By Jaclyn Weiner
B.O.B stirred up controversy on Twitter./Flickr.
B.o.B. recently took to Twitter to declare that the Earth is flat. Over the course of multiple tweets, B.o.B provided some reasons why he is unconvinced of the fact that the Earth is round, including multiple pictures that he believes prove this theory. B.o.B’s comments inspired criticisms from many, such as the well-known astrophysicist, cosmologist and author Neil deGrasse Tyson, who pointed out the irresponsibility of such statements made by public figures and the rise of this type of anti-intellectualism in America.
Anti-intellectualism is the mistrust of intellectuals and the recession of intelligence, reason and curiosity. Throughout history, there have often been times when scientists and academics have been mistrusted. Individuals have been persecuted over their scientific theories and intellectual thoughts, regardless of research or other marks of credibility.
This had been due to the view of academics as privileged elitists that lack the common sense and street smarts that most “common” people possess. B.o.B clearly depicted this mindset when he told his 2.3 million followers that, “they want me to be a ‘good little rapper’ and sing and dance and don’t question things…” and “I’m going up against the greatest liars in history … you’ve been tremendously deceived.”
This mistrust of academics and scientific theories is perpetuated by this “us” versus “them” mentality that comes with large political divides. Scientific theories, such as global climate change, have been so closely tied to specific political parties and groups that it has become easy to dismiss legitimate scientific discoveries as parts of the “liberal agenda.” This has contributed to breeding a society where the loudest voices are believed, rather than the voices of true experts.
As trust in academics and scientific researchers has lessened, people’s trust in celebrities has increased. This makes it possible for celebrities to spread false ideas without having any true knowledge. Neil deGrasse Tyson expressed the harmfulness of this societal setup when discussing B.o.B’s flat Earth comments.
“In a free society, you can and should think whatever you want and if you want to think the world is flat, go right ahead,” said deGrasse Tyson, “but if you think the world is flat and you have influence over others, as would successful rappers or even presidential candidates, then being wrong becomes being harmful to the health, the wealth and the security of our citizenry.”
B.o.B is not even the only celebrity championing this flat Earth theory. Tila Tequila, television personality, singer and model, chimed in on the whole flat-Earth issue on Twitter in early January. Her reasons for believing this include that you cannot find a picture with a horizon with a curvature, that airplanes could not land without crashing if the Earth was a spinning globe and that all the NYC buildings stand straight up. She also claimed that all NASA’s pictures of Earth are fake CGI and that the outer edges of our flat Earth have huge ice caps so that no one can escape.
We hardly need celebrities spreading more ignorance throughout our country and the world in a time when the National Science Foundation reveals that one in four Americans are unaware the Earth revolves around the sun, when the National Research Council reports that only 28 percent of high school science teachers consistently follow the National Research Council guidelines on teaching evolution and when a University of Texas study finds that 25 percent of public school biology teachers believe that humans and dinosaurs inhabited the earth simultaneously.
Ignorance runs rampant. We need to make efforts to not only educate Americans, but teach Americans how to properly educate themselves. We need to stop taking what we hear online, on TV or even during our everyday lives, at face value. B.o.B was correct when he said that we should question things. It is important to be skeptical, but we should be more skeptical of what people like B.o.B are saying than experts with legitimate scientific research backing up their statements.
Jaclyn Weiner, FCRH ’18, is a Communications and Media Studies major from Wantagh, New York.