National Academy Staffer Dumps on Buzz Aldrin
Dwayne Day proves that he's a jerk as he goes on a tirade focused on insulting @TheRealBuzz https://t.co/t0qziF0FnJ
— NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) May 16, 2017
Keith’s note: Dwayne Day works at the National Academy of Sciences – where experts review our nation’s science and technology programs. Its a rather prestigious place. As best I can tell all Dwayne has ever done there is to sit in the corner in rooms full of smart people and write down what they say. Dwayne apparently thinks this gives him the chops to sit in judgement of someone like Buzz Aldrin. In this posting Dwayne Day goes on a lengthy tirade full of gratuitous cheap shots and insults aimed squarely at making Buzz look foolish.
We all know Buzz. We all love Buzz. And Buzz will always be Buzz. But for an employee of the National Academy of Sciences (or anyone else) to mount such a public attack against an 87 year old American legend is simply inexcusable. I wonder what the senior scientists who sit on NAS panels would think if they knew what Dwayne Day says about another senior citizen – Buzz Aldrin.
Here here! After all, the average person would probably consider Dwayne Day (and most H2M attendees, like us) foolish dreamers.
And Buzz was dreaming those dreams long before them, and dedicating his life to making those dreams come true.
Buzz can be a national hero and an American legend worthy of respect, AND ALSO be an unfocused spotlight hijacker who doesn’t realize not everything he says in every context is cogent, relevant, focused or even coherent. These perspective are not mutually exclusive.
He is the hero space cadets deserve, but not the one they need
Precisely. He can be everything we’ve grown to love since the ’60’s and still be flat out wrong. He’s human, not superhuman or infallible.
It would be unwise for anyone to underestimate Buzz Aldrin. He’s not always 100% right or on topic, still…
I find Dwayne Day’s criticism of Buzz for going public with his struggles with alcoholism and depression to be most of troubling of all. We should be encouraging people to acknowledge when they need to seek help and there should be no shame in doing so. And the fact of the matter is having people like Buzz be open about their own personal struggles does help others deal with their own personal demons.
Very disappointing article from Mr. Day.
It is simply inexcusable.
I agree and you did right by highlighting it.
Aldrin is overplayed.
Aldrin himself worked to puncture the myth of astronauts as flawless All American Heroes with his book back in 1973(!) about his struggles (as Day himself pointed out), and it’s not some despicable sacrilege to point out that he has his share of quirks and foibles.
As for Day himself, he earns his keep. I’ve always enjoyed his pieces at Space Review.
As inappropriate as Dwayne Day’s comments may be, the right course of action is not to make the same kind of attack against him. In the words of Michelle Obama, when they go low, we go high.
I agree with Mark. On a related note, I’ll add that you are gaining quite a reputation for yourself, Keith. This isn’t the first time you’ve used this platform to launch ad hominem remarks. Do you really want this to be a part of your legacy in the space industry?
My estimate, and I could be wrong, is that you want to be remembered as someone who dutifully reported space industry news and held agencies and companies accountable for their actions — a tremendously useful and impactful role, without question.
Someone needs to stand with Buzz on this. It is a pitiful attack. At least I use my real name “Regulus”. You?
Not to speak out is to condone.
I learned a long time to not let my heroes disappoint me..still, as far as I’m concerned Buzz Aldrin has seen a lot of the universe that nobody will ever see so he can say whatever the hell he wants.
I’ve been lucky to meet on of my heroes. I met Apollo 15’s Al Worden a couple of years ago and he was an awesome speaker and a straight shooter. In both his book and in person I was amazed that Worden can explain such highly technical topics in such a clear and concise way…and then act like it’s no big deal.
These guys are treasures, they won’t be around forever.
On a related note, has anyone had a chance to check out Ancient Aliens (http://www.imdb.com/title/t… on Netflix or Amazon? Buzz is a guest expert in this truly fascinating documentary.
All I was able to find was a clip of his interview on Larry King taken out of context. Do you have any more specific links?
I guess I get to be the curmudgeon here – I think Dwayne’s piece was a bit long and a bit harsh on his earlier biography but while I hate to say it, he’s got some good points about Buzz; he’s a national treasure and has totally committed to getting humanity beyond Earth, etc. But Buzz IS getting on in years, his respect for other’s time is fading and he often rambles on in a stream of consciousness. Sorry to say it but Buzz should be cutting back on his speaking engagements.
