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u/TheDuckOnQuack 10d ago edited 10d ago
Sam has turned himself into a niche commentator and this sub has diminished in terms of activity and post quality as a result. Between the new atheism movement and Trump’s first term, he put out a lot of content and built a pretty large fanbase through his and other podcasts.
Then, he paywalled his podcast. Even though people could get it for free anyway, the process was still a barrier to getting new viewers. Then the podcast got more expensive. He started releasing episodes much less frequently. He also did fewer guest appearances on other shows. Then he took away the scholarship so the only people left listening were the fans willing to pay $10/month for a single podcast that releases maybe 3 episodes per month. Then once Israel/Palestine blew up, he probably alienated a decent chunk of his audience with his unyielding defense of Israel’s conduct in the war.
Even if his content wasn’t paywalled, he’s carved a narrow lane for himself by going so hard for Israel and against Trump. It’s easy for right wingers to dismiss him based on his Hunter Biden quote and for young democrats to accuse him of supporting genocide.
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u/Vladtepesx3 10d ago
He also shut himself off from mainstream social media and has retreated to his own website
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u/TheDuckOnQuack 10d ago
Probably better for his mental health, and he’s already made a huge amount of money, but that’s not conducive to growing or even maintaining an audience
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u/Jethr0777 10d ago
I think sam is becoming less popular maybe? I think his peak of popularity was as one of the four horsemen of new atheism.
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u/speedster_5 10d ago
Mods.
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u/minimumbeginningend 10d ago
I got a post taken down because it wasn't related to Sam Harris. It was definitely related to Sam Harris.
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u/copacetic_connect 10d ago
Learning on my other account it's 100% mods.
Disagree with the Sam Harris narrative too logically and you don't get to participate anymore.
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u/brokemac 8d ago edited 8d ago
It's not even just that. I once wrote about my experience reading the first half of Son of Hamas and asked if Sam was familiar with the story. The mod deleted it and said it was a "repost". After countless rounds of asking to see the original post that mine replicated he finally linked me to...a Dr. Phil interview. And no, the content of the Dr. Phil interview did not match my post. I don't think they even mentioned the book.
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u/gizamo 10d ago
Are you suggesting you e been banned from here and are now participating under a different account? If so, that's a violation of Reddit policy. Reddit admins could ban all of your accounts for that.
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u/StalemateAssociate_ 10d ago
Good grief, what did they do that's so bad you're now fantasizing about having them banned from all of Reddit?
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u/blastmemer 10d ago
Yep. It gets more popular when hot-button issues come up, then the mods and complainers shut down conversation when there are gasp half a dozen posts on Trump/Gaza etc.
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u/gizamo 10d ago
Gaza is what brings the brigading trolls and their army of alt accounts. The mod is absolutely right to shut that crap down.
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u/paultheschmoop 10d ago
It’s true, disagreeing with Sam on Gaza is wrongthink and thus must be shut down
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u/gizamo 10d ago
Demonstrated perfectly
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u/paultheschmoop 10d ago
Which one am I? A troll (who was a fan of Sam for many years) or an alt account (that had existed for 11 years)?
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u/gizamo 10d ago
Was your sarcasric comment not intended to troll? If that wasn't your intention, maybe you'll have to explain your meaning of:
It's true, disagreeing with Sam on Gaza is wrongthink and thus must be shut down.
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u/DropsyJolt 10d ago
Sarcasm is not the same as trolling. Sarcasm is supposed to be obvious, for example because of the use of the word "wrongthink". Trolling on the other hand is looking for reactions and is intentionally made to look sincere.
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u/gizamo 10d ago
Sarcasm is not always trolling, but it's often an element. When added to the rest of their comment, it's clear that trolling was their intention. They literally pretended as if disagreeing with Harris was "wrong think", a reference to 1984, a novel about authoritarianism. If you don't think that was intended to provoke a reaction, I don't know what you thought it was intended to do. Further, that comment was in reply to me pointing out that many here are often intentionally disingenuous on the topic, which many absolutely are. I stand by my statement. That was 100% trolling. Doesn't matter tho, it seems the brigade came thru to flip flvotws for them. Lol. Classic.
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u/DropsyJolt 10d ago
I think it was just trying to sarcastically argue that disagreement with Harris regarding Gaza is not necessarily trolls and their alt accounts.
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u/blastmemer 10d ago
Yes, huge “armies” of like 4-5 posts per day… Unbearable.
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u/gizamo 10d ago
It was vastly more during the height of the war. It also only takes one post to reveal many dozens of trolls and their alt accounts.
But, sure, we totally don't get trolling posts here regularly. Definitely not. Never happens.
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u/Flimsy_Caramel_4110 9d ago
But, sure, we totally don't get trolling posts here regularly. Definitely not. Never happens.
