I'm entertained by posts screeching about Chapo brigaders and how the "marketplace of ideas" people always want the mods to ban "Chapos." (Read: anyone with a slightly negative opinion of Sam)

I also think a lot of well-meaning people put more credence in people like Sam than they should, so pushing back on that and him is good.

I've never been particularly into Sam Harris but I understand why people are. Those people aren't necessarily racists or white supremacists or whatever - but I do consider Sam and his pals gateway drugs to that mindset. There's an acquaintance of mine who is into Sam Harris and I can see him becoming more right-wing with each week. He's basically a never-Trump Republican at this point.

I am a pretty smart guy - I have a grad degree in CS from an Ivy League, I got great SAT scores, blah blah blah. Sam has a lot of allure to people in my demographic (I'm white), with his emphasis on rationality and reasoned debate, his "concerns" about Muslims, etc. So I think it's also important to have a high-IQ person (sorry if this sounds arrogant) say "actually IQ and race science are bullshit", to point out that saying "I'm using data and being rational" is not the same as actually using data and being rational.

For me Sam is the road not taken.

Someone else said:

I find it interesting how this community is almost entirely silent on Sam's meditation advocacy,

I see mindfulness magazines at the checkout stand at Whole Foods. It's faddish woo woo for white people - a dude's equivalent of Gwyneth Paltrow cooter-eggs. Trying to monetize meditation via an app is honestly hilarious to me - the idea of an app making you a mindful person strikes as those electric lap bands that help you lose weight. And it clearly doesn't work for Sam, given how frequently childish and emotional he is. There are real benefits to meditation but the Sam's monetization of it is just a clever businessman taking advantage of people looking for the emotional and mental equivalent of a fad diet.