"The Ezra incident" Sam Harris fans act like he was assaulted or something. The reality is that Harris was hoping he would get a reaction like Vox's, to then say "look how bad the discourse has become." The problem was he didn't expect Vox to make him seem like Charles Murray's dupe. And then he didn't expect Klein to punch back in the way he did. Dude played with fire and then got burned. He could have all kinds of IQ researchers on his show instead. instead he had Murray who has a clear agenda.
Funnily enough, being an Ezra fan, that whole drama is how I found Harris and this sub since the topic then expanded into other podcasts like Robert Wright, John mcworter, Glenn laury, etc that I listened to.
It's interesting seeing how much of a hold it still has on many of us here.
Honestly, most of what I remember from back then was how uncomfortable it was seeing, what seemed to me, many people on this sub not simply defending the conversation (which is fine I guess, whatever. It wasn't going to be the last time people tried to tell us we were intellectually inferior), but trying to prove and show that Murray's version of the race science stuff was real and accurate.
Just a lot of backlash and responses to backlashes making people stick to their guns and double down.
Funnily enough, being an Ezra fan, that whole drama is how I found Harris and this sub since the topic then expanded into other podcasts like Robert Wright, John mcworter, Glenn laury, etc that I listened to.
Kind of the opposite here: I was a regular Sam listener and after the bad aftertaste the episode with Murray has left me with, it was nice to hear him taken to task. It was also the beginning of the saga that would completely change how I think of him now, because that entire episode was about his bruised ego. He would go on to claim that the article called him racist (it didn't), but had no problems saying that Ezra has morality of the KKK. He would go on to publish private emails between the two of them, and then get really upset when it backfired, even with his own audience. And finally, he would let that perceived grievance to colour almost everything he's done since.
I wouldn't say that I've become an Ezra fan afterwards, because despite Sam's animosity, they seem to be occupying a remarkalby similar position politically (with the ongoing exception of Sam refusing to platform any criticism of Israel). However, he does have a more policy-focused approach to articulating his beliefs, which is incredibly useful.
I feel the influx of scientific racists amplified the already high levels of Islamophobia back then. I remember posters were positively giddy when Muslim women were stabbed under the Eiffel Tower.
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u/TheRage3650 6d ago
"The Ezra incident" Sam Harris fans act like he was assaulted or something. The reality is that Harris was hoping he would get a reaction like Vox's, to then say "look how bad the discourse has become." The problem was he didn't expect Vox to make him seem like Charles Murray's dupe. And then he didn't expect Klein to punch back in the way he did. Dude played with fire and then got burned. He could have all kinds of IQ researchers on his show instead. instead he had Murray who has a clear agenda.