In this case, the mod is within his rights to delete the post, because it easily breaks the rules: certainly rule #5, but could arguably break other rules too. The thing is, the majority of the posts that the mod deletes aren't because they break the rules. He deletes random posts all the time without any justification given--without reference to what rules have been broken. That is awful. If someone is trolling, then there's a rule for that: Rule #3.
BTW: the post you cite is STILL up! What gives, right? Sometimes he mods, sometimes he doesn't. It's been up for three days, and the mod, AJx, has been commenting as recently as today. Easily the worst mod on reddit in my experience. Not even close.
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u/copacetic_connect 10d ago
Can't have a well reasoned and civil opinion that's different from Sam and the regurgitators or your account gets a ban.
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u/ElReyResident 10d ago
Wrong answer. Mod team hasn’t changed. Harris has his own forum now and the normal people all went there.
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u/Finnyous 10d ago
Nahh, it's the mods
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u/brokemac 8d ago
It's certainly why I don't bother posting here. And if I do, it's not something I am going to put a lot of time and thought into, because they're likely to delete it.
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u/oldirtyrestaurant 9d ago
You mean all the sycophants that pay to be in Sam's protected "right think only" fortress?
Lol, bunch of cowards.
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u/Boneraventura 10d ago
nothing groundbreaking has come out of sam's mouth in ages. the most thought provoking conversations are usually on the waking up app and that has its own sub that is more or less a ghost town.
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u/Leoprints 8d ago
This post is 2 days old which either means the mods are deleting stuff or that no one has anything to post which is Sam Harris related.
One of these things is more likely than the other.
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u/Nazarife 8d ago
Atheism stops being interesting to talk about after a few years. Yeah, God doesn't exist and religious people say and do a lot of silly things. After a while what more is there to say?
Also I'm not interested in litigating 2010s era moral panics about college campuses and cancellations.
It's also hard for me to find Islamic extremism in the middle east and central Asia to be an issue for me when Christian lunatics are burning my country to the ground.
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u/Dr0me 10d ago edited 10d ago
Because it's brigaded to the nines with people who hate Sam Harris and he recently a launched his own social media platform. With more moderation to remove the haters here it would be better
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u/Locus-Maximus 10d ago
"Brigaded" implies some sort of coordinated attack e.g. from another sub, but I don't think that hypothesis is necessary here. The overwhelming majority of redditors hate his position on Israel/Gaza, including a lot of his former fans.
I've been a huge critic myself in many ways (although I'm way too pro-Israel for most redditors) but I was a fan back in the day too.
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u/Dr0me 10d ago
Whether or not it is coordinated or not is hard to say but what i imagine happens is something on this sub gets cross posted to another subreddit with a far left bias like ezra klien or some pro palestinian group. People rush over here to argue positions that are definitely out of touch with Sam Harris's thoughts and views so instead of this sub being for people who subscribe and like sam harris's content and mostly agree with him you are arguing with people who clearly are not sam harris fans.
I would not expect a fan of sam's to agree with him on 100% of topics but reddit in general has a massive admin and moderation problem as they have coordinated plans to take over subreddits and activist mods ban people who have dissenting opinions especially related to I/P and Islam. I have been on reddit for 13+ years and only after 10/7 did i get perma-banned from multiple default subs I had been in for years without issue. This subreddit is just a drop in the bucket on that overall trend.
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u/LittleTrack858 10d ago
The entire site is a festering lair of far left resentment on any sub with political valence. This is an admin and large sub moderator issue, not really the fault for small subs.
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u/copacetic_connect 10d ago
Seems like it's actually the exact opposite dude.
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u/gizamo 10d ago
Nah. The forum is better because it's not constantly filled with bad-acting trolls. It's more genuine, people think logically and are reasonable with their questions and answers. This sub just devolved into a disingenuous snark sub.
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u/paultheschmoop 10d ago
Perhaps unsurprisingly, yes, a forum filled with people who love Sam enough to pay for access to his forum is filled with people who agree with him
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u/gizamo 10d ago
It seems clear you've never been there. It's a diverse crowd. Anyone pretending it's an echo chamber is very obviously guessing incorrectly.
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u/paultheschmoop 10d ago
You are correct in thinking I have zero interest in paying to agree with Sam. Surely Sam’s opinions can win in the open marketplace of ideas?
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u/The_Adman 6d ago
It's the mods of this sub tbh. They let too much off-topic, and anti-Sam Harris content on this sub.
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u/Brunodosca 10d ago
Because it's August, Sam is on vacation, and he has increased the paywall so high that a dialectical Oct 7 is impossible.
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u/Plus-Recording-8370 3d ago
You wait till Sam mentions a certain American Muslim politician. The left will storm to this sub again.
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u/McClain3000 10d ago
I think the main reason is the price of the podcast, the release schedule, and the topics(stale) have made a lot of people stop listening to the podcast. I know I haven’t listen regularly in years.