Sam Harris has always appeared to me to be an unprincipled thug, the kind of guy who can spin a convincing, pseudo-intellectual rationale for just about anything, and even worse, convince himself of his own bullsh*t. One of the all-too-many high-IQ idiots who are paradoxically incapable of approaching social problems with any semblance of principle. A generous helping of intellect combined with an utter absence of character. What a dangerous combination. These people, who continuously proclaim their rejection of fundamentalist ideology, backpedal into fundamentalism on a regular basis. You could set your watch by it. And it always ends up being a fundamentalism of the authoritarian variety. No coincidence. They see problems in the world, and they are convinced that only with enough force could these problems be solved. They gravitate towards authoritarian control. They see censorship of the “bad man”, and praise it, rather than understanding the horror of the act of censorship itself. They are willfully blind to the place that censorship leads. They make the mistake of every person since the dawn of our species: that power can be controlled. That it can be wielded for good. What fools.
Whatever happened to “when conversation ends, that’s when violence begins?”
All these actions taken today against Trump but also his supporters will only radicalize the latter further. Trump was on the way out.
This seems not just counterproductive but dangerous. https://t.co/7gLKEOAl7Y
— Melissa Chen (@MsMelChen) January 9, 2021