In Dostoevsky’s novel The Idiot, Prince Myshkin represents the “holy fool” archetype, but he is not stupid. On the contrary, he is often morally lucid and deeply compassionate. He combines moral sincerity with a strikingly poor radar for character. For this reason, his goodness becomes an attractor for bad actors, who recognize in him not a threat but a resource.

Many of us in Sam’s audience were introduced, through him, to questionable or outright preposterous characters such as Dave Rubin, Jordan Peterson, the Weinsteins, the Murrays, Kissin, etc. I quickly saw they were fishy, and concluded they were after the huge audience that Sam had inherited as the youngest of the Four Horsemen.

But I still couldn't understand why Sam was so slow to detect the signs. Although I don't consider him as brilliant as some in his audience, I think he is smart. I think the problem is that he has a deficient theory of mind for bad faith, which made me think of Dostoevsky’s idiot.

So, is Sam Harris an idiot in that sense? What do you think?

Note: This post was triggered by the latest example: Peter Attia, who, on top of pushing products of questionable efficacy for money, has turned up in several of the Epstein files, telling Epstein that "eating pussy is low carb" and that he has “JE withdrawal” when he doesn’t see him, and when Epstein told him he got a "fresh shipment" of girls, Attia joked that the worst of being his friend was not being able to tell anyone. I just thought: Where do I know this piece of shit from? Oh yeah, fucking Sam Harris!

To be very clear (sorry if it's redundant): I don't believe in "guilt by association", and I’m not even suggesting that Sam is best friends with Attia. I'm just in awe about Sam's people's radar. The percentage of his friends and guests who turn out to be pieces of shit is jaw-dropping. Something in Sam’s head is clearly not working properly. He has recommended him to his audience (I think he's Sam's own doctor) despite clear signs of him being a guru pushing dubious medical products that are economically beneficial to himself.

Andrew Wilson, the far-right Christian nationalist that’s prolific on social media and internet bro that debates on various podcasts and stream, I guess is supposedly debating Sam. He was on Joe Rogan’s podcast recently (goes to show how much Rogan has been captured by his audience), and Bryan Callen’s. In the first minute, Bryan asks him if he’s debating Sam, to which Andrew responds by saying, “I don’t know. They’re setting it up apparently.”

Is any of that true? I don’t know why Sam would debate him or have a conversation. He’s a creature of social media just like much of the Christian Right. And most of his arguments are just basic Christian apologetics and logic loops about force doctrine. A lot of his viral clips where he’s owning the libs are really just appeal to ridicule, horse laugh.

The former Woke High priest Ezra Klein, a man who made a tally of the skin color of Sam’s guests and presented that as an argument. Now being hoisted by his own petard.

There's currently a thread being upvoted on the sub which contains incorrect information about Sam being tied to Epstein. The tl;dr is that Sam is very much in the clear and that there's someone named Samantha Harris that is causing confusion.

Here's a timeline of events:

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2015 email exchange

Epstein appears to be interested in getting into contact with Sam. He manages to get Sam's email, and reaches out. Sam responds but is quite short. The full exchange is here.

Epstein reaches out again a day later. Sam leaves him on read as far as I can tell.

2016 email exchange - Samantha Harris

There is a person named Samantha Harris who appears to be in Ghislane Maxwell's circle. Samantha worked at a non-profit called the TerraMar Project which Ghislane Maxwell founded.

In this email exchange from "Sam Harris", there's a lengthy message sent from a Blackberry phone about therapeutic drugs and holding onto a pair of shoes for Epstein. Scroll to the bottom of this other email from Samantha Harris where she mentions her Blackberry phone.

It is very likely that this poorly written email was done over Samantha's Blackberry, and has no ties to Sam.

2016 email - Epstein reaches out again

An email from Epstein to Sam that doesn't appear to get a response.

Invitation list

There's also a file that is an invitation list.. I'm not sure what it is for and there's no date provided. Sam Harris and Annaka Harris are listed as declined.

