste water that is stored onsite at the Daichi plants have failed, as has the ice wall they tried to contain contaminated water from the leaking storage tanks.

Oh, don’t forget the cores that they can’t find and continue to fission and produce new radioactive particles.

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Boat Guy
Boat Guy

As with most liberals when asked a straight forward question they will repeat at nauseam a diatribe of proposed facts or figures that few if any can be proven . Obviously human activity has had an effect to life on earth and industry and technology has played a major role some bad some good but becoming a Luddite is not an answer ! Neither is telling everybody but me to drastically alter their life style ! Science , Technology , Engineering , and Industry solved many problems for the human condition and supporting them aggressively will continue to do so ! We do not do these things because they are easy , We do them because they are hard ! J.F.K.

Anonymous
Anonymous

97% of the so-called greenhouse effect is due to water vapor

none of the AGW models include sun spot activity as part of the modeling equations

Ask Mr Bill the BowTieGuy what the R-squared is comparing CO2 content to tropospheric temperatures

musket
musket

Bill Nye is a douche bag…plain and simple.

TampaRed
TampaRed

Here is a link to wikipedia–
According to this,Nye is a former mechanical engineer,not a scientist.

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bill_Nye

hardscrabble farmer

I wonder how much time Nye spends outdoors during the course of his day?

You learn a whole lot more about how Nature works by actually being immersed in it than you do by reading about it.

Fatty
Fatty

Excactly, HSF, I noticed today willow tress with buds on. This is in formerly bucolic Middletown valley Md. Are these furry buds some what resistant to frost? I ask because I was riding through some mountain orchards around here, and zero buds on the higher elevations fruit trees.

mangledman
mangledman

Yes that was classic. You should see a climateers face when you ask about chemtrails,geoingineering,haarp, or weather weaponization. if these things have anything to do with climate.

Silverado
Silverado

I bet you’d never guess that Bill Nye the Science Guy was just another radical left winger from Liberalville itself, Seattle. On second thought and after observing this whack job whenever I was unlucky enough to see him on Seattle TV pretending to be a scientist of some kind before I could change the channel, maybe we would. Anyway, Tucker Carlson had his number and the Science Guy got mugged & shagged live on air and didn’t even realize it until well after everyone else did. Served the…smart guy right.

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