Sherri Shepherd doesn't know if the world is flat

[greymatters]

The following transcript is from today's episode of "The View", the show that brought you the "fact" that fire has never melted steel. Sherri Shepherd mentioned that she doesn't believe in evolution, and Whoopi Goldberg went to work:

WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Is the world flat?

SHERRI SHEPHERD: Is the world flat? (laughter)

GOLDBERG: Yes.

SHEPHERD: …I Don’t know.

GOLDBERG: What do you think?

SHEPHERD: I… I never thought about it, Whoopi. Is the world flat? I never thought about it.

BARBARA WALTERS: You’ve never thought about whether the world was round or flat?

SHEPHERD: I tell you what I’ve thought about. How I’m going to feed my child–

WALTERS: Well you can do both.

SHEPERD: …how I’m going to take care of my family. The world, is the world flat has never entered into, like that has not been an important thing to me.

ELIZABETH HASSELBECK: You’ll teach your son, Jeffery, right?

SHEPHERD: If my son, Jeffery, asks me ‘is the world flat,’ I guess I would go…

JOY BEHAR: You know, didn’t some person already work this question out? I mean, why are we doing this again? (laughter, applause)

[Oliver]

Here's the clip - and quite frankly, I thought it was very embarrassing to watch...

The War on Science Gets Scarier (http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/09/19/the-war-on-science-gets-scarier/)
QT only http://static.crooksandliars.com/mediaimages/video_mov_icon.gif Download (http://www.crooksandliars.com/Media/Download/21552/1/the-view-on-evolution2.mov) (1510)

[greymatters]

Thanks, Oliver. I just found it on YouTube, as well:

VsvhPvK405Q

Whoopi does actually bring up a good question at the beginning. How do we come to cooperate in society? On this question, I do think they need to look up the Prisoner's Dilemma (http://headinside.blogspot.com/2007/05/prisoners-dilemma.html), and read more about it (http://greymatters.zlio.com/math-p7321972-Prisoner-s-Dilemma.html).

[LibraryLady]

Um, who's Sherri Shepherd?

[Lisa Simpson]

Some idiot. On The View.

[JoeEllison]

Not for nothing... but when people start going on about how we should be more polite and respectful when confronted with the beliefs of others, I always wonder how they deal with beliefs like there?

[Darth Rotor]

Not for nothing... but when people start going on about how we should be more polite and respectful when confronted with the beliefs of others, I always wonder how they deal with beliefs like there?
But you'd do her, wouldn't you?

DR

[JoeEllison]

But you'd do her, wouldn't you?

DRNot even with your "junk", and Whoopi pushing.

[Darth Rotor]

Not even with your "junk", and Whoopi pushing.
Oooh, Joe, that is a bad visual, but I asked for it with that set up line.

DR

[ponderingturtle]

Some idiot. On The View.

Isn't that a redundant statement.

I mean logically you have statements A and B, but as it is if B then A, it would seem that only the latter part is needed.

[billydkid]

But you'd do her, wouldn't you?

DRAs for myself, I would do practically anybody who would do me back.

[sphenisc]

But you'd do her, wouldn't you?

DR

I dunno, is she flat or rounded?

[Darth Rotor]

I dunno, is she flat or rounded?
Rounded, (http://abc.go.com/daytime/theview/cohosts#)based on the evidence, and possessed of a room brightening smile and lovely dimples.

DR

[Arkan_Wolfshade]

Isn't that a redundant statement.

I mean logically you have statements A and B, but as it is if B then A, it would seem that only the latter part is needed.
Perhaps it was a matter of sets? All people on The View are idiots, but not all idiots are on The View. :D

[The Central Scrutinizer]

Some idiot. On The View.

I thought they were all idiots on that show?

[jimlintott]

I would love to have been there to say "Ladies, it could be both flat and round".

Watch the heads explode.

[Gord_in_Toronto]

I would love to have been there to say "Ladies, it could be both flat and round".

Watch the heads explode.

You damn Quantum Physicists! Always confusing people! ;)

[Darth Rotor]

You damn Quantum Physicists! Always confusing people! ;)
Would you do Schroedinger's :goat? Oh, wait, is that Shempdinger's :goat?

*confused*

Will get more coffee.

DR

[pgwenthold]

Isn't the earth flat in spherical geometry?

[ponderingturtle]

Perhaps it was a matter of sets? All people on The View are idiots, but not all idiots are on The View. :D

But that is the point, all we need is to establish that she is on the view, so of course she is an idiot. that is exactly what I think I said.

