#SamHarris is a prominent & influential public intellectual, with whom I have a lot of sympathy, along with other members of the #IDW he is often associated with.
However, I find myself in total disagreement with his attitude towards RACE & #WhiteIdentity.
However, I find myself in total disagreement with his attitude towards RACE & #WhiteIdentity.
Firstly, to reduce Race to skin tone is absurd & unworthy of the serious intellectual I know Sam to be.
For me, race is about kinship, shared ancestry, history & prehistory, which is central to my sense of both personal & group, i.e. genuine national, identity.
For me, race is about kinship, shared ancestry, history & prehistory, which is central to my sense of both personal & group, i.e. genuine national, identity.
My reference to national identity is important, because I strongly suspect that Sam identifies as an American & that this "national identity" is important to him.
But it is by deceitfully posing as our nation that #BigBrother tricks us into loving him.
But it is by deceitfully posing as our nation that #BigBrother tricks us into loving him.
https://twitter.com/rogerahicks/status/1306851226865274880?s=20
Sam seems to prefers to identify with the Orwellian construct of the #NationState than with the more natural & wholesome construct of one's #NationRace, as I do.
This, I suspect, is because of the trauma Jews have suffered historically at the hands of their fellow Europeans.
This, I suspect, is because of the trauma Jews have suffered historically at the hands of their fellow Europeans.
Ashkenazi Jews have indeed suffered at the hands of their fellow Europeans, especially & most recently the Nazis, but so too has every other European ethnicity, over millennia. The Holocaust was unique, but not exceptional.
The Nazis manipulated & abused German tribalism for their own evil purposes, in overreaction to which academics (incl. many traumatised Jews) demonised human tribalism itself, which was a huge mistake. It needs to be understood, so that we can learn how to harness it for GOOD.
Only by developing a sociobiological understanding of evolved human nature & tribalism can we learn how to organise society in a rational, civilised & sustainable fashion, & thereby secure its long-term survival & prosperity.
Currently we're on course for civilisational suicide.
Currently we're on course for civilisational suicide.
This is just to apologise to @JohnHMcWhorter for missing off the Mc in his name in the attachment to the initial tweet of this thread. In recompense, I have just followed him.
He's written & narrated a great book on linguistics.
He's written & narrated a great book on linguistics.
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