At least he can leave this thread having learned, for the very first time, what an analogy is. Boy the regressive illiberal left is so educational. We deserve a raise.

When it comes to Harris towns, I'm more fond of the one in California. However, I haven't visited Harris, Scotland which happens to be on one of the many islands that make up . Although it's informally called Isle of Harris, it's actually the southern part of Lewis and Harris, which is a part of the Western Isles.

I don't know man. Ed's record as a character actor is pretty solid. At the same time, he hasn't played many (or any) lead roles.

Have a few alt lite Harris fanbois who also love quoting some irrelevant and hateful blogger responsible for Louder With Crowder.

Crowder does that Change My View thing which is incredibly annoying and insufferable, right?

The real take-home lesson for these guys is that they're terrible at lying. I don't know which deep subreddit came up with the strategy of impersonating liberals, but it has a consistent track record here of fooling absolutely no one. I've lost track of how many people come in here insisting they're fellow leftists but boy we really need to address the root cause of ideological Islamic jihad like Trump does.

Honestly you guys, just come in here and tell us what you really think: you're scared of Muslims and want to publicly harass them. We'll still clown on you, but at least there's that element of honesty.

was actually on my fantasy team

Bob let me pick on you for a second (no not actually but this post stuck in my mind as a prime example).


This always seems to happen, where people overlook the microcosm of the issue at hand. The two main criticisms of Harris, aside from the Murray debacle (jfc), are his views on Islam and his views on civility. His Muslim travel ban takes play out like that twitter meme:

me: Sam what do you think about the ban?
Sam: I think it is wrong on a number of levels.
me OK that's goo-
Sam: BUT...

I don't play that game of shifting blame to a distant 2nd cause (like, the 'why trump won' list will always have his voters as the clear #1 spot) but if we are talking about the big picture then people like Harris and their insidious views enter the conversation early, because there's a slew of liberals and other assorted types who pretty much stop a hair short of advocating a travel ban. To Harris' credit he's always spoken with compassion and empathy about refugees, and in terms of the travel ban that's huge, but, with that dreaded "BUT..." always lurking behind his contributions, even if they're inadvertent, are totally topical.

Essentially, this,

is an apt and logical continuation.

The same applies even more to the oh-muh-civility topic which aofrantic nicely lays out:

To put a fine point on it, Fly yelling at Clovis about Sam Harris and "derailing" the other thread is what actually talking about the big issues looks like in any sort of practical, non-angels-dancing-on-the-head-of-a-pin setting. The one thing the election should've taught people is the mistake of treating all this like a removed abstraction and not the culmination of a zillion little events and interactions.

Time to add Malcolm Gladwell to your list of irredeemable racists and fake intellectuals. He had both Petersen and Harris on his podcast this week.

If there's a point here, maybe it's that we shouldn't focus so much on individual actors like Gladwell and instead realize that the entire cottage industry of milquetoast NPR nerds credulously examining every awful right wing talking point is at best ineffectual and at worst is hugely counterproductive.

Or maybe it's the guilt by association rubric permeating this thread is morally reprehensible and intellectually lazy.

P.S the topic on the podcast had nothing to do with right wing talking points, but we know itt the actual substance of the discussion is irrelevant compared to who is having it.

I honestly had no idea there were any gladwell fans/defenders out there

What is the topic?

Basically making the best probabilities-based decision even it makes you look bad.

Lol, should've had sklansky on.

there you go again with this complete inability to communicate when rustled

Without having followed him too much i have to say that Sam harris is one of the better ones. Mostly left wing positions but with enough mental clarity to distill out (some) of the nonsense bs.

Never heard of Malcom Gladwell, he kinda sounds like a dip****.

You should be able to make up your mind in the 1st 2 minutes.

Most people capitalize and use a period to end a sentence. Pot meet kettle.

You are an intellectual joke. It's not some brilliant rhetorical (you can look that word up) zinger to call everyone "rustled" who disagrees with you. You and fly seem to think it's some Socratic slam dunk that renders all debate futile.

and yet only one of us has a history on this forum of shilling for racists and ragequitting discussions when my lack of understanding is exposed

i always knew you didn't really have me on ignore

I usually assume it's because I'm not American so it's nice to see the "OMG now they're turning on *guy I've never heard of*" isn't just me.

Good to see you were being sarcastic before. Had me for moment there.

I've avoided reading his books but not having heard of him is something to aspire to.

OK e e cummings. You can look up that reference too.

He can hold your interest for a good half-chapter before you realize he doesn't have anything interesting to say and is just dragging out one banal observation that he's trying to pass off as profound.

Gladwell is absolutely a fake intellectual* but like, you guys are so used to the Intellectual Dark Web "discourse" of constant shameless lying that you sometimes try to bring that game out to the real world.

Having Murray on the podcast is not why people call Harris racist. You know that, but you feel clever to strawman that it is. Nobody is doing guilt by association, they are doing guilt by confession.

I provided a quote, at length, directly addressing the substance. After you wished you could bet on whether I hadn't listened, remember? A bet you lost. I know what the **** I'm talking about. It's a rare superpower that I share with like 80% of the population. You guys are special because you don't have it.


*Note that again the brave contrarian open minded confront all takes with reason and justice side here is completely unaware that Gladwell isn't universally well regarded. Entirely inside a bubble, man.