I've never quite understood why some people (often on the left and right) have such a hate on for Sam Harris. He's a perfectly reasonable and rational centrist who's willing to have difficult conversations on just about any topic, and is willing to change his mind if presented with a compelling argument. I don't agree with some of his ta…
I've never quite understood why some people (often on the left and right) have such a hate on for Sam Harris. He's a perfectly reasonable and rational centrist who's willing to have difficult conversations on just about any topic, and is willing to change his mind if presented with a compelling argument. I don't agree with some of his takes, but I don't see what makes him insufferable. Even the "Intellectual Dark Web" thing is something he quickly tried to distance himself from, and he wasn't shy calling out Peterson for basically spouting a bunch of psycho-babble nonsense when Peterson came on his podcast. Same thing with Bret Weinstein: they were friends until Weinstein lost his mind about vaccines, and Harris has called him out as well.
edit: I should have mentioned, Harris has been far too gentle with Rogan as well for my liking.
I don't hate Sam Harris. As I wrote in a previous dispatch, I absolutely identified with the rational atheist movement. I always found him to be a blowhard compared to, say, Dawkins.
I didn't mean to heap too much scorn on him. I just think he's tolerated being in a movement of people who have an open hostility to science, and who often trade in some pretty outlandish bullshit.
And going through his podcast guest list all I see are well respected scientists, academics, authors, politicians/think-tankers etc. with the occasional more controversial guest so I'm not sure why you'd think he's in a movement of anti-science people. That's very much not the case.
In any case, thanks for your work here and elsewhere, I've long enjoyed your journalism!
I've never quite understood why some people (often on the left and right) have such a hate on for Sam Harris. He's a perfectly reasonable and rational centrist who's willing to have difficult conversations on just about any topic, and is willing to change his mind if presented with a compelling argument. I don't agree with some of his takes, but I don't see what makes him insufferable. Even the "Intellectual Dark Web" thing is something he quickly tried to distance himself from, and he wasn't shy calling out Peterson for basically spouting a bunch of psycho-babble nonsense when Peterson came on his podcast. Same thing with Bret Weinstein: they were friends until Weinstein lost his mind about vaccines, and Harris has called him out as well.
edit: I should have mentioned, Harris has been far too gentle with Rogan as well for my liking.
I don't hate Sam Harris. As I wrote in a previous dispatch, I absolutely identified with the rational atheist movement. I always found him to be a blowhard compared to, say, Dawkins.
I didn't mean to heap too much scorn on him. I just think he's tolerated being in a movement of people who have an open hostility to science, and who often trade in some pretty outlandish bullshit.
What movement and people, though? As I said, he's pretty emphatically distanced himself from the "dark web" moniker that was coined by Bari Weiss (who he's also criticized): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_dark_web#cite_note-28
And going through his podcast guest list all I see are well respected scientists, academics, authors, politicians/think-tankers etc. with the occasional more controversial guest so I'm not sure why you'd think he's in a movement of anti-science people. That's very much not the case.
In any case, thanks for your work here and elsewhere, I've long enjoyed your journalism!
Honestly, fair! I confess to not keeping up with his career that closely.