Has anyone but me noticed the pattern of, ahem...certain intellectuals who are more often than not extraordinarily rational and high achieving in their fields, become terrifyingly irrational, irate, and violent when the subject matter comes to Trump? What is it about Trump that triggers them into a rage so much? It simply cannot be explained rationally and so I am genuinely asking, emotionally, what is it? They seem to see Hitler around every corner. When I look at Trump I see a carnival barker/entertainer/politician who is successful because he speaks truthfully 20% of the time where as the politico's favored by those same...intellectuals...speak truthfully about 2% of the time. The common man just notices the order of magnitude improvement and is drawn to that. These intellectuals are living in another world, altogether, quite obviously.
The common man also notices Trump's ACTIONS and compares them to the actions of the Deep State and, when they're in power, the current Democrats. The common man for certain notices how the country improved under Trump and has deteriorated under Biden. I personally also notice Trump's demeanor and evident compassion when dealing with ordinary people as opposed to what I see when most of the Powerful interact with the non-Powerful, although to be fair Trump (and Melania) might just be good actors. And I notice how the most corrupt and (and worse than "corrupt", as is becoming more evident) among those in Power are the most vocal and irrational in their hatred of Mr. Trump.
Jessica: I agree. We've seen before that Sam Harris has many scary ideas. For example, "some propositions are so dangerous that it may even be ethical to kill people for believing them."
I lost hope for Sam Harris after watching how he treated Bret Weinstein on Covid-19 issues.
Sam Harris is a leader in making mindfulness accessible to people, presumably to make a better world.
The guy has been on three-month silent retreats. His total time doing silent meditations spans YEARS. He knows how to observe emotions without embodying them and acting rashly.
And what does he have to show for it? This interview. It's a shame. For what? So he can be invited to the right cocktail parties?
It is disturbing, as so many things are these days. I find words spoken off the cuff are already there spinning about the brain, Freudian slips? , but not Freudian when spoken twice...
I loved this post. When I heard that clip, all I could think about was a bunch of FDA, CDC and NIH bureaucrats in a meeting room arguing about vaxxing children. After a long discussion, someone breaks into full out Sam Harris mode and says Covid 19 is SO dangerous that the actual science and the outcomes to the vaccinated don't matter. How do we get the sheeple to understand that this analogy is our problem in society . . .
Sam does not believe in free will, and has an air of near contemptuousness for those of us who do. I think that idea is very convenient if you are wealthy. See, this is just material, universal processes that were set in motion forever ago, that I am wealthy and famous and you are, you.
He is also something of a hypochondriac, and is probably incapable of seeing the damage that has been done by Covid Policy that had everything to do with money and power and nothing to do with a virus. That includes the terrible damage to children that continues to be done.
I just watched that clip of him on the nakedemperor substack. He not only reveals himself to be dense and casual about dead children, he says it was a conspiracy to cancel the NY Post report on Hunter Biden's laptop, and that is defensible to get rid of Trump - thereby revealing himself to be an anti-democratic authoritarian.
Also, I know you hold him in high esteem, and I don't mean in any way to criticize you for that. I trust that if you believe his meditations training has been helpful to you I can fully appreciate that.
Jessica, I get your outrage over the minimization of child abuse, but that's not the most disturbing thing about Sam Harris's minimization of Hunter's laptop. By focusing on the most outrageous, prurient aspects of what's on the laptop, he successfully diverts attention from the information most damaging to the Big Guy. It's clear that the Big Guy (and the entire clan) is fully complicit and benefits from Hunter's corruption, and that's even laying aside the Big Guy's weird obsessions with children, his alleged assault on Tara Reade, the subsequent damage to her career and the way she was minimized by the Democratic establishment, especially feminists.
Equating Trump University with this filth is disingenuous for a number of reason. Most importantly, Trump himself was neither charged nor convicted criminally of fraud. Why not? If there were even an ounce of truth in most allegations of Trump's extraordinary corruption, this would have happened in an administrative/media state dominated by his enemies. Yet there's overwhelming probable cause in Hunter Biden's laptop and Tara Reade's testimony to believe Joe Biden is corruption, even in his own public statements (eg, his CFR statements with Richard Haass about the dismissal of a Ukrainian prosecutor), but there's never even been an investigation of Biden.
