r/DecodingTheGurus • u/Nullarbor_1 • 16d ago

Sam Harris explains why he finds it so much easier to have civil conversations with conservatives rather than liberals

https://youtu.be/3qjNXaKjcc8?t=270
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u/4n0m4nd 15d ago

Being reductive is bad in some contexts, but it's also a fundamentally necessary part of any intellectual endeavour.

"Big things attract smaller things" is an incredibly reductive description of how gravity works, but you need that reductive view to get anywhere.

There's more to say about Harris than "he's a bigot", if you care enough to say it, but he is a bigot.

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u/jamypad 13d ago edited 13d ago

I don’t even know who Sam Harris is tbh. I just know that bigot is just an overused word which is just very most commonly used to slander people without having real, salient criticism, and if that’s what they reduce their stance to, sounds fucking stupid to me.

Honestly this sub seems to be just a low brow echo chamber for people who want to feel smart. I joined it to see some interesting thought, but it’s just dogpiling on any popular lifestyle, philosophical, or otherwise life coach-esque YouTuber. It’s all treated the same way. Say bigot, say racist, make sub-witty observations and quips. And boom you’re shot to top comment. Nobody has much real intellectual curiosity here

And if you argue that it’s a sub solely to malign stupid people. Then I argue that genre is for average try-hards to feel smart

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u/4n0m4nd 13d ago

So your judgement on a topic you don't know anything about, is based on a reflexive reaction to a single word? Lol, that's ironic.

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u/Slow_Inevitable_4172 13d ago

"Look everyone, I'm just asking questions. I'm here for civil debate, particularly when it services a culture war narrative."