Sam Harris Fan Angry That We Committed Blasphemy

Part 3 of 3: As Sam Seder and Sam Harris debate on Twitter right now, here's a clip from earlier this month from our August 3rd show when a Sam Harris fan wrote into the show...

Sam Harris fan is angry at us for being unfair to his man...

and

[MeCrazy]

The problem with sam harris is he thinks you can have a battle of idea's with people you are currently blowing up

[zombiesingularity]

You raised a phenomenal point when you joked about how "its impossible for anyone to understand sam harris' views" but a thousands year old religious text is "easy peasy" to interpret. Hilariously true and I never even thought of that. Sam Harris is ALWAYS complaining, sounding like an angsty 15 year old whining about how "nobody gets meeee" any time you bring up a position of his that is morally disgusting.

[santosd]

Standing ovation Sam.
I get a lot of "Stop representing Sam Harris's views!" when I quote him directly.

[hughtubecube]

“Please stop straw-manning X, you are not accurately representing his position, this is character assassination”

A sentence that gave careers to the entire IDW

[chessplayer]

Poor Sam Seeder geting attacked and abused online by a cult.
Keep doing what you do guys.

[youngbuck]

It is fair to note that Sam Harris is Jewish, so his malicious hatred of Muslims probably comes from racist and bigoted family he grew up around which influenced his beliefs in his adult life. Not all Jews hate Muslims, but a great many of them certainly do give Israel's political situation.

[Eiuol]

Damn you Seder, don't mischaracterize Harris's views, while we mischaracterize you as a Islamist lover.

Behold the cult of Harris, the worst bunch of uninformed morons since Scientology started recruiting.

[nickcollins]

Sam Harris is my hero!

I went to an elite University but I was always bottom of the class but I presented myself well.

But maybe I can get some recognition by allowing people to feel their prejudices are justified.

[SlitDrum]

On justifying torture. You're quite right. My immediate reaction to it was the shock at simpleton disregard for the depraved soul who would even be picked to entertain such an exercise of soiling his conscience. So, the question for myself, was not so much that _can you justify torture, _ but rather if _Harris would undertake the task of degrading another human being like that? another life? or would he simply delegate? would any parent be proud to see their child undertake that as a profession?_

I am reminded of a compelling segment in Coetzee's novel _Waiting for the Barbarians (1980)_, in which the protagonist, a colonial magistrate - who had long served a conquering Empire in its ruthless war against the "primitive" natives of the land they were conquering - was faced with the reality of having those forces being turned against him, and he was face-to-face with his torturer days after the magistrate had been stripped of his position, rendered a pariah in the town and living as a hobo, eating off dustbins. He said to him:

_"No, listen! ... Do not misunderstand me, I am not blaming you or accusing you, I am long past that. Remember, I too have devoted a life to the law, I know its processes, I know that the workings of justice are often obscure. I am only trying to understand. I am trying to understand the zone in which you live. I am trying to imagine how you breathe and eat and live from day to day. But I cannot! That is what troubles me! If I were he, I say to myself, my hands would feel so dirty that it would choke me -- ""_

[coosoorlog]

I am a cucumber and the declamaturial was not ever remotely jabberwocky.

[jmactizzle]

I usually put my pants on one leg at a time and I just pull my pants down to take a crap. There's no need to take them off.

[skedaddleMLS]

the "truth" is pretty simple to me. American conservatives are like 40 years morally in the past. Muslim conservatives are like 100 years in the past.   Be honest about this and stop pretending like people don't actually believe what their religion says and they say they believe.  If your comfortable calling american conservatives racists, sexist, homophobes, and anti-semitic  then why jump to the defense of Islam and not give your own countrymen the same benefit of the doubt?

[Dare]

The email was well reasoned with the added flair of funny insults. I like the show too, but the case that "Sam Harris creates an environment where [violence] is possible" is unintentionally hilarious. Sam creates or helps create Islamophobic violence for putting forth reasoned arguments that are critical of Islam? Weak. Isreal has an orthodox segment, and isn't a perfect society, but it's a democracy that is beyond compare to the plight of the people is parts of the Muslim world, living under a brutal theocracy guided by a book with some very crazy things in it. But you say that's "EXACTLY ALIKE"!? In your attempt to deny this reality you make yourself look very silly. The smug laughter doesn't make you look intellectually superior, it makes you like Fox News.

The faceless guy implies Sam is pushing a generalized view of Islam, and yet even at the beginning of the video you acknowledge that he talks about real beliefs (of which he says are awful) and the specific number of people who believe that (of which he thinks there are too many). The real blanket analysis is the simple argument that ISIS is just a creation of social and political pressures with very little to no "real" religious inspiration (wrong, because they do actually take cues from the Qu'ran), while the vast majority of the rest are just near perfect citizens with very few problematic beliefs (which ignores the reality of Muslims living in Western cultures and the role the West plays in their lifestyles, and Muslim controlled countries with very regressive laws). The reality that Sam talks about is that there are many many Muslims who don't take or even condone the actions of ISIS but agree with their statements (about Western oppression of Muslims) and/or goals (of promoting/imposing God's law across the world). The fact that you continue to ignore this is why people have been saying you're strawmanning Sam Harris. If you have courage, talk to him directly, invite him on the show or in a different forum, and let him make a fool of you in person. But you're beginning to act like Fox, so I'm sure you'll avoid that and just keep on smugly laughing this off.

[salahaldin]

"We are not at war with terrorism we are at war with islam"
Sam Harris.
But of course I'm misrepresenting him.

[frost]

I struggle with Sam Seder in the fact that a huge part of his “debate” is just laughing at his opponents.

[afrolund]

I don't know what I enjoy listening to more, your criticism of Sam Harris or his faithful followers but her responses to your criticism!

[jrgrover]

I'm sorry to offend you. It's just not natural for a grown man to admit to believing in fairy tales.

[kathykelly]

Are you going to keep misrepresenting his view on torture? You keep making his hypothetical moral argument into a policy proposal even though he specifically said it shouldn't be illegal.

[aaroncarson]

How come Michael merits a wafer thin layer of substance? So unfair to Matt!