I Used To Be A Fan But I Am Now Shocked, Disgusted And Appalled With Sam Harris

[Anon2381]

I'd say that the people who vote for Donald Trumps are what's allowing Donald Trumps to happen. Blaming the left is ridiculous. You may as well say that the west is responsible for Islamic terrorism for angering the Islamists.

I don't easily write people off as bigots. I call people bigots when they say bigoted things or seem to condone other people saying bigoted things. I.e. I call people bigots when they behave bigotedly. And I have no desire to associate myself with bigots. No hatred or "punishment" required. Far from it.

I am simply honest about what I see. Calling a spade a spade rather than lying from omission or sugarcoating things is exactly what intellectual honesty is all about.

Sam Harris is all about calling a spade a spade. And I'll be damned if I'm not going to apply the same to him when in this case he is at best gives the appearance of condoning bigoted expressions. Which in itself is being complict and harmful. You don't sit there and laugh and say something is hilarious in situations like that.

Imagine someone coming on his show calling gay people faggots or black people N words and him just sitting there laughing and saying it's hilarious and then go on to continue politely agreeing with the person, completely complicit in all those bigoted expressions. For me to not call out such a response as obviously bigoted would just be intellectually dishonest of me.

If someone came on his show saying that that would be exactly as bad as what Murray said about transgender people. Hence my reaction.

I'd say if anything I undereacted. If I was transgender myself I think I'd take, understandably, even more offence and it would be justifiable too. Ask yourself this "Would it be an overreaction on Hammy's part if Murray had started calling black people N-words and gay people faggots and Sam Harris had sat there laughing and saying it was hilarious and then going on to politely agreeing as if that was all acceptable?". Underreaction, I think. I think a lot of people would get more upset than I am. But not everyone compares bigotry against transgenders to bigotry against other groups... but they should. And in fact there seems to be much more bigotry against transgenders than any other group in the LGBT community. Many people who accept homosexuals and lesbians are still bigoted against bisexuals and say stupid shit like they're "greedy", and an even greater number of people are perfectly accepting towards gays, lesbians and bisexuals but are still bigoted against transgender people.

I absolutely did not overreact to such vile bigotry and such vile condoning of vile bigotry. Opinions like this being brushed off as not a big deal and taking offence against it being brushed off as an overreaction is harmful to the transgender community. It needs to be taken more seriously, not less.

Hammy
I completely agree with what you've said. If I was interviewing that moron I wouldn't have laughed at his jokes about peoples sexuality. I would have asked him about sexual fluidity, and perhaps he might have some enlightenment on what he knows nothing about, apparently. Its shocking that he's gay and making these kind of jokes. I would have hoped having dealt with prejudice himself he might be more sympathetic. 
Neil degrease Tyