I don't know what's worse, Stephen Hawking declaiming on American politics or Stephen Hawking thinking that anyone cares what he thinks about American politics. Lawyers speak of A inciting or soliciting B to commit a crime. Hawkins is inciting or soliciting people to commit a fallacy, to wit:
- Stephen Hawking is an expert.
- Stephen Hawking says that Donald Trump is a demagogue; therefore,
- Donald Trump is a demagogue.
The problem, as anyone with any sense knows, but which intellectuals in their arrogance are prone to ignore, is that expertise doesn't transfer from one field to another. It's actually worse than that for Hawking: competence doesn't transfer, either. It's entirely possible that he is expert in astrophysics but incompetent in American politics (or politics generally). Imagine the howls of laughter if Donald Trump declaimed on astrophysics. Why are people (besides me) not laughing about Stephen Hawking's declamation on American politics? But I return to my earlier point: What boggles the mind is that Hawking thinks that his moral or political views, or his personal preferences, matter to anyone. The man desperately needs a Critical Thinking course.
