From the same fool who brought you the myth of
The War on Christmas, John "Half a Brain" Gibson wants to know
why he has to concede Pluto is no longer designated as a planet:
"Long ago I learned it was a planet and I see no reason to unlearn it. Why should I? Somebody somewhere, some mysterious person who answers to no one and seems to have dictatorial power sets new standards for planets and all of a sudden one of the original nine is dropped?"
Why should you unlearn it? Maybe because the universe doesnt revolve around you, John. No one is suggesting Pluto suddenly isn't there anymore or that what we know about it is no longer true. A few years ago you might recall that people believed the earth was flat and they had to unlearn it when scientists told them it wasn't true. As for the "mysterious" power charged with deciding these standards, one doesn't need a high-powered telescope to find out its identity. I googled it in 5 seconds. As it turns out, its only a paltry 8,858 highly-educated people:
"The International Astronomical Union (IAU) was founded in 1919. Its mission is to promote and safeguard the science of astronomy in all its aspects through international cooperation. Its individual members are professional astronomers all over the World, at the Ph.D. level or beyond and active in professional research and education in astronomy ... The IAU is composed of 8,858 Individual Members in 85 different countries worldwide out of which 62 are National Members.
The IAU also serves as the internationally recognized authority for assigning designations to celestial bodies and any surface features on them."
Maybe Gibby's right, so what if several thousand Ph.D. scientists say that Pluto doesn't belong grouped with the other heavenly bodies we study as planets in our solar system? What the fuck do they know? Collectively, they've only spent tens of thousands years researching things like this. No, all John Gibson knows is he learned Pluto was a planet when he was 9, and it doesnt feel very truthy in his gut to change it. Go take your afternoon nap, you grumpy coot. Its a funny thing, intelligent people are comfortable with the idea of changing their way of thinking about something given new information. Only a willfully ignorant stooge such as Mr. Gibson would take such a foolish position in order to pander to his equally ignorant, crotchety viewers.
[UPDATE:] it turns out the figures I got about the IAU are misleading as it relates to the consensus (or lack thereof) about whether or not to strip Pluto of planetary designation. Downthread, WIds references this BBC news article that indicates only 424 of several thousand actually voted, and the finding is hotly disputed:
"Firstly, it is impossible and contrived to put a dividing line between dwarf planets and planets. It's as if we declared people not people for some arbitrary reason, like 'they tend to live in groups'.
"Secondly, the actual definition is even worse, because it's inconsistent."
Still, Mr. Gibson didn't reject the finding on any scientific basis. So he's still all the bad things I said about him. Except now it appears I am also too lazy to know what I'm talking about.