[ponderingturtle]

I thought they were all idiots on that show?

This point has been made, in much more round about fashions.

[shemp]

Some idiot. On The View.

This is like describing a suspect's height as between 2'9" and 8'7".

[greymatters]

Check out the list of blogs talking about this (http://tailrank.com/2781405/New-View-Co-Host-Sherri-Shepherd-Doesn-t-Know-If-World-Is-Flat)!

It even starts out without some forum favorites, like "Bad Astronomy" and "Mike's weekly skeptic rant".

[CptColumbo]

I would love to have been there to say "Ladies, it could be both flat and round".

Watch the heads explode.I think that was an old Marx Brothers routine.

Groucho: "What's the shape of the world?"

Chico: "Terrible."

Groucho: "No. It's Shape. Like my cufflinks, what shape are my cufflinks."

Chico: "Square."

Groucho: "Well that's today, on Sunday I wear my round ones. So what's the shape of the world."

Chico: "Square on the weekdays and round on Sunday."

Groucho: "Close enough."

[CptColumbo]

BARBARA WALTERS: You’ve never thought about whether the world was round or flat?

SHEPHERD: I tell you what I’ve thought about. How I’m going to feed my child–

That's all she's ever thought about?

You've never seen a globe and wonder what it represented?

Is there something like Godwin's Law in relation to bringing the care of children into a discussion.

[Safe-Keeper]

Poor woman.

She makes a decent point, though, that this kind of knowledge really is irrelevant to her. Reminds me of the play Erasmus Montanus, where this farmer family sends their eldest son off to the city to study, and he comes back saying, among other things, that the Earth is round. One of the things that struck me is how irrelevant this question is to a bunch of farmers doing nothing but plowing fields and raising livestock.

I'm not saying science is unimportant, just musing about how certain things are not important to certain people.

[KingMerv00]

WALTERS: Well you can do both.



Heh.

[shuize]

Poor woman.

She makes a decent point, though, that this kind of knowledge really is irrelevant to her. Reminds me of the play Erasmus Montanus, where this farmer family sends their eldest son off to the city to study, and he comes back saying, among other things, that the Earth is round. One of the things that struck me is how irrelevant this question is to a bunch of farmers doing nothing but plowing fields and raising livestock.

I'm not saying science is unimportant, just musing about how certain things are not important to certain people.


The bad astronomer deals with this point nicely:

Anyway, when Whoopi Goldberg (who is actually pretty smart) presses her on this, Ms. Shepherd demurs, saying that it’s more important for her to know how to care for her son. This is almost legitimate. Almost. But it misses. If this were a thousand years ago, and she were toiling in a cave someplace with no access to information and spending 20 hours a day trying to keep her family fed, then sure, some knowledge may simply be too esoteric to be useful and, worse, distract from the actual task of survival.

But that isn’t the case. Here we have an actress and singer who is living, if I read my calendar and atlas correctly, in the 21st Century in the United States. Has she never seen a picture of the Earth from space? As it happens, a vast majority of people in the U.S. can hold a job, care for their family, and also know that the Earth is, y’know, round. Some people (though sadly, not enough) also know it takes the Earth a year to go around the Sun, that gravity makes things fall, and that DNA is a big molecule in which genetic information is coded. None of this is needed to feed your family (unless you are a science writer), yet humans are in general capable of handling a vast amount of information not directly pertaining to immediate survival.


http://www.badastronomy.com/bablog/2007/09/18/how-ignorant-can-you-be-and-still-get-on-tv/

Living overseas, I used to try and defend my fellow Americans for the stupid things they say on television. But following Ms. Teen South Carolina's antics and now this, I think I'm just going to throw in the towel.

[RandFan]

I'm not saying science is unimportant, just musing about how certain things are not important to certain people. Then the farmers lost their land and migrated to California where they could only find jobs as field hands making pennys an hour.

Perhaps educations isn't such a bad thing after all.

[Elizabeth I]

Hey, at least she comes up with the right answer at the end: "...and I'm gonna say, baby, we got to go to the library."

[JoeEllison]

Poor woman.

She makes a decent point, though, that this kind of knowledge really is irrelevant to her. Reminds me of the play Erasmus Montanus, where this farmer family sends their eldest son off to the city to study, and he comes back saying, among other things, that the Earth is round. One of the things that struck me is how irrelevant this question is to a bunch of farmers doing nothing but plowing fields and raising livestock.

I'm not saying science is unimportant, just musing about how certain things are not important to certain people.

Well... how do you miss such a simple, basic fact of reality? Surely, she had no need to know the exact size of the earth, or understand the science behind the formation of the planets.

On the other hand, has she never seen a movie from Universal Studios? Never seen a globe?:eek:

She struck me as being proudly, willfully stupid.

[JoeEllison]

Hey, at least she comes up with the right answer at the end: "...and I'm gonna say, baby, we got to go to the library."

She could have said "...baby, you'd be better off raised by wolves!" and also been right.

[jimlintott]

I don't believe she would go to the library. She'd probably look it up in the same place she got all her information on evolution.

[WildCat]

She was on Jay Leno yesterday, but I missed it. Does anyone know if Jay asked her about this?

[hgc]

Poor woman.

She makes a decent point, though, that this kind of knowledge really is irrelevant to her. Reminds me of the play Erasmus Montanus, where this farmer family sends their eldest son off to the city to study, and he comes back saying, among other things, that the Earth is round. One of the things that struck me is how irrelevant this question is to a bunch of farmers doing nothing but plowing fields and raising livestock.

I'm not saying science is unimportant, just musing about how certain things are not important to certain people.


As goes to feeding her unfortunate offspring, evolution has no more relevance than the shape of the planet. It's not that it's not important to her. By refusing to engage about the shape of the world, she's making a rhetorical maneuver to keep the conversation within some strictly defined boundries so as not to get caught in a logical inconsistency. She is absolutely lying that she doesn't know that the world is not flat.

[hgc]

She was on Jay Leno yesterday, but I missed it. Does anyone know if Jay asked her about this?


I haven't seen it, but I would bet no. Jay Leno is the weakest interviewer on TV.

[WildCat]

I haven't seen it, but I would bet no. Jay Leno is the weakest interviewer on TV.
But he is a comedian, and I can't imagine he would let that go unmentioned. Not that he'd dwell on it, but at least a mention!

[NoZed Avenger]

But he is a comedian, and I can't imagine he would let that go unmentioned. Not that he'd dwell on it, but at least a mention!

He's a comedian now? When did this great transmutation occur?

[Geek Goddess]

I have never seen this show (although I did see a news clip where that Rosie person was mocking Donald Trump), but I will offer my opinion any way. :D

It doesn't take brains to be on a talk show, it takes looks and the ability to network/negotiate into a job. I remember reading about Phyllis George a few years. Some of her former co-workers said that reading cue cards and teleprompters was almost beyond her abilities. But she was pretty. Why we assume that someone on TV is intelligent, or why actors know about science issues and deserve to be listened to as if they had some credentials, is beyond me.

[JoeEllison]

I have never seen this show (although I did see a news clip where that Rosie person was mocking Donald Trump), but I will offer my opinion any way. :D

It doesn't take brains to be on a talk show, it takes looks and the ability to network/negotiate into a job. I remember reading about Phyllis George a few years. Some of her former co-workers said that reading cue cards and teleprompters was almost beyond her abilities. But she was pretty. Why we assume that someone on TV is intelligent, or why actors know about science issues and deserve to be listened to as if they had some credentials, is beyond me.
Oh come on! *insert look of outrage here*

There's a difference between assuming someone on TV is intelligent, and assuming that they have a functional brain. No one expects that chick to know the exact circumference of the earth, but we expect that she'd know that it has a vaguely curved and non-flat shape to it!:eek:

[Geek Goddess]

Oh come on! *insert look of outrage here*

There's a difference between assuming someone on TV is intelligent, and assuming that they have a functional brain. No one expects that chick to know the exact circumference of the earth, but we expect that she'd know that it has a vaguely curved and non-flat shape to it!:eek:

You are correct, it was a slight derail. I think she's an idiot.

[Dorian Gray]

That's all she's ever thought about?

You've never seen a globe and wonder what it represented?

Is there something like Godwin's Law in relation to bringing the care of children into a discussion.
Yeah, it's like a little spell.
Feeling stupid? It's 'for the children.'
Committed a huge political blunder? '9/11'.
Black with a need for face time? Pick any crime and say 'racism'.
Being attacked for something you're guilty of? 'Political enemies.'
Something bad happened and you watch Fox? 'Liberals'
Something on TV? 'Liberal media'.
O'Reilly getting pwned by your guest? 'Shut up'.