Neil deGrasse Tyson Spanks Conservative Pundit After ‘Horse’s Astrophysicist’ Crack

Celebrity scientist rips Neal Larson after falling for a hoax article

neil degrasse tyson

You better leave a hefty tip after this, Neal Larson, because you just got served in an epic manner.

Conservative talk-show host Larson had his posterior kicked, folded and handed back neatly to him by Neil deGrasse Tyson, after he dubbed him a “horse’s astrophysicist.”

Larson invited Tyson’s quick-witted wrath with a column published by MagicValley.com, in which he derided the celebrity scientist over a tweet in which Tyson attempted to put the U.S.’s impressive medal count into perspective.

“The USA has 3x as many Olympic golds as Hungary, but 30x the population. Adjusting for this, Hungary is kicking our ass,” Tyson tweeted.

Feathers at full ruffle, Larson wrote in his column: “I don’t know how he does it, but Tyson manages to simultaneously be both an astrophysicist … and a jackass. What, precisely, is he attempting to do other than spew out a drive-by pot shot at America, with a fourth-grade math observation mixed in?”

Larson went on to accuse Tyson of mocking ” a 12-year-old girl who suggested she’d like to live on Jupiter. He ridiculed her in the midst of a crowd, then later, several times, on Twitter. That told me everything I needed to know about Neil deGrasse Tyson.”

Except — oops — Larson was apparently referencing an article posted on satirical website The Onion’s sister site Clickhole, titled, “Awesome: When a Little Girl Told Neil DeGrasse Tyson She Wanted to Live on Jupiter, He Completely Shut Her Down.”

The lapse in truthfulness did not go unnoticed by Tyson, who wrote a lengthy response in the comments section of Larson’s column.

“I don’t mind being labeled a horse’s astrophysicist (I see what you did there), provided it’s based on factual information,” Tyson wrote. “So what we must do is subtract the false information from your article, and then re-assess what name you choose to call me. If it still justifies ‘horse’s astrophysicist,’ then so be it.”

Tyson continued, “The ‘incident’ with a 9yr old girl never happened. It looks to be a hoax … So you abrogated your journalistic integrity by not verifying what you read in somebody else’s article, before using it as a foundational pillar in yours.”

For good measure, Tyson thoroughly debunked Larson’s characterization of the astrophysicist as a “liberal.”

“You use ‘Liberal’ as a tag to characterize my politics. Since I have no active public political position, that’s a hard task to accomplish,” Tyson wrote. “Climate change deniers are misinformed. But so are people who think vaccines gives you autism. And so are people who think genetically modified foods are bad for you. These science-denying postures cross political boundaries, as I clumsily attempted to convey recently on Bill Maher.”

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