Dwayne Day crossed the line – so I did the same in response.
Two wrongs don’t make a right. Slanging matches don’t contribute anything worthwhile on either side.
Cheers
Ditto. It was unnecessary to discuss Mr. Day’s circumstances or color them with your negative perspective to make your valid point, Keith.
Whether or not the snark continues to escalate in our society is up to each one of us. Do you want it to continue to escalate?
“In every moment, in every decision, in every action, choose to be the person you should be, not the person your weaknesses would let you be.”
My site. My rules. Someone needed to call him out for is unwarranted attacks. So I did.
Of course, and I do not disagree with the objective of your ‘calling him out.’ I offered him similarly themed (to my posting above) criticism on Jeff’s site in the article’s comments thread. I just worry about domains a bit broader than nasawatch; increasing the intensity of nastiness on both sides of every discussion hasn’t helped our society much lately.
Actually that is incorrect. It’s not taking a stand and pushing back on bad behavior that results in it escalating. There is nothing as effective as a “poke in the nose” to teach someone good matters.
Sadly, its been the very lack of such corrective behavior that has created the escalation you see.
I personally liked the article of Dwayne Day and found it to be well-written and well-balanced. He reminds us that astronauts may be heroes, but they’re also human beings and have their personality flaws. We’re doing no good if we tolerate these flaws.
I’ll never forget when I had my first chance to interview a cosmonaut – it happened two years after I founded my internet portal, dedicated to covering space news in a small Easern European country. My first experience with meeting that cosmonaut was somewhat disappointing – he was reluctant to answering my questions, he frequently interrupted me and yes – I could say that he was even rude.
Dwayne is correct in pointing out that astronauts have many distinct personalities and sometimes it’s hard to get along with them. Astronauts are almost never what we expect them to be or what we want them to be. And yes – even if they’re brilliant pilots, not all of them are dedicated and passionate fans of space exploration and colonization.
Does anyone remember Felix Baumgartner? Yeh, it was that guy who jumped with a parachute from the near-space region. He’s not technically an astronaut, but he got famous because he was sent into the stratosphere with a capsule that resembles a spaceship and Red Bull promoted his feat as a “space jump”. Yes, Baumgartner inspired a lot of people. So what was one of the first things he did after the “space jump”? He said that Mars mission are a waste of money and we should solve our problems first before going to space. Bummer…
One thing we can’t deny about Buzz is that he’s a huge fan of Mars. Just Mars, it seems – he’s not interested in a lunar return and, according to Dwayne’s article, he scolded some lunar scientists. Of course Buzz will always be my hero, but I don’t think that he’s always accurate in his assessments about how we should explore space.
You are just as bad as Dwayne Day.
Maybe, according to you, I’m bad. But when I had that experience with several astronauts and cosmonauts, I was a 20-years old boy who got his childhood illusions crushed.
Sorry to hear that.
I believe Day overstepped the mark .. if he had something to say .. a tweeter comment would have been more appropriate than a diatribe on Space Review.
I tweeted.
We only have a few more years of Buzz left (at most). Enjoy
him while you can. D. Day should have saved this for a time after Buzz is gone.
Let’s do an interview with Dwayne at 87, see how that goes??
Buzz is…well…Buzz! I’m glad he’s out there garnering attention. His presence keeps Apollo 11 on people’s minds. Soon there will come a day when all our Apollo heroes will have set out to explore the Great Unknown. Their voices will be no more. Enjoy them, warts and all, while you can.
Definitely a failed effort. While I do think Buzz’s habit of rambling on slightly off putting, and is REALLY not a fan of him taking up other people’s time (especially scheduled panels), to attack someone personally like that is just poor form.
Buzz is a good advocacy of space exploration, but his rambling and sometimes in-coherent talk is really not doing his message any service. When you constantly interrupt people and ramble off message, they start to tune you out and stop listening. I think it’s fair to criticize Buzz for that. He can serve himself and his message much better with a change in tone and how he convey his message.
But Dwyane’s personal attack and calling attention to Buzz’s personal problem is completely out of bound and really makes his article seem petty and mean.
I didn’t see it as an attack on Mr. Aldrin’s past, personal problems. But Mr. Day did not write that part of the article very well. He pointed out that, at a time when people didn’t talk about that sort of thing in public, Mr. Aldrin put it into his autobiography. The article implies that this is a sign of someone who would do anything for any sort of publicity or attentinon. I think most people would be more charitable. But the attack wasn’t about personal problems, it was about how Mr. Aldrin told people about them.
