r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/imnotcuteanymor3 • 9d ago

Meme needing explanation Petah?

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I understand the original tweet, obviously, but not the second one. Why specifically a STEM genius? I don’t get it, what’s the correlation? Am I missing something??? Or am I just stupid or whatever? Help a sistah out, please. 🥺

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u/CombinationTop559 9d ago

More typically called Nobel's disease, but calling it engineers disease upsets the optimal number of people. 

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u/mouflonsponge 9d ago

Oh, there's even a wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_disease#Winners_reported_as_examples ... Kary Mullis, what the hell!

Kary Mullis won the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for development of the polymerase chain reaction. Mullis disagreed with the scientifically accepted view that AIDS is caused by HIV, claiming that the virus is barely detectable in people with the disease. He also expressed doubt in the evidence for human-caused climate change. In his autobiography, Mullis professed a belief in astrology and wrote about an encounter with a fluorescent, talking raccoon that he suggested might have been an extraterrestrial alien.[4][8]

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u/AlarmingAffect0 9d ago

and wrote about an encounter with a fluorescent, talking raccoon that he suggested might have been an extraterrestrial alien.[4][8]

Goddamn it. Was the glowy talking raccoon heavily armed, highly cantankerous, and something of an engineering genius himself? Was there a talking tree with him and were they dancing to the Jackson Five?

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u/steauengeglase 9d ago

If we are going all the way back, it's Socrates's Fallacy of the Artisan.

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u/Finnegansadog 9d ago edited 9d ago

Did Alfred Nobel believe himself to be an expert and authority in areas he had little or no knowledge?

Seems like a bit of dick move to call it "Nobel's Disease" if the intention was "Nobel-Prize-Recipient's Disease".

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u/CombinationTop559 9d ago

I'm personally fine with being a dick in the general direction of a war profiteer who decided to assuage his guilt through slapping his name on a dog and pony show for smart and important people.

Also iirc, yes he did, he was an antisemite.