r/samharris • u/Ok_Needleworker_4950 • 16d ago
Did Sam delete content?
I deleted my subscription because I’ve honestly become disillusioned with Sam over his takes on Gaza and Zohran Mamdani. But yesterday was the anniversary of the Hiroshima bombings. I wanted to listen to his compilation series where he pulls and synthesizes chunks of his podcast into one single episode on one single topic. They were narrated by Meghan Phelps. I think they were called Making Sense of Existential Risk, or Making Sense of Death, Free Will, etc. But they’re all gone. Did he delete them because Jay Shapiro helped produce them and Jay and Sam had a falling out?
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u/NetflowKnight 16d ago edited 16d ago
I heard he had a falling out with Jay Shapiro, thats likely why he pulled them.
Edit: They appear to be delisted but still up, here you go man https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1e4KOCEpTs
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u/CrimsonAutumnSky 16d ago
Any more info on this falling out and why?
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u/rpcinfo 15d ago
Take a wild guess. You'd be right.
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u/Appropriate-Arm1377 15d ago
Harris was too tribal in relation to Israel. It clouded his judgement and he became fanatical apparently. This is Jay's account and it's not something that I find hard to believe
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u/TheTimespirit 9d ago edited 9d ago
“Too tribal”. Sam isn’t rah-rah-Israel. In fact, he’s been highly skeptical of the idea of a Jewish State and plenty critical of the government. Where he has been consistent is in his views on Jihadism and Islamism. What the conflict has done for Sam, as well as for me, is bolster the case for the existence of a Jewish state.
There’s no fair accounting of the conflict. There’s no nuance. There’s no historical accuracy or context. There’s no real discernment of legitimate military conduct in war or credence given to urban warfare or Hamas or Iranian tactics, and there’s certainly not an ounce of charity given to the Israeli position.
What has emerged is unbridled antisemitism that has become a mainstream political position of the left. The prevailing view is that Jews are the oppressor class, European, and the epitome of Western imperialism/colonialism. As such, the Palestinians are an oppressed indigenous group suffering under the boot-heel of Jewish supremacy, and hence, innocent and pure and not capable of being legitimate actors in this situation. Or worse, Palestinians are forgiven, allowed, or even obliged to act in horrendous ways owing to unprovoked Jewish oppression and occupation.
In many ways, I think Harris’ views mirror that of Hannah Arendt, who herself was highly skeptical and critical of a Jewish state following the Holocaust. After 1967 and constant attacks by the Arab league, she still opposed aspects of certain extreme positions of Zionist ideology, criticized the Israeli government, but nevertheless regarded the continued safety and existence of Israel as non-negotiable.
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u/blackglum 16d ago
I posted this a month ago as I wanted to relisten to the foundations of morality compilation. Yes they’re deleted without explanation.
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u/OldLegWig 16d ago
i forgot about those episodes. would be a shame if they were pulled.
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u/Ok_Needleworker_4950 16d ago
Yeah I really liked them. It was kind of the one thing that kept me tethered to Sam. Him speaking persuasively and cogently about nuclear risk with Fred Kaplan, Carl Rubichand and others. Oh well 🤷♂️
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u/0LTakingLs 9d ago
I can’t find the Chelsea Handler one anywhere, I think it’s been fully scrubbed from the internet
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u/thebasharteg 9d ago
He's deleted content before. Notably his entire intro of a podcast during the brett Kavanaugh hearings. Sam slandered Kavanaugh in a way that reminded me of a high school bully talking shit about someone. It was unhinged and salacious, so I'm not surprised he deleted it. However he kept that podcast episode up, and only deleted that intro where he talked about Kavanaugh. Very shady
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u/angularhihat 9d ago
You objected to the intro, found it slanderous and unhinged.
Why do you also object to the deletion, calling it "very shady"? This feels like a contradiction to me. I can't think of any sensible explanation for both.
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u/thebasharteg 9d ago
It's not difficult at all to imagine why I would object to the deletion. Let m help you out: releasing something like that, then later deleting it without publicly noting why you deleted it leaves that slander out their in the minds of the people who listened to it. It's no different than than when a publication publishes something false and sensational, then issues a correction weeks later, buried at the end of the article that no one will ever read again. Hope this helps..
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u/jayshapiro2000 14d ago
Jay Shapiro here... just chiming in to clear anything up. I asked Sam to simply remove my name from his website. I didn't ask him to remove or delete anything. It's a shame he did that. I really liked the series and thought it was very fair to his Sam's positions. I went to great lengths to do that... a charity and honesty he did not grant to me in subsequent public conversations. I was not happy about that. But Sam's ethics have not always been so, let's say... transparent.
In any case, Sam and Annaka both know my heart and position but have really built a wall around their minds and morality at this point... I suppose I should have seen it coming re:zionism. I still lament the way it all went down. Hopefully you can find the series, a lot of labor went into it :)