The irony is that Hunter himself has subtly expressed disdain for his own father. Unfortunately, I can't find the quotes at present, but it seems he blames his father for his own corruption. Note I'm not a supporter of DJT. There are plenty of reasons to criticize him that aren't even considered scandalous by our elites.
Harris is a leftist and an atheist. For me, that’s all I need to know about him to understand and pass personal judgement on his value system. I don’t need influences like him in my life.
Agree with your disgust. And this example highlights one of the benefits of free speech - you get to see someone’s true colors and react accordingly (vote, boycott, unsubscribe, etc). With respect to children, the past 2 years have shown how society’s leaders continue to fail in their ethical duty to protect children, with devastating consequences. The UN’s 1989 Convention on the Universal Rights of the Child has been forgotten.
Agree, govt regularly stifles/censors free speech today. Let's hope more people stand up and insist upon this right. And thank you for mentioning NHF. I was unaware of this group. Appears they have had success in pushing back against big pharma / big agriculture in various ways. If only there were a representative of a group like this on the CDC's ACIP...
A fair question. I did not yet as I want to review the website more fully, which I plan to do. I only learned of them today through your post and believe in conducting due diligence before supporting any cause. But rest assured if their actions/philosophy appear to match my first impression, I will. It’s the same reason I do paid subscriptions on many of these Substacks - even if the impact cannot be measured, I would like to support the cause. At the very least I’d like the authors/activists to know they are appreciated and valued.
If anyone hasn’t seen “The Family”, on Netflix, i urge you to do so. This children’s corpses in the basement is reminiscent of a quote in that movie, which is about a shady group of pseudo Christians with extraordinary influence on American politicians.
A high level member, ‘teaching’ new recruits, basically says that if someone attains a powerful role in society, it’s proof that Jesus loves that person, regardless of their behavior. He goes on to say that even if they raped and murdered little girls, they would still support them, using the justification that if they’re powerful or successful that Jesus/God/Whatever does not care about their crimes.
The movie is a documentary. A young Jewish man infiltrated the organization and wrote about it. The documentary is based upon that. The Family has had nefarious influence on every president and many other power players in DC for many years. The Family would not be the first people to twist and manipulate Christianity for power. The Roman Empire did when they created the Roman Catholic Church, after all.
I discovered them quite by chance, but the Triggernometry crew very much "walks the talk"... they do exactly as your second endnote suggests. Whoever sits in the chair opposite them during their interviews is granted plenty of latitude to fully present their views. FF and KK (the two comedians) do their best to come into the interviews having done their homework beforehand. They ask open-ended questions, challenge their guest (who is always offered time to respond) and they try to elicit insight on behalf of their viewers.
The Sam Harris interview was among their most controversial. Viewers continue to comment and ask FF and KK about Harris the individual and his views.
When I discovered the show, it was a welcome breath of fresh air to this American. Still watch an occasional interview, depending on the topic and the guest. That's how bad mainstream television has gotten: too many argumentative hosts, too many five-minute clickbait segments cobbled together.
"I find this part of ‘journalizing’ difficult to resolve. How do you make your point without providing ‘clicks’ or a platform to the people who made you feel, odd?"
Easy answer for denying them the page views just paste the URL into Wayback and save the site image or read one that's saved. It even works for Youtube though an original save may take a day to playback if Internet Archive servers are busy. Good for posterity too when truth vanishes. :~)
Has anyone but me noticed the pattern of, ahem...certain intellectuals who are more often than not extraordinarily rational and high achieving in their fields, become terrifyingly irrational, irate, and violent when the subject matter comes to Trump? What is it about Trump that triggers them into a rage so much? It simply cannot be explained rationally and so I am genuinely asking, emotionally, what is it? They seem to see Hitler around every corner. When I look at Trump I see a carnival barker/entertainer/politician who is successful because he speaks truthfully 20% of the time where as the politico's favored by those same...intellectuals...speak truthfully about 2% of the time. The common man just notices the order of magnitude improvement and is drawn to that. These intellectuals are living in another world, altogether, quite obviously.
