You should be smart enough to know that “Shut up!” is not a valid argument.

After you have heard the same politically motivated talking point the thousanth time, you begin to lose your enthusiasm for patiently explaining the facts as part of your public education mission.

Said mission being very real and very important, but some groups out make themselves deliberately resistant to instruction.

Mr Backhoe represents not the public per se but the people who have their own unscientific view of science, though in his case harmlessly so. Your accusation that I have disdain for the working class is laughable, and your suggestion that I somehow should not show affinity with some group of people that you determine are not paying the bills for other stuff humanity does, and your implication that I should feel more simpatico with my own people instead of those “African villagers” borders on … no, I won’t say it. You know.

I have a policy of never refusing an opportunity to talk to anyone about what I do. Public outreach ought to be part of every scientist’s job. You’ve made it clear on many occasions that you’re not willing to treat the backhoe-operating demographic of the American population with anything like the same tolerance or respect with which you would treat African villagers who possess even less scientific knowledge and have less in common with you. The thing you don’t seem to get is that very frequently, the former group PAYS THE BILLS.