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Join neuroscientist, philosopher, and best-selling author Sam Harris as he explores important and controversial questions about the human mind, society, and current events. The Making Sense podcast was selected by Apple as one of iTunes Best of 2015.
Sam Harris is the author of the bestselling books, The End of Faith, Letter to a Christian Nation, The Moral Landscape, Lying, Free Will, and Waking Up. The End of Faith won the 2005 PEN Award for Nonfiction.
Mr. Harris's writing has been published in more than 20 languages. He and his work have been discussed in The New York Times, Time, Scientific American, Nature, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, and many other journals. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Economist, Newsweek, The Times (London), The Boston Globe, The Atlantic, The Annals of Neurology, and elsewhere.
You cant reason with some people,they are still calling this a genocide which is ludicrous.Even with Hamas numbers 35 thousand is nothing compared to the total population after months of war.Again its a WAR,just because the originall aggressor is vastly inferior doesnt mean much.Maybe just maybe you shoudnt kick the hornets nest if you have no chance.
Sam , I understand that Islam is full of hate speech and promotes killing infidels, jews included . but that doesn't matter in the situation of gaza , put any people under military siege and treat them the same way Israel does for 20 years and I promise you they will use any given religion and ideology and put it towards hating their oppressor. you can use any idea bad or good to justify your actions the same way American government used "spreading democracy " to invad and destroy Iraq . at the end of the day Israel inhumane treatment of Palestinians led to October 7th and if Christians were ruling gaza, those who's committed atrocities on October 7th would've been holding crosses instead of screaming allah akbar
Probably Davids View on the impact of the governments decisions is pretty narrow regarding covid. If you take into account the consequences of runaway public debt and waves of inflation still to come the calculus might be different. But as long as number goes up in his broker account it must be good right?
This is to go without saying. Good to know tho. But, the issue is when people for one reason or another can’t convince themselves of this or can’t break the thought cycle. A panic attack is fully internalized thought. But going from a normal bp to 200/120 just by thinking is something potentially dangerous. And thinking bad stating the logic of mindset is besides the point,
I am not encouraging either a Palistinian or Israeli perspective in my comment, but let me say this: Given Sam Harris' place as a vocal Israel supporter in the public square, what is his opinion on the following topics: 1: Assassination of Lord Moyne 2: Attempted assination of President Truman by Lehi 3: Bombing of King David Hotel 4: Deir Yassin massacre 5: Sinking of SS Liberty 6: Sabra and Shatila massacres 7: Jonathan Pollard Again, I am not speaking as a Palistinian supporter, or as an Israeli supporter. What I am asking for is an interpretation of the above events, (at all, with whatever bias, just to demonstrate basic knowledge of the events) such as would be expected of any expert on the topic. I haven't checked rigorously, but I don't know of any Sam Harris acknowledgement of any of these topics as things worth even addressing when he disseminates his pro-Israel perspective. (To be clear: nothing I am saying is anti-Israel necessarily, but it is anti-populist-intellectualism, in the sense that clear thinking of Sam Harris that sounds good to the people in the absence of awareness of relevant facts is no good, because relative to the facts it DOESN'T KNOW ANYTHING.)
And how pompous Sam Harris is. There is something called The Essential Sam Harris. Oh really! On another episode he's "clarifying the moral landscape." Oh thank goodness for that. What would we do without Sam Harris to clarify the moral landscape? This from a man who is so blinded by his hatred of Islam that moral clarity isn't something he's showing much of these days.
This discussion is exactly what has gone so wrong in the way Sam Harris twists and turns to make this all work out in his mind. Okay, so let's get right down to nitty gritty numbers so we can then declare who is the morally righteous and absolved and who is the monster. Israel has the means to destroy Gaza and the West Bank a million times over thanks to help from the US; we have turned Israel into a heavily fortified state among a group of people who's means of launching a brutal and horrifying attack was partly through hang gliders. Beheading people, mutilating people, sexually mutilating people, capturing people, that was the spark that Hamas knew would send Israel into a killing frenzy and it worked and most of the rest of the world has forgotten that day of horrendous losses and now sees photographs of block after block of destroyed homes under which are buried thousands of people many of whom will no doubt be discovered decapitated and mutilated by a bomb and they will never, ever forgive what Israel has done. It will become and remain a pariah state. Under any other circumstances I have no doubt that Sam Harris would come to very different conclusions. His hatred of Islam has blinded him and he has lost the capacity on this issue to Make Sense. He thinks if he can just get the numbers right this will all come out in a way that squares in his own mind but, there are no numbers. Oh darn. What now Sam?