The common man also notices Trump's ACTIONS and compares them to the actions of the Deep State and, when they're in power, the current Democrats. The common man for certain notices how the country improved under Trump and has deteriorated under Biden. I personally also notice Trump's demeanor and evident compassion when dealing with ordinary people as opposed to what I see when most of the Powerful interact with the non-Powerful, although to be fair Trump (and Melania) might just be good actors. And I notice how the most corrupt and (and worse than "corrupt", as is becoming more evident) among those in Power are the most vocal and irrational in their hatred of Mr. Trump.
can't argue with that
Jessica: I agree. We've seen before that Sam Harris has many scary ideas. For example, "some propositions are so dangerous that it may even be ethical to kill people for believing them."
He's a weak reed in a windstorm.
Yep. Harris has an absolutely classic case of Trump Derangement Syndrome. I often wonder about these so-called 'intellectuals.'
I lost hope for Sam Harris after watching how he treated Bret Weinstein on Covid-19 issues.
Sam Harris is a leader in making mindfulness accessible to people, presumably to make a better world.
The guy has been on three-month silent retreats. His total time doing silent meditations spans YEARS. He knows how to observe emotions without embodying them and acting rashly.
And what does he have to show for it? This interview. It's a shame. For what? So he can be invited to the right cocktail parties?
It is disturbing, as so many things are these days. I find words spoken off the cuff are already there spinning about the brain, Freudian slips? , but not Freudian when spoken twice...
Jessica,
I loved this post. When I heard that clip, all I could think about was a bunch of FDA, CDC and NIH bureaucrats in a meeting room arguing about vaxxing children. After a long discussion, someone breaks into full out Sam Harris mode and says Covid 19 is SO dangerous that the actual science and the outcomes to the vaccinated don't matter. How do we get the sheeple to understand that this analogy is our problem in society . . .
Sam does not believe in free will, and has an air of near contemptuousness for those of us who do. I think that idea is very convenient if you are wealthy. See, this is just material, universal processes that were set in motion forever ago, that I am wealthy and famous and you are, you.
He is also something of a hypochondriac, and is probably incapable of seeing the damage that has been done by Covid Policy that had everything to do with money and power and nothing to do with a virus. That includes the terrible damage to children that continues to be done.
hmm
I just watched that clip of him on the nakedemperor substack. He not only reveals himself to be dense and casual about dead children, he says it was a conspiracy to cancel the NY Post report on Hunter Biden's laptop, and that is defensible to get rid of Trump - thereby revealing himself to be an anti-democratic authoritarian.
Also, I know you hold him in high esteem, and I don't mean in any way to criticize you for that. I trust that if you believe his meditations training has been helpful to you I can fully appreciate that.
Jessica, I get your outrage over the minimization of child abuse, but that's not the most disturbing thing about Sam Harris's minimization of Hunter's laptop. By focusing on the most outrageous, prurient aspects of what's on the laptop, he successfully diverts attention from the information most damaging to the Big Guy. It's clear that the Big Guy (and the entire clan) is fully complicit and benefits from Hunter's corruption, and that's even laying aside the Big Guy's weird obsessions with children, his alleged assault on Tara Reade, the subsequent damage to her career and the way she was minimized by the Democratic establishment, especially feminists.
Equating Trump University with this filth is disingenuous for a number of reason. Most importantly, Trump himself was neither charged nor convicted criminally of fraud. Why not? If there were even an ounce of truth in most allegations of Trump's extraordinary corruption, this would have happened in an administrative/media state dominated by his enemies. Yet there's overwhelming probable cause in Hunter Biden's laptop and Tara Reade's testimony to believe Joe Biden is corruption, even in his own public statements (eg, his CFR statements with Richard Haass about the dismissal of a Ukrainian prosecutor), but there's never even been an investigation of Biden.
The irony is that Hunter himself has subtly expressed disdain for his own father. Unfortunately, I can't find the quotes at present, but it seems he blames his father for his own corruption. Note I'm not a supporter of DJT. There are plenty of reasons to criticize him that aren't even considered scandalous by our elites.
