re: The George Floyd video, objectively, from NeverTrumper Sam Harris

Harris is evidence of just how negative the label of atheist is in our society. If he had just an indifferent, vaguely deistic take he woukd be nearly universally regarded as a giant of intellectual and political discourse because the dude is spot fricking on 90% of the time and calls out everyone.

But because he’s an outspoken atheist, he’s a niche Hitchens-lite author/intellectual who is either unknown or immediately dismissed by a majority of the population.

It’s a sad indictment of how our society judges the merit of ideas.

I wish Hitchens were still alive just too see how his manner of blunt, brutally honest discourse would be received in the current political climate. He gave zero fricks about getting up in front of a room full of Muslims in a Muslim ruled country and telling them their theology was evil. He would absolutely destroy the snowflake “IM OFFENDED” mindset.

I’d pay good money to see one of these frickers try and call him a racist to his face for speaking truth

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if it was being taught,

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then that would mean the police were following proper protocol,

which could lead to them being exonerated

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then that would mean the police were following proper protocol,

which could lead to them being exonerated

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Good point.

No intent to kill = no Murder 2.

And if they were trained to do that it's a lot harder to argue gross negligence.

And I guarantee XiNN and MSNPC won't warn the general public in advance or lay out those facts.

They already bullied the witness who said Chauvin and Floyd were beefing and got him to recant. Which would have boosted the case for Murder 2, but undermined the ability to use the case to stoke division.

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Harris is evidence of just how negative the label of atheist is in our society. If he had just an indifferent, vaguely deistic take he woukd be nearly universally regarded as a giant of intellectual and political discourse because the dude is spot fricking on 90% of the time and calls out everyone.

But because he’s an outspoken atheist, he’s a niche Hitchens-lite author/intellectual who is either unknown or immediately dismissed by a majority of the population.

It’s a sad indictment of how our society judges the merit of ideas.

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There’s a lot of truth in this statement, but I do have one bone to pick. Disclaimer, I’m a conservative Catholic, so I disagree with Harris on many political and most religious issues. But I still listen to him because he’s an intellectual giant, incredibly articulate, rational on most issues, and comes at things from an angle that the average person wouldn’t even think to consider.

But here’s the bone: he’s much less reasonable on religious issues than he is on political or cultural issues. He doesn’t go full “belief in God is just as rational as belief in the Easter Bunny” mode as some of the more annoying atheists do, but he struggles critiquing Christianity without overly appealing to the Old Testament (perhaps because he’s Jewish?) and has a tendency to jump down rabbit holes that are wholly unnecessary. Although he does it so fashionably I still can’t help but listen to what he has to say even if the topic is religious in nature I’m a big fan of his.

You're my spirit animal.

Just wrapped it up. That could be the most important podcast I’ve ever heard. If America falls and we are Weimar Germany, future historians will take note of that podcast as well as Chapelle’s improvised standup. Sam Harris should word for word testify before Congress with this message.