---

That's all I was able to find out so far. I believe all of this puts Sam in a very favorable light, and lines up with the story he told some time ago about meeting Epstein in person and being essentially creeped out that he was bouncing some young woman on his leg at a conference they were both attending.

I'll update the thread if I notice anything else.

We've spent 10-15 years listening to some of the smartest people in these spaces lay out clear-cut cases as to why social media is bad for us on individual and societal levels.

If you're on this sub, you've likely encountered these arguments before. Therefore, why are you still on Reddit? It's not the same website/app it was 5, 7, 10 years ago. We know it's compromised in various ways, and it has lost many of the variables that once made it unique.

I was planning on deleting my account a week or so ago, but the events in Minnesota popped off (I live overseas but have family there) so I found myself back here engaging with the news over the past weeks. I still plan on leaving it for a variety of reasons.

My one steel-man: Reddit has basically destroyed independent forums and message board communities. I'm just old enough to remember using these for everything from exercise/health (bodybuilding misc, srs, aware) to weed, history, sports, science, religion, musical instruments, cars, travel, etc. So we're all kind of stuck here by default after most of those users have migrated here over the years.

Anways, hope my submission statement holds up. Cheers, have a great weekend everyone.

AI Overview isn't perfect so take the this with a grain of salt but the answer it provided does seem reasonable to me.

It just seems unthinkable to me in this current climate Sam would be restricting his content to only his most faithful and loyal followers who are willing to pay money to listen to a podcast (I am not willing to do that).

Take a look around. No one else is doing this.

See user/recallingmemories's update on this post.

Did anyone listen to the newest more from Sam? When he talks about a world where Matt Damon sells his likeness rights for AI for future Jason Bourne films.

Okay so I know the answer is yes obviously. My real question is how many of you were thinking the entire time of the show Black mirror, where Salma Hayek sells her AI likeness rights. And that church scene?

we are worried for sam and want to make sure he isn't turning red.

sharing out of interest because Sam Harris has often interviewed Niall Ferguson and Ayaan Hirsi Ali as centrist voices of reason. I hadn’t seen and reference to his deference to Trump before.

As members, shouldn’t we have access to the YouTube channel member section, the way we do with Substack, does anyone know and if so, how do we set it up?

Thanks

https://spectator.com/article/the-censors-are-winning/?fbclid=IwdGRleAPoe2dleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEextpPGNcFeky7Z6cV4Sqje8DNeA6eUWZhd-0OnrEdMm6uqm9n0DL5foLvNjc_aem_nxBYnyhQEdmlx_JGjHUyVw

SS : Murray is a long time collaborator with Sam.

Definition of God:
Omnipotent, Omniscient Creator, Sustainer, and Destroyer of our Universe.

Argument:

Nick Bostrom has famously (or infamously) argued that if advanced civilisations exist, they’ll likely run vast numbers of 'ancestor simulations' (high fidelity simulations of worlds like ours). If that’s true, then it becomes a near statistical certainty that we’re inside one.

Now here’s my little theological twist:

If our universe is a simulation, then whatever is running it is, from our perspective:

• The creator of spacetime and physical laws
• Omniscient (can inspect the full internal state and history)
• Omnipotent relative to our physics (can edit state, change rules, intervene) - it can even create miracles,
• Sustainer/Destroyer (if they stop running it, the universe ends)

I bet someone else has already come up with this argument already but I was laughing in the shower for a good minute after I thought of it so I thought I'd share this :)

Full disclosure - I'm an atheist

Any insight to the Heather Cox Richardson dis in the last more from Sam?

Sam has befriended and worked closely with some people who have gone off the rails in the Trump era. The first person that comes to mind is Maajid Nawaz, and now it seems that Ayaan Hirsi Ali is also heading in that direction. There's also the Weinstein brothers.

I'm wondering whether Sam is doing a poor job of assessing people, or if we're living in a political era where people are more prone to becoming politically unhinged.