Harris is a leftist and an atheist. For me, that’s all I need to know about him to understand and pass personal judgement on his value system. I don’t need influences like him in my life.
Harris is all but dead to me. Garbage.
Frankly I am glad his truth finally came out now, sadly it was not apparent sooner, how much time and energy did I waste on that piece of trash.
Agree with your disgust. And this example highlights one of the benefits of free speech - you get to see someone’s true colors and react accordingly (vote, boycott, unsubscribe, etc). With respect to children, the past 2 years have shown how society’s leaders continue to fail in their ethical duty to protect children, with devastating consequences. The UN’s 1989 Convention on the Universal Rights of the Child has been forgotten.
Agree, govt regularly stifles/censors free speech today. Let's hope more people stand up and insist upon this right. And thank you for mentioning NHF. I was unaware of this group. Appears they have had success in pushing back against big pharma / big agriculture in various ways. If only there were a representative of a group like this on the CDC's ACIP...
A fair question. I did not yet as I want to review the website more fully, which I plan to do. I only learned of them today through your post and believe in conducting due diligence before supporting any cause. But rest assured if their actions/philosophy appear to match my first impression, I will. It’s the same reason I do paid subscriptions on many of these Substacks - even if the impact cannot be measured, I would like to support the cause. At the very least I’d like the authors/activists to know they are appreciated and valued.
If anyone hasn’t seen “The Family”, on Netflix, i urge you to do so. This children’s corpses in the basement is reminiscent of a quote in that movie, which is about a shady group of pseudo Christians with extraordinary influence on American politicians.
A high level member, ‘teaching’ new recruits, basically says that if someone attains a powerful role in society, it’s proof that Jesus loves that person, regardless of their behavior. He goes on to say that even if they raped and murdered little girls, they would still support them, using the justification that if they’re powerful or successful that Jesus/God/Whatever does not care about their crimes.
It’s disturbing, to say the least.
Sounds like 'might makes right' run amok. That has absolutely nothing to do with Christianity, I wonder why the producers chose to frame it as such?
The movie is a documentary. A young Jewish man infiltrated the organization and wrote about it. The documentary is based upon that. The Family has had nefarious influence on every president and many other power players in DC for many years. The Family would not be the first people to twist and manipulate Christianity for power. The Roman Empire did when they created the Roman Catholic Church, after all.
I discovered them quite by chance, but the Triggernometry crew very much "walks the talk"... they do exactly as your second endnote suggests. Whoever sits in the chair opposite them during their interviews is granted plenty of latitude to fully present their views. FF and KK (the two comedians) do their best to come into the interviews having done their homework beforehand. They ask open-ended questions, challenge their guest (who is always offered time to respond) and they try to elicit insight on behalf of their viewers.
The Sam Harris interview was among their most controversial. Viewers continue to comment and ask FF and KK about Harris the individual and his views.
When I discovered the show, it was a welcome breath of fresh air to this American. Still watch an occasional interview, depending on the topic and the guest. That's how bad mainstream television has gotten: too many argumentative hosts, too many five-minute clickbait segments cobbled together.
Jack Posobiec addresses Sam Harris’ statement well in his Human Events Daily podcast, here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/human-events-daily-with-jack-posobiec/id1585243541?i=1000576658171
And, yes, words do matter — very much. Despite the old adage …
“Sticks and stones may break my bones. But words shall never hurt me.”
Words DO matter, words DO hurt, and words CAN and DO destroy minds.
Still, as the saying goes…
“ I Disapprove of What You Say, But I Will Defend to the Death Your Right to Say It ”
Free speech is still our best weapon against tyranny.
"I find this part of ‘journalizing’ difficult to resolve. How do you make your point without providing ‘clicks’ or a platform to the people who made you feel, odd?"
Easy answer for denying them the page views just paste the URL into Wayback and save the site image or read one that's saved. It even works for Youtube though an original save may take a day to playback if Internet Archive servers are busy. Good for posterity too when truth vanishes. :~)
https://blog.archive.org/2017/01/25/see-something-save-something/
Eager for a slice of time to reply to this today.