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There is the Galileo's famous Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, which unlike Mr. Silver, displays the author's loyalties more openly by naming the person advocating Geocentricism, "Simplicio".
Humour directed at the comedians in-group, is less likely to be mean-spirited, but more likely to feel tan-suity (mocking superficial and minor errors, while keeping quiet about big ones). But I admit the jibe at lockdown-philia gave me a chuckle.
In hindsight, calling the Pope a simpleton and then doubling down on that wasn’t the best career move, especially when the available evidence at the time was against Galileo.
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If one has followed Nate on Twitter, particularly this year, they would probably have noticed that Nate, after some hedging in 2021, came down pretty hard against mask mandates, school closures and various other Covid measures, earning him the ire of a lot followers and fans.
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Simplicio was meant to be a caricature of Galileo’s opponents, though.
Yes, and the fact that he named the character "Simpleton" kind of gives the game away does it not?
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