Interview with Chris on Dag Sørås's podcast
Added 2023-11-19 10:19:17 +0000 UTCHey everyone,
Thought some of you might enjoy this. I recently recorded an extended interview/discussion with the Norwegian Comedian Dag Sørås. He has posted the video up on YouTube and the audio on his feed. I'll share both here.
We cover topics you might expect but also discuss the Chomsky episode and some recent comments from Sam Harris on the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Sadly no Matt, so 80% less succulent chat than normal.
In any case, it's here for anyone interested!
Comments
I’ve found that Ezra Klein has addressed this conflict in a way that reflects how complicated it is. I just listened to two episodes, one where he interviewed an Israeli and another where he interviewed a Palestinian. Their views obviously differed, but it was helpful for me to see both perspectives. I felt like Ezra was doing his best to listen to the each while also asking pointed questions.
Linda Sears
2023-11-22 13:42:58 +0000 UTCThanks Jen! Happy to talk with Dag anytime.
Christopher Kavanagh
2023-11-21 14:54:27 +0000 UTCDag seemed to be saying that DTG is acting as a vaccine against the Joe Rogan, Huberman, and Lex Fridman podcast hegemony, which is high praise indeed.
Linda Sears
2023-11-21 13:33:32 +0000 UTCEnjoyed the talk. Noam Chomsky traveled to Gaza in 2012 and here is what he wrote: https://truthout.org/articles/noam-chomsky-my-visit-to-gaza-the-worlds-largest-open-air-prison/. Israel barred him from visiting the West Bank then. FYI I lean pro-Palestinian, rather more and more. Not that I don't have sympathy for the Israeli victims of Oct. 7, or acknowledge lots of really good decent Israelis (some of whom were murdered then) and awful Islamists on the Palestinian side. It's rather curious, nothing changed since Chomsky visited 2012, except perhaps Israeli genocidal intent is now overt. Now, as to why I lean pro-Palestinian: it boils down to the mass murders, real atrocities committed by Zionists in order to found Israel (and ever since, really). Going into villages, killing children by beating their heads with sticks, (al Dawayima 1948), rounding up the men of a village and shooting them in front of the other villagers (multiple places). Throwing kids in ovens (well, one kid, actually, Deir Yassin 1948). 10,000 to 20,000 innocent civilians killed to found Israel. It's also clear from the writings of early Zionists that getting rid of the Arabs from Palestine was intentional. It was a requirement to make the state "Jewish". Terror and threat of mass murder were the methods used to accomplish it. They bore arms against the Palestinian Arabs on account of their religion and turned them out of their dwellings (I'll get back to this later) intentionally. So most Palestinians in Gaza are exiled from their original homes in what's now Israel. Including most Hamas members. When Sam Harris says he supports the right of Israel to exist, the problem is, the coming into existence of Israel and the atrocities committed by its founders are identical historical events. In effect, he supports atrocities against Palestinian Arabs. Ok, Harris asserts that beliefs manifest in deeds. Why is it only religious beliefs? The early Zionists weren't particularly religious, it was their deeply held political belief that founding a Jewish state was just that led them to commit their atrocities. Zionist atrocities have always been, and continue to be, at least an order of magnitude greater than the Palestinian counter-atrocities. Nor should one ignore the profoundly racist idea, that Palestinian Arabs have no right to live in their own land because they aren't Jewish. Hamas was founded in 1988, after 2 decades of brutal military rule by Israel. They took control of Gaza in 2007 (after Israel withdrew to the borders). Chomsky, a Jew, visited Gaza in 2012 to give a keynote speech at the Islamic University (according to some, a Hamas-linked university). So, far from being killed for being a Jew, he was apparently welcomed and honored by Hamas (we don't know if he gave them a tongue-lashing for their bad policies) (I think the invitation was more by the left-leaning Palestinian human rights groups than Hamas, but anyway). Five years after Chomsky visited, Hamas updated their charter, making it clear their conflict was with Zionist Jews, not Jews in general, saying no one should be persecuted on account of religion and also giving themselves openings to the 