Well, you’re limiting your context to academic debate.
In the greater context, away from the ivory towers of academic truth-seeking, which is an endeavor I hope never ends… quoting out of context is common and powerful.
This one is even worse because the words come out of his mouth and nothing in the intonation indicates anything but that he is speaking honestly.
Think like a journalist putting together a story or an activist working for a cause. His out-of-context quote could easily fit in the middle of a paragraph,
*”As we struggle to comprehend our place on this Planet, we must remember what the great Science Educator Bill Nye once said: *
“We now know the Universe is essentially a Force, sending Cosmic Guidance.” (May 1, 2015)
You may not take this aspect of society seriously, but I do. It’s very important for educators to take care. It may be impossible to prevent entirely, but like “Crack Babies” [whose existence was debunked after a follow up study was done a year later], a bad idea can continue for decades to come.
People still talk about Crack Babies as if it’s a thing. It’s not and it never was. In short, how we engage with media, matters. All people get are snippets and soundbites and even if you may not consider the “opinion of the masses” to be important, consider this:
It is the ‘masses’ that elect people into power. The people in power guide funding for Science programs. I may be over-exaggerating but it’s not unimportant.
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