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The disingenuous intellectual arguments from the left start with bad faith arguments. On the left, they will slime you with the worst conceivable interpretation of a view you hold, and then hold you to that in order to make you look like a fascist maniac. And then they will attempt to force you to prove you aren't a fascist maniac, forever. Some are genuinely confused, but more often than not they are sinister in their dishonesty.
-Sam Harris
I don't necessarily disagree with some of his critiques of Trump.
I tune out when some of his more statist / collectivist tendencies come out.
Just a general comment: When someone who you otherwise find to be an intelligent, thoughtful person says something you disagree with, I would like to suggest that the best reaction is not to tune out, but to tune in more closely. Pay extra-close attention to what they are actually saying (as opposed to what other people say they are saying) and look for the most powerful arguments for and against their position. And then look to see if they have already responded to these criticism. (If they are, indeed, well-educated on an issue, they probably have already responded to the criticisms that you find most powerful.)
General rule: Always look for the best arguments against your own views. And when you find someone who you basically respect who holds a view that is opposite of your own, this is an excellent opportunity to test your own insights.
(BTW: Sorry if I am blowing your minor comment way out of proportion. I don't know you and, for all I know, you don't really "tune out" opposing viewpoints, but I'm pretty sure that a lot of people do literally do this, and I needed to rant a bit about how unfortunate this is.)
As for Sam's comments on Islam, I think he has some very good points. I am generally liberal and I support diversity, etc., but I hate when PC mentality leads people to tune out uncomfortable aspects of reality. Ben Affleck (see the video in post #11) is right to insist that not every Muslim wants to oppress women or gays, but Sam does not disagree with him on this, and Sam is correct to point out that an astoundingly high percentage do encourage oppression, and no one should be demonized for simply pointing out empirically well-confirmed facts of reality.
Modern leftism is religion complete with it's own dogma and orthodoxy that must be adhered to no matter what. And, don't you dare challenge that orthodoxy or you'll be accused of heresy and excommunicated at once. In leftism, free thought is not a virtue, and instead group think is encouraged.
Modern leftism is religion complete with it's own dogma and orthodoxy that must be adhered to no matter what. And, don't you dare challenge that orthodoxy or you'll be accused of heresy and excommunicated at once. In leftism, free thought is not a virtue, and instead group think is encouraged.
You can say the exact same thing about Modern conservatism.
In fact -- I feel like that is what has happened to the left over years -- they are evolving to similar tactics of the conservatives -- extreme conservatives.
When I moved here in 1997 I moved to Georgia. Neil Bortz, Glen Beck, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh were soaring. Fox News just beginning to get its grasp. And what the were preaching were the conservative religion to their beloved followers. There was a radio show that preached to its followers for hours in a day...then Fox News came along and it continued on TV.
I've seen a change in CNN and their program format. They have adopted the formula used by these conservative media outlets (with great success). So now we have both sides spouting their religion and like most religions -- they have blind followers who just spout party lines.
I would say that the comment above falls in the general category of: The most radically uninteresting type of comment that anyone can ever make. You could spruce this up, just a bit, by listing a few specific examples of the uninteresting things Sam has said. It would be even more interesting if you could say, for each example, why his comments are so uninteresting.
For example:
"Many of my fellow atheists consider all talk of 'spirituality' or 'mysticism' to be synonymous with mental illness, conscious fraud, or self-deception. I have argued elsewhere that this is a problem - because millions of people have had experiences for which 'spiritual' and 'mystical' seem the only terms available." - Sam Harris
Is this boring because it is trivially true? Or is it boring because it is so absurdly false that it is not even worthy of consideration? Or is it just gibberish? Is it simply a boring topic?
Another example:
"Where are the Tibetan suicide bombers?" – Sam Harris
And another:
"It’s simply untrue that religion provides the only framework for a universal morality." – Sam Harris
And another:
"The problem with faith, is that it really is a conversation stopper. Faith is a declaration of immunity to the powers of conversation. It is a reason, why you do not have to give reasons, for what you believe." – Sam Harris
It would be interesting if you could say something about why these statements are so uninteresting.
I would say that the comment above falls in the general category of: The most radically uninteresting type of comment that anyone can ever make. You could spruce this up, just a bit, by listing a few specific examples of the uninteresting things Sam has said. It would be even more interesting if you could say, for each example, why his comments are so uninteresting.
For example: "Many of my fellow atheists consider all talk of 'spirituality' or 'mysticism' to be synonymous with mental illness, conscious fraud, or self-deception. I have argued elsewhere that this is a problem - because millions of people have had experiences for which 'spiritual' and 'mystical' seem the only terms available." - Sam Harris
Is this boring because it is trivially true? Or is it boring because it is so absurdly false that it is not even worthy of consideration? Or is it just gibberish? Is it simply a boring topic?
Another example: "Where are the Tibetan suicide bombers?" – Sam Harris
And another: "It’s simply untrue that religion provides the only framework for a universal morality." – Sam Harris
And another: "The problem with faith, is that it really is a conversation stopper. Faith is a declaration of immunity to the powers of conversation. It is a reason, why you do not have to give reasons, for what you believe." – Sam Harris
It would be interesting if you could say something about why these statements are so uninteresting.
Sam Harris is presented as a great thinker within the online atheist community, but this is not reflective of his standing within academia, among people who actually understand knowledge theory, logic, ontology, ethics, axiology and so on.
The statement in blue is what is known as the science stopper argument in knowledge theory, typically given in defense of some type of epistemological naturalism. It's a simplistic argument, now generally recognized to be fallacious.
The statement in purple is a defense of his book, "The Moral Landscape", which he propounded to great fanfare as ground-breaking and original. What it actually did was reinvent utilitarianism, and thus near-universally panned by academics.
The quotes in green don't really impress as examples of profound insight. At best, I think grade school-level commentary.
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