2-state solution and aligning with democratic principles. Quite a leftward shift! Sam Harris views this group as a fanatic Islamist group, uncivilized and so on. Yeah, I know, us civilized westerners have a long history of murdering savages & taking over their land. Palestinians are the children of darkness. Darkness? Just who is blind here? Hamas is what it is, but wait. This fanatical 7th century organization can change and grow? In addition to the militant wing, they have political and religious wings wings who are involved in government functions such as running the Ministry of Health? I.e. doing entirely civilian functions? Now, a committed Zionist wouldn't admit anything other than that Hamas is a fanatic, genocidal organization that must be destroyed, and the business about no one being persecuted on account of their religion is a lying facade. Maybe so. Hamas is what it is. I think it would be good as a student of religion and nothing else to look at their original charter. It has a lot of Islamic supremacism and antisemitism and equates Zionism and Naziism. They also incorporated this from the Quran: "As to those who have not borne arms against you on account of religion, nor turned you out of your dwellings, Allah forbiddeth you not to deal kindly with them, and to behave justly towards them; for Allah loveth those who act justly." (The Tried - verse 8). (requoted from avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hamas.asp) There you have it, the story of a exiled Palestinians encapsulated in Quranic verse that also includes a religious prohibition against persecuting those who acted justly didn't force them into exile (my interpretation). If beliefs are manifested in deeds, why is this particular one so disregarded by Harris? On the down side, I guess the "Zionists" with whom Hamas is fighting would include huge numbers of people whose injustice towards the Palestinians is so minimal it should be disregarded and they shouldn't be subjects of attack in the conflict. IMHO. Anyway, thanks for allowing me to type in an essay. Just to agree that Sam Harris is pretty awful. I'm glad you guys keep me from going totally down that rabbit hole.
Kat
2023-11-20 23:23:20 +0000 UTCIt was really interesting to hear about Dag’s grandmother and his religious beliefs as a young person. I didn’t grow up religious, but my twin and created our own system of quasi-religious beliefs in the absence of that. They were more like superstitions and included OCD-like ritual actions. Hearing Dag talk about his complicated relationship between his desires to listen to metal music while also destroying the seemingly demonic aspects was fascinating because it conveys just how vexed our religious experiences can be.
Linda Sears
2023-11-20 13:10:37 +0000 UTCI'm Norwegian and discovered DTG through Dag's continuous recommendation on his own podcast, so this was a fun feeling of worlds collide as a fan of both:)
Marius Whoops
2023-11-20 12:40:26 +0000 UTCCheers, Chris (and Dag); I enjoyed this a lot.
John Barrie
2023-11-20 03:01:29 +0000 UTCNot my audio so no but I have linked to the audio version.
Christopher Kavanagh
2023-11-20 01:18:58 +0000 UTCI dunno how YouTube works but I've posted up the link Dag provided above!
Christopher Kavanagh
2023-11-20 01:18:33 +0000 UTCMy pleasure! Thanks for the invite.
Christopher Kavanagh
2023-11-20 01:18:04 +0000 UTCDark Humor rec: Anthony Jeselnik
Adam Sher
2023-11-19 23:17:15 +0000 UTCThanks! I'm very much looking forward to listening to this!
John Barrie
2023-11-19 19:53:48 +0000 UTCAudio link https://open.spotify.com/episode/3TGKT5mUSS9UZzRlLuEuDU?si=nKDngSKYQmypAPquEs62ew
Dag Sørås
2023-11-19 19:50:57 +0000 UTCThe audio has ads only at the beginning
Dag Sørås
2023-11-19 19:42:05 +0000 UTC> He has posted the video up on YouTube and the audio on his feed. I'll share both here. I only see the video link in this post. Are you going to put the audio into the DTG RSS feeds?
Roland Weber
2023-11-19 19:41:38 +0000 UTCI'm getting ads every two minutes or so when I watch this on Youtube, which is driving me nuts. I don't go on Youtube all that much, but I don't remember encountering this intensity of ads before. Is it possible that accessing Youtube through the Patreon app is somehow triggering the ad deluge? I really want to hear the interview, but my sanity won't survive doing it like this!
John Barrie
2023-11-19 19:33:47 +0000 UTCThanks again for doing this, Chris!
Dag Sørås
2023-11-19 13:16:01 +0000 UTC
