Gurometer: Sam Harris

Space Dust...deep cut. Hahaha.

Roscoe 112

I was a big fan of Sam's podcast back when it first started. I left after he shifted into constant culture-war dustups on Twitter + discussing them on every episode. Also after trying to take him up on his "email us for a free membership if you can't afford one" multiple times over the years to much more frustration and inactivity than success.

JustTheWorstEver

I saw that Seattle gig, Neptune Theater or the Triple Door if I recall. Saw a bunch of UW students near the back entrance wearing "Nirvana" shirts but with pics of Sam, Brett, and Eric printed on them. I think they were waiting for autographs and guitar picks and selfies with the band. One of them put his hands up in the air after chugging a Space Dust IPA and bellowed "Release the Theory of Everything Snyder Cut!!!" in one continuous belch.

JustTheWorstEver

ROFL this is brilliant!

SHOUNAK SARKAR

They do have that that newly famous rock anthem “You’re So Woke (And We Hate You)” that has been getting a lot of air time on the IDW station.

Linda Sears

I think the IDW are now in their Vegas residency period. Some of the original members had creative differences and left (particularly one of the original song-writers and lyricists). Some of the ones who stayed almost OD'd on substance and ego abuse. Now, clearly long in the tooth and without their youthful vigour, a little bloated on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and hamburgers with a few large steaks for good measure, many of the old hits sound a little tired and delivered with less conviction. Their new stuff tends to be pretty derivative pop (-ulism) of old styles - a mash-up of anti-vax blues and National Front Disco that most people had assumed (and had hoped) went out of fashion in the last century.

Robert Andrews

Hey guys, pretty fair rating. I personally would have rated Harris higher on the pseudo-profound bullshit and conspiracy mongering (he's been proven to be gullible to many anti-woke and right wing conspiracy theories, for example even on the Christchurch shooter manifesto.) But overall, you guys described your marks very well! The one thing that I would sharply disagree with Matt on is the harmless nature of Harris. Matt, I think that you are comparing Harris favorably to more unhinged and conspiratorial secular guru cranks (which is fair); but overall, given his positions on racial & religious profiling, race-IQ science, a reactionary and reflexively anti-woke worldview and the absolute certainty with which he speaks, he is pretty toxic and bigoted IMO. I especially find his continued fawning over and praise of a hard-right ideologue like Douglas Murray quite disgusting. Plus, on the latest episode, Harris did a fairly chummy discussion with Jordan Peterson where Harris did not raise a single objection with regards to Peterson's climate change denialism, pushing of unhinged conspiracy theories & uber partisan Tweets. But the conversation was promoted as if its a hard conversation between people who disagree on everything. LOL what a joke!

SHOUNAK SARKAR

Not really related to this topic, but was curious: do you think there's anyone who has gotten significantly more or less guru-esque over the last couple of years, who might be rated differently on your gurumeter if you reviewed some of their more recent content? I don't mean in terms of their opinions getting more or less stupid btw, I mean more in terms of increasing or decreasing the extent to which they cultivate parasocial relationships and exhibit other such guru behaviour. Maybe Russell Brand would be someone who has become increasingly guru-esque? I know he started from an already high base in that regard but he's really leaned into the guru stuff more and more over time imo, and has heightened the behaviour even more since the allegations against him came out. I can't think of someone who previously exhibited guru behaviour but has since toned it down, but maybe someone else can think of an example?

hasty rewrite

While Sam is otherwise very low on pseudo-profound BS, I do think that his whole no-self spiel at least moves the needle. I am pretty spiritual-curious on these points but I can't help think that it is not as profound as Sam insists.

scottymfg

Cheers for the feedback. He didn't score particularly high overall though.

Christopher Kavanagh

Roscoe 112

I guess I think he should be higher on pseudo-profound bullshit. Whether or not he uses the terms correctly, he tosses terms around like "bandwidth" and "game theory" in a way that makes him seem more intelligent.

Kat

I have a reasonable idea how these two hosts would fare on the gurometer They both would have low scores. IMO. What do I know? I am up for a Nobel prize though….

Julie

I think Sam could've ranked a little higher in pseudoprofound bullshit. There were several times in the clips from the decoding where he smoothly inserted some technical term (pareto optimal, etc) into an unrelated conversation and didn't elaborate further, seemingly just to sound smart to Chris W or his audience. He never drew attention to it happening, though, and to some extent I think it comes from him being a genuinely well-studied guy.

Jenson

Really enjoyed your decoding of Sam and your analysis on his lableak failures

Protagonist Science

I agreed with most (but not all) of your criticisms of Sam in the decoding episode - Chris' observation about Sam's propensity to under-research controversial figures is particularly spot-on - and yet I disagreed with most (but not all) of your opinions on him in this Gurumeter episode. Your rankings were way too high across multiple categories. That said, it was an interesting conversation and some of your points were fair. My opinions on religion, culture and politics align more with Sam than with you guys, but I also think you guys do an excellent job analysing his blind spots and failings. I enjoyed the criticism of his Buddhist spiritual stuff in the latest episode, since I consider that the worst part of his output, and yet it's among the areas he seems to get least heat for. I remember in a conversation with Stephen Fry about mindfulness on the Making Sense podcast, Fry brought up how unfalsifiable all these claims are about enhanced states of consciousness and the supposed heightened insights you get from meditative practices. I'm basically on Fry's side on that one, and yet it rarely seems to get brought up with Sam even though I can actually see some parallels between the unfalsifiable claims made about the "unique" benefits and insights of secular meditation and the unfalsifiable religious claims Sam rightly calls out.

hasty rewrite

Apparently monkeys give in to peer pressure. (Apropos nothing.)

Ymirsdreams

This seems pretty fair. A bit higher than I thought on some points, like conflating self aggrandizement with galaxy brain when he is confidently tanking on many topics. Funny that he’s so close to Gwyneth Paltrow, as I imagine they would get along like manga protagonists and trucks.

Saksaas