If I wrote those words about you ….
I’d think they were poorly-written words, by a jerk who was over interpretating my motives. But jerks who can’t write well have said worse things about me. I’m not defending Mr. Day, or saying he wasn’t attacking Mr. Aldrin. I’m saying the attack was over motives for publicizing personal problems, not the problems themselves.
Look…Dwayne Day has written some genuinely interesting articles in the past, and I am sure that he will again in the future. This just wasn’t one of his best. Kicking people who are down is uncool, especially those who have a mean right cross:
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
Dwayne Day. That’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time. DDay used to post to the old, sci.space.* newsgroups, back when the internal was text-only and 28.8k baud modems were fast. If memory serves, he always was more than little abrasive.
I agree. Editors are suppose to be gate keepers for the publications they are responsible for.
No one is entitled to hijack other peoples’ meetings nor to be rude, period. If that’s the case then it’s a fair cop. If it’s unjustified criticism then some degree of outrage is I suppose warranted.
Never having experienced either from the gentleman in question first hand, who can say but it does appear that there is some evidence of the former.
Cheers
Why does H2M invite him EVERY YEAR? No one from that group was offended. I asked. They are thrilled to have him attend.
Which, actually, is a bad sign. It implies the organizers are more concerned with image and hero worship than innovation and finding ways to get things done.
Frankly if there were more people like Buzz, experienced and knowledgeable as well as being a tireless space advocate, we might be farther along the curve. The only other one approaching Buzz’s level of advocacy I can think of off the top of my head is Robert Zubrin and he rubs people the wrong way sometimes as well. For extra fun go to a conference and listen to both of them in the same room together talking at the same time. Buzz is a national treasure, despite getting into dotage, and one of my fondest memories is him asking me a question about a paper I presented. The guy is engaged at all levels, kind of amazing really. The negative stuff I just file in the “feet of clay” drawer and thank the stars he’s still around stirring up trouble.
I have to agree with the first few paragraphs of Mr. Day’s article, out of about twenty and assuming he has his facts right. After that, it turns into abrasive psychoanalysis of astronauts, and I could have lived with out that.
Keith, you were at the Humans to Mars conference. Is the story true? Was Mr. Aldrin given a 30 minute talk, reminded of that at the start, and then continue to speak for a full hour? If so, I think that is incredibly offensive, insulting to both the audience and the other speakers and very harmful. The audience should have walked out on him after about 40 minutes.
Mr. Day says quite a bit about the implied self-importance, but that’s not what I object to. It’s the contrapositive. Thinking your own ideas are important is fine. But going over time like that means he thinks _other_ people do _not_ have anything of value to say.
I’ve seen senior or famous people do this at many conference, and the result is harmful. The moderator inevitability has to cut off (or entirely skip) questions and discussion of other talks, sometimes even giving other speakers less time. That always seems to hit the younger and less senior speakers the hardest. Unfortunately, those are exactly the people most likely to have new, interesting and innovative ideas to share (as well as being a much more diverse group than the older generations.) Those are exactly the presentations which deserve the most time for questions and discussion.
I think hogging the microphone isn’t just rude; it actively blocks and stomps down innovation and new, creative ideas. I’m not a fan of hero worship, so I don’t see what someone did 48 years ago as an excuse. I’d rather see the younger speakers get all the time on stage, and relegate the old heros to the poster sessions.
I was there. I was not insulted. When you invite Buzz you should expect this. Indeed, that is why he gets invited – and H2M has him speak every year. More people were thrilled to be in the room than were offended. Indeed, I do not recall a single person saying anything about being offended. Again, I was there.
Since you were there, please tell us if I was wrong about my key points. Did the moderators and organizers have to limit question and discussion time to get the meeting back on schedule? Did that preferentially impact presentations by younger and less prestigious speakers? If so, then I think you and the entire audience should have been offended.
I’m also not sure if the affected speakers would have said anything about it, even if they were offended. So the fact that you didn’t hear someone complain isn’t proof that no one minded.
Yes that is Jeff’s site. He has a comments section. By all means, use it.
He is not an idiot. He’s rather smart. But his gratuitous insults of Dr. Aldrin were uncalled for.
Based on my memory of Mr. Day, from the old, internet newsgroup days, I’ll second that opinion. Smart but gratuitously offensive sounds about right.