Neil Degrasse Tyson Trolls the Human Race

He says we’re just too stupid for aliens to bother.

Too stupid, except for probably him, his fans, his publishing agent, the colleagues still in his good favors, etc. The idea gets some traction because he’s being half-humorous and it plays well with the scientism crowd as a safe criticism. It’s not aimed in a specific direction—humanity’s stupidity is something of which “we all know,” yet it doesn’t really apply to anyone in particular.

There are some large assumptions he has to make: that the aliens lack empathy towards sentient lifeforms who could benefit from advanced technology, or that they won’t be astonished to find other life at all in the universe and want to establish contact to find out more. Or they might find something for which they’d want to peacefully trade us.

Near the end he seems to be really satisfied at reading projection into Hawking’s statements. I don’t agree with Hawking either but I wouldn’t call it projection. It doesn’t matter. Mild controversy is good for niche celebrities to generate every few months (what’s up, Ann Coulter?) to maintain rhythmic media visibility.