Are you in support of the genocide against Israel? Sam Harris doesn't like Islam (or any other religion) which makes sense cause he's an Atheist. Sam chooses democracy over theocracy. What do you choose @MD-bu3xc ?
This is perhaps the most valuable contribution to the conversation about Israel-Gaza since October 7th. Thank you Sam for making this interview publicly available. I hope many people listen to it with an open mind
34,262 dead in Gaza since 0ctober 8th European-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor estimates 90% are woman and children. IDF claim 66% are women and children. Using IDF figures thats 22,613 women and children killed in Gaza while trying to destroy Hamas. Scale that up to a country the size of UK (second biggest backer of this war) and that's 650,000 woman and children killed. Scale it up to the US (biggest backer of this war) and that's 3.25 million woman and children killed attempting to rid Gaza of the people who hate you. I dont think they thought this through.
Amazing how many in the western world are so worried about civilians while ignoring that Hamas uses said civilians as human shields. How does it feel to be a puppet, strings pulled by Islamo-fascist terrorist death cult? Iran is playing you like the fools You are.
I don't disagree overall but doesn't "no one knows" really mean "no one knows exactly"? and of course, no one knows exactly, like no one knows how many hairs are on my head, exactly. but we do know about a range. there is some range between X and Y that must contain the correct number. it is, for example, greater than 0, and less than 500,000. but someone with more information than I have could narrow it further.
I don’t think there is a more qualified person to speak about the way Israel is prosecuting this war in an objective manner. Excellent choice for a guest. Also important to note that it was very intelligent of Sam to not put this episode behind a paywall. It allows far more people to become educated on how to view the war during a time where there is a lot of confusion around the way Israel is prosecuting the war response. I just hope this gets out to as many people as possible. Well done.
Been a huge fan of Sam for over a decade, but he makes several points in this pod that seem to lack his usual intellect or understanding of a topic. 1. Asking why college protestors aren’t protesting against Russia invading Ukraine and suggesting there’s some antisemitism in there. Could it be because the US is the closest ally Isreal has? And that the US provide $billions to Israel? And that many colleges and universities invest in arms manufacturers that supply Israel? I’m surprised he massively oversimplified this. And suggesting the protestors are Hamas supporters? WTF? 2. He massively oversimplifies the conflict as if Palestinians just hate all Jews for no reason. Completely ignoring 80 years of Palestinians being oppressed by Israel. 3. There were more… maybe I should have taken notes!
Omg this dude is so full of shit. Just pulling it out of his ass. Gimme a break. Anything to excuse carpet bombing civilians. Just look at the hospitals Israel has strategically targeted...
It's actually the BIden administration that has defied the Supreme Court again and again with impunity. But it's easy to miss this when your brain is addled by TDS...
I appreciate this content I haven’t heard anything like it before. Thanks for sharing it. There is not, nor was there ever, a good path forward for Israel. Urban combat comes with collateral damage that goes without saying. Israel, at the beginning of the war, promised to minimize this, but from an outsider looking in, legacy media would have it appear like Israel is indiscriminately killing civilians. However, this podcast makes a solid case against that. I think Israel has the right to defend itself and to root out Hamas, but it comes with responsibilities. Again, there will be civilian casualties in urban combat, but it should be kept to a bare minimum. I now understand because of this podcast, Israel has been doing this to the best of its ability. The IDF is winning the battles but sadly losing the PR war.
The media is interested in emotions and sensation. All media crews in Gaza are local. Hard to win PR against 57 members of the Organization of Islamic Countries. Qatar sponsor Hamas and Al Jazeera and leading western Universities, it also controls 21% of global LNG market.
Sam I listen to you all the time and thoroughly enjoy your level headed approach to discussions. However, Im not with you on this topic. I just think that if Israel had of been nicer to these people from the start we would never have come to this. I don’t support any organisations like Hamas, but nor do I support far-right Israel and for that matter this form of Government anywhere. Truely, men and far-right ideologies everywhere are the problem in the world. Hamas is a right-wing ideology. Yes Im a man, but find nothing manly about the far-right. Thuggery does not cut the mustard!
Yeah, be nice to terrorists. That’ll work. Maybe if we in the US we’re nicer to Al-Qaeda or the Taliban 9/11 wouldn’t have happened…are you serious?! Hamas and Hezbollah are islamo-fascist death cults funded by Iran, a gender-apartheid anti-human rights, anti-LGBT, anti-women’s rights, anti-science dictatorship. NOTHING will appease them. Period.
It would be nice to hear from someone who is not brought on to justify Israel's assault on Gaza in one way or another. Sam has had a parade of Israel apologists on since 10/7 and not a single contrary voice. This is not the ratio of perspectives that one cultivates when one is trying in good faith to understand an incredibly complex event.
Well said. It seems pretty simple to me. Bring on both sides. It's astonishing that Piers Morgan does a better job at showing perspectives from both sides than Sam Harris.
He had Rory Stewart on twice (4th Feb 2024, 28th Feb 2024) who is a contrary voice on these issues. He also bought an urban warfare expert on to try and understand whether the IDF could have invaded in a different way to reduce civilian deaths, but the answer to that questions seems pro israel because it aligns with what they did, and you say that it's just a justitication and that he his wrong. maybe he's right and there was no better way to get rid of hamas? I'd be interested in hearing peoples thoughts after listening to the whole podcast and not just this clip
You and your buddy are continuing the zionist agenda of gaslighting the rest of the world into thinking Israel is 110% noble and peaceful, ither you are getting paid or you are really that empty headed
I used to study NLP. While much of it is nonsense. there's a foundational truth that I stand by today about persuasion. If you want to persuade, often it can be as simple as making your stance concrete while making your enemy's stance more unclear. By offering real-time bullsh!t numbers, Hamas is making their side the concrete side... and it's not surprising that people find the TRUTH to be less satisfying (which is that we have no clue what the real numbers are.)
Thank you for bring a more nuanced perspective to a horrific situation. There has been way too much oversimplification about a very complex situation. Those of us whom have spent the carers struggling with complexity appreciate how difficult it is to make any reasonable assessments with the limited unbiased information available.
Its CGI guys, no kids are dying in Gaza, no infrastructures or hospitals been destroyed ang the booms goes not destroy any thing. Good job maintaining the moral high ground.
Not a miracle for my brother in law that died of heart failure at 43. Or my mum that had a stroke. Or the 2 brothers in front of me in the queue that died 1 day after taking it.
Take a look at the decimation of structures, the piles of rubble. Look at the aerial shots of neighborhoods. Then tell yourself 2 million people lived there just 8 months ago. Finally use your common sense.
"Nobody has ever asked how many civilians died in any other conflict." Uh, I think the fuck not? People have been concerned about that for every war that's gone on at any time during my life, and I know of some historical examples as well. This guy is an incredible ghoul. "Oh, well, it's about 2 to 1, let's round that down to 1 to 1 for good measure. Who really knows, and for that matter, who really cares?" Skin crawling.
How is it possible that the IDF has the precise number of terrorists killed but has no idea about civilians death tall? What are they actually counting?
Total Dead = Terrorists Dead + Civilians Dead If you know two of those numbers, you know the third number as well, you've got zero degrees of freedom. They know, and we know too if we do a bit of basic arithmetic, they just don't like to emphasize it, its bad optics. "Nobody can know."
The terrorists are targets and they have a high degree of confirmed kills since the IDF usually goes in to clear the area. Civilians, on the other hand, are not targets. When they die, unfortunately, it's due to collateral damage or some fringe case of mistaken identity or a soldier (a 19-21 year old kid, in most cases) losing their grip.
@@creatorsremose if terrorists would have been targets, they wouldn't have half of the bombs who were unguided... It's actually the civilians who are the target, not the Hamas. If terrorists would have been targets, Adolf netanyahu and members of his party members wouldn't have said that Hamas is an asset for Israel
The framing should be: it's Israel who are preventing the press from being in Gaza and obtaining a real number. Yet this is never even brought up, just "we shouldn't believe Hamas numbers" rather than "Israel are preventing the world from discovering the truth"...
At its core - this conflict has absolutely nothing to do with Islamic fundamentalism - contrary to what Sam Harris spews. Three million Palestinians on the West Bank live under apartheid - and those in Gaza under never-ending military blockade. There will never be peace until the occupation ends. It's just common sense.
The important thing to observe here is that Sam is not a stupid person, so he knows pretty well what the IDF is doing, but sells us propaganda like this anyways. All the truth will be out there even for the slightly apathetic and most smear merchants and bad-faith reporting will turn around and pretend they were on the right side of the issue all along. Remember this.
