Pity poor Albert Einstein. He is on more Facebook posters endorsing more causes and claims than he could ever have dreamed possible; sometimes he even uses modern colloquialisms in the quotes.
He's Einstein - if he said it, it must be smart.
There is just one problem, aside from the fact that he never said most of the things those glorified infographics claim he said - he was only smart about one thing. If you are taking his word about anything else, you are no different than if you take a Starbuck's barista's word on bST in milk.
And that is why if you promote some crazy story on Facebook, because you happen to want it to be true (bees, vaccines, GMOs, global warming, whatever) you are not reinforcing the perception that you are a “science lover”, it is just fandom.
Ben Thomas at Medium details examples of why that can be a bad thing - for the public, who get into their 40s not believing anything, and for scientists, who can get caught up in a wave of hype and ruin their careers.
