To my colleagues in the first-year engineering program — over the coming weeks, many of you will be hitting the submit button for your CODA on MyPack Portal. As you make this important decision to join the engineering discipline, I hope that you keep the following in mind as you go through the next four to seven years of your undergraduate career: Don’t become Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Thanks to a long series of sweet deals, Tyson sits comfortably eating grapes in the Ivory Tower and is the manifestation of two big problems in STEM culture: self-proclaimed expertise over every knowledge domain and a worldview dividing people into two unequal classes, the “reasonable” and the “unreasonable.”

While Tyson is an accomplished astrophysicist, this does not entitle him to an expert opinion on everything else under the sun. During his visit to NC State in 2014, Technician asked him about the tide of scientific communication. In his response, after advertising his show, he attributed America’s lack of influence in the Russian occupation of Ukraine, an incredibly complex geopolitical situation, to our nation’s scientific irrelevance.

Despite the fact that the United States overwhelmingly dominates the world in publishing scientific papers, most of his analyses oversimplify issues where he has no scholarly experience. Tyson’s star power enhances his logos, but knowledge of galactic interactions doesn’t imply knowledge of international relations.

I applaud my fellow engineering students who want to talk about history, politics and social issues. As you progress in your academic career, engaging and informing the public creates a more vibrant democracy and is personally fulfilling. I dissuade only pretentiousness, not discussion. Take the time to listen to other students who may know more about other subject areas. Learn from them, ask questions and read by yourself. Talk about what you know best, and be informed about the rest. There is plenty of room at the table for all disciplines.

While I appreciate that Neil deGrasse Tyson ideally stands for promoting better communication and greater inclusivity in science, I’d appreciate him even more if he actually did either of these things. His rhetoric and how he treats his opposition show that he’s more interested in preaching than educating. He’s a pedant, not a pedagogue.

The satisfaction of being right is more important to Tyson than cultivating a society of learning. Of course there are objective scientific facts out there, but interpreting them is an entirely subjective, human act. Scolding and insulting those who don’t believe in climate change, evolution or a round Earth helps the learning process about as much as a slap on the hand with a ruler.

This arrogance and asserting that you are the possessor of knowledge creates an off-putting environment of scientific sanctimony and two groups of people: the haves and the have-nots. Don’t be a nerd and take pride in how much you know, share it with others and treat them with decency while you do it. If the recent election showed our society anything, it’s that repeatedly calling people “ignorant, stupid and backwards” is not an effective tactic to woo them.

Only by critically dialoguing with people — coming to know their experiences and limit conditions — can we combat ignorance. If we ever hope to improve scientific literacy, our generation must take the sledgehammer to the Ivory Tower. Apparently laughing at creationists and sharing pictures from “I F—ing Love Science” on Facebook hasn’t been working.