RIP Patrick Moore

[IainC]

BBC Obit

I guess he may not be as iconic a figure to the non-Brits on the board but for me the face of astronomy when I was a kid was this guy and not Sagan or de Grasse Tyson. His enthusiasm for astronomy and accessible presenting style was a huge influence in my early interest in the subject. He also appeared as a disembodied head in a video game review show and played the xylophone whenever he could get away with it.

[Ironwood]

Ach, that's a shame.  Can't say he didn't have a good innings tho.

[Signe]

Awww... I love him!  I even used to watch that Gamemaster show.  He was adorable.

[apocrypha]

Any of the obituaries mentioned his hateful racism and sexism yet?

[Signe]

Was he?  Are you sure he wasn't just a misanthrope? 

[Ironwood]

Any of the obituaries mentioned his hateful racism and sexism yet?

Given the generation he belonged to ?  I'd doubt it.  But thanks for bringing that up.  Classy.

Perhaps a little dance is in order ?

[Soln]

I liked him and appreciated his enthusiasm for science and helping inspire young people and kids.  

[apocrypha]

Wait, so we're only allowed to say nice things about people when they're dead? Bollocks. He was a nasty piece of shit, a fact that was conveniently forgotten by the media establishment and will be being brushed under the carpet now.

When Thatcher's body finally dies are we all just going to fawn about how wonderful she was? I'm not, I'll pop a bottle of champagne and be glad about it. Similarly, re Moore, one less fascist is one less fascist.

[Ingmar]

I'd never heard of this guy, so I looked up his Wikipedia page and found the following line:

" He campaigned for Edmund Iremonger in 1979"

Iremonger is the greatest name for a conservative politician in the history of the world.

[rattran]

It's right up there with Learned Hand in names.

[Ironwood]

Wait, so we're only allowed to say nice things about people when they're dead? Bollocks. He was a nasty piece of shit, a fact that was conveniently forgotten by the media establishment and will be being brushed under the carpet now.

When Thatcher's body finally dies are we all just going to fawn about how wonderful she was? I'm not, I'll pop a bottle of champagne and be glad about it. Similarly, re Moore, one less fascist is one less fascist.

He was an old bloke who thought the horrible wogs were coming to take his stuff.  Big Fucking Whoop.  My Grandfather still talked about The Niggers right up until he died and spared us all that embarrasment.  Old people in having Old Views and Being Fucking Stupid Shocker.  I think you're making it rather more than it was.  He certainly never had any power to actually DO anything, so he may as well have been screaming about the Brown Folks into his Cornflakes.  He was like, er, well, the Current Republican Party really, except with no power.

And NO ;  When Thatcher dies, the drinks are on me and I have a spare dance floor which I will erect over her fucking Grave.  To conflate the two makes you just look like you're TRYING to provoke a reaction because the fucking guy's dead.  We hear about Thatcher right now ;  Until NOW I've never heard of your deep, deep feelings on the Astronomer.

Sigh.  This fucking place.

[eldaec]

You have a spare dance floor?

If it is spare, that implies you also have a fully operational dance floor?

That sounds more interesting than the thatcher derail.



The world needs more enthusiastic people doing science. There seemed to be way more of them on british TV in his era. I remember when kids would happily watch Johnny Ball, Patrick Moore, Tomorrow's World, and would collectively stay off my fucking lawn. /sigh

[Ironwood]

In fairness, that was because Johnny Ball is a GOD.

[apocrypha]

I've been saying this about Patrick Moore for years. You just haven't heard me saying it.

When I was a kid in Suffolk (east coast UK for anyone that wants to know) in the late 70's and early 80's there was an actively campaigning group called something like The Thrid Way or the Fifth Way, can't remember exactly. They went knocking on doors on Sunday afternoons, much like Jehovahs Witnesses, except they handed out race hate leaflets and were open fascists. Wherever they were particularly active there were increases in racial violence, and in Suffolk that mostly meant the incredibly small number of Chinese getting beaten up.

This group had a couple of celebrity backers who would turn up on occasion and give speeches at their meetings, as reported in local papers at the time. These were Norris McWhirter (of the Guiness Book of Records fame) and Patrick Moore.

Since then pretty much all record of this involvement by those two has disappeared. There's no mention of it on Wikipedia, there will be no mention of it in any obituaries, they've successfully removed it from the record, but I saw it happen and know lots of other people who did too. The BBC even had to issue an apology after McWhirter died for intimating that he had fascist sympathies.... when those accusations were true.

Being old doesn't give you a free pass from being a racist. There's been plenty of anti-racist, anti-fascist and anti-sexist campaigners and activists since long before anyone alive today was ever born. Being an old racist just makes you an old racist.

I have said these things about Moore when he was alive and to not say them now he's dead would be simple hypocrisy. The fact that obits of Moore talk about his UKIP and Monster Raving Loony party involvement but make no mention of his fascist leanings is either poor journalism or sanitisation or hypocrisy.

[Signe]

I guess I should have finished my list of racists before I started my list of Scientologists.  The lists just get so fucking long after a while!  I had no idea but, then, I very nearly almost never read up on people until they piss me off.

[Ironwood]

I'm going to go with 'This Fucking Place' again.

[Lantyssa]

Is that the same place as the desk of that wee blonde lass?

[Paelos]

Is that the same place as the desk of that wee blonde lass?

He wishes.

[Soln]

If someone has more facts than me, I'll look at their opinion.  I have no knowledge of him otherwise. 

[apocrypha]

I'm going to go with 'This Fucking Place' again.

Actually exactly what I was thinking.

Edit: pressed buttan too soon.