Steak-umm Starts Bizarre Twitter Beef With Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson recently found himself in a bizarre Twitter beef with, of all things, Steak-umm.
Even stranger: Many experts took the side of the processed meat product.
It all started on Sunday after Tyson tweeted out, “The good thing about Science is that it’s true, whether or not you believe in it.”
The good thing about Science is that it’s true, whether or not you believe in it.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) April 11, 2021
Although the tweet attracted more than 128,000 likes, it didn’t get much love from Steak-umm on Monday night.
log off bro https://t.co/sf4zLm33Jm
— Steak-umm (@steak_umm) April 13, 2021
Steak-umm then added a little more meat to its contention, saying that, ironically, Tyson’s tweet “may influence people to be more skeptical” of science “in a time of unprecedented misinformation.”
“Science is an ever refining process to find truth, not a dogma,” Steak-umm said, adding, “no matter his intent, this message isn’t helpful.”
the irony of neil’s tweet is that by framing science itself as “true” he’s influencing people to be more skeptical of it in a time of unprecedented misinformation. science is an ever refining process to find truth, not a dogma. no matter his intent, this message isn’t helpful https://t.co/sf4zLm33Jm
— Steak-umm (@steak_umm) April 13, 2021
The company then transparently admitted the reason for going after Tyson about the difference between “science” and “truth.” Spoiler alert: It involves selling processed meat to home cooks.
obligatory thread to remind people that we’re a brand selling products (https://t.co/twW6laKOCp check it out) so everything we do is based in self interest to grow our business
steak-umm bless https://t.co/bQzPTiTXgv— Steak-umm (@steak_umm) April 13, 2021
Some people suspected Steak-umm’s stance was the result of a recent change in the company’s social media staff, a charge the company denied.
you must have changed social media personnel
— Kevin Flynn (@KevinFl79824320) April 13, 2021
nope. science itself isn't "true" it's a constantly refining process used to uncover truths based in material reality and that process is still full of misteaks. neil just posts ridiculous sound bites like this for clout and he has no respect for epistemology
— Steak-umm (@steak_umm) April 13, 2021
Still, people had questions ...
What's the beef here? (pardon the pun)
— Rob Honeycutt (@robhon_) April 13, 2021
just sick of neil's games
— Steak-umm (@steak_umm) April 13, 2021
Many people, including some members of the medical and scientific communities, took the side of Steak-umm.
Seeing a frozen meat company drag @neiltyson for intellectually sloppy thinking is not something you see every day. Worse for NGT, the frozen meat company is correct. https://t.co/AVq9X47MhR
— David Gorski, MD, PhD (@gorskon) April 13, 2021
Seriously - we've got Steak-umm talking epistemology on Twitter over a stupid Neil deGrasse Tyson tweet and we're witnessing greatness in real time. pic.twitter.com/PCl0aEX6Wv
— Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) April 13, 2021
Tyson hasn’t directly responded to Steak-umm, but he posted a tweet linking to a 2016 article he wrote titled “What Science Is, and How and Why It Works.”
if you have the urge to argue with my previous Tweet, before you do, please spend 4-mins reading this post:
[Text; 1000 words; 4 mins]https://t.co/VnIS6kuSkS— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) April 11, 2021
The science blog IFLScience.com noted that the post “essentially agrees” with Steak-umm and “makes the distinction between truth (established facts) and the scientific method.”
It added: “So calm down, everybody. Though his tweet had people riled ― and not without merit ― his longer-form thoughts are well aligned with meat.”
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.