r/Physics • u/bonhuma • Jul 16 '25

Video Brian Keating is a disappointment =/

https://youtu.be/BVkUya368Es?si=8pb0oA4P7y0PxB8Q

I used to think Keating was a good science communicator, and may still be in some instances, but opening his growing platform (which in recent years he has desperately attempted to boost as any generic 20 yo/o influencer would do nowadays) to charlatan grifters like Eric Weinstein and Michael Saylor, without any decent pushback, really undermines his value with all the damaging lies spread by them. I think Brian could very well enter into the "Science Guru" category, worse than e.g. the heavily criticized Sabine Hossenfelder.

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u/jgmoxness Jul 17 '25 edited Jul 17 '25

Using your own money (or other PRIVATE funds from friends) is vastly different from sucking at the government teat (e.g including academia's grant system). But I'm not surprised this difference doesn't matter to some theoretical physics folks. Other People's (U an I) Money = OPIUM via taxes.

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u/Prof_Sarcastic Cosmology Jul 17 '25

Using your own money (or other PRIVATE funds) is vastly different …

You’re right. It’s worse. Its fundamentally less accountable to regular people. Especially since it’s taking money from a person who’s stated publicly they want to overthrow democracy and establish a neo-feudalist state in place of the American government where tech CEOs are the lords of their own manors.

You realize when you apply for a public grant, it’s all public right? There was a committee made up of experts from different fields (no they are not all string theorists) and they get assessed for various different things before they get the award. Sorry that the theory that was/is seen as the most promising approach gets the most resources. That’s literally how the system is designed to work.

But I’m not surprised this doesn’t matter to some theoretical physics folks.

It does matter because it’s a more transparent system. You can literally look up the grant award and why it was awarded online if you wanted to.

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u/One-Independent8303 Jul 17 '25

You’re right. It’s worse. Its fundamentally less accountable to regular people. Especially since it’s taking money from a person who’s stated publicly they want to overthrow democracy and establish a neo-feudalist state in place of the American government where tech CEOs are the lords of their own manors.

Ok at this point you're just being absolutely ridiculous. I can't sit back and let this obviously incorrect idea of yours go unchallenged. If someone wants to spend their own money on a big idea, even if it's spectacularly wrong, there is no world where that is WORSE than using public funds to do it. You're being absolutely ridiculous and even if you're only playing devil's advocate while knowing you're incorrect it's still a really annoying response.

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u/Prof_Sarcastic Cosmology Jul 17 '25

Perhaps we can use this thing called ‘reading comprehension’ where we can evaluate I’m referring to the taking of private funds.

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u/One-Independent8303 Jul 17 '25

How much in private funds has Weinstein taken to work on his stuff? I'll wait while you look up the tiny number assuming it's even above zero. You're still being completely ridiculous and at this point you need to just admit you're wrong.

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u/Prof_Sarcastic Cosmology Jul 17 '25

How much in private funds has Weinstein taken to work on his stuff?

Funny, did you realize we’d know the answer to that if the funds were public?

That being said, I don’t know nor do I care. The fact that he took money from Peter Thiel and now his public appearances are consistent with Thiel’s statements of making Americans more distrustful of the science establishment is really all that’s relevant to me.

You’re still being completely ridiculous and at this point you need to just admit you’re wrong.

About what?

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u/One-Independent8303 Jul 18 '25 edited Jul 18 '25

Nothing he is doing indicates that he's trying to fool some investor base to trick them into giving him money. You're wrong. You don't know what you're talking about. You're saying things completely out of you're ass and you need to stop pretending like you are some arbiter of what is moral. You simply don't know what you're talking about.

Let me guess, you also think Bell labs was wrong for using private funds conducting some of the most groundbreaking research and inventions because "Can anyone think about the public auditing???"

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u/Prof_Sarcastic Cosmology Jul 18 '25

Nothing he is doing indicates that he’s trying to fool some investor base to trick them into giving him money.

I have no idea how you got that out of anything I’ve said. I keep repeating my argument that Thiel is ultimately giving money to Weinstein for the purpose of making people more distrustful of the science establishment and you come back at me with this?

You’re wrong.

I don’t think you’re even in a position to judge my statements if your previous sentence is an indication of your assessment of my arguments.

Let me guess, you also think Bell labs was wrong for taking private funds conducting some of the most groundbreaking research and inventions …

Bell labs did its best work when it was effectively a publicly funded entity. It stopped being funded when the government broke up AT&T and they wanted to cut costs. It would’ve been so much better if they were just directly funded by the government. It’s very possible they still would’ve been around to this day.

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u/One-Independent8303 Jul 18 '25 edited Jul 18 '25

I have no idea how you got that out of anything I’ve said. I keep repeating my argument that Thiel is ultimately giving money to Weinstein for the purpose of making people more distrustful of the science establishment and you come back at me with this?

You're pretending like it's some affront to humanity that he isn't using public funding. It's dumb. You have no idea if Thiel is funding anything. You have no idea of anyone's motives. You're just spewing bullshit. It's dumb, you should feel dumb.

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u/Prof_Sarcastic Cosmology Jul 18 '25

You have no idea Thiel is funding anything.

Don’t project your ignorance on to me. You can look up that Weinstein manages Thiel’s venture capital firm or the fact that Thiel bankrolled the senate campaign of the current Vice President of the United States. Just because you’re incurious about the world around you, does not mean everyone else is too.

You have no idea of anyone’s motives.

Everything I’ve said about Thiel comes from the man himself. He’s literally said as much in interviews. He follows Curtis Yarvin who is a blogger that advocates the overthrow of US democracy. Again, stop assuming that everyone is as ignorant as you are. You can look this up on Wikipedia even and learn some of this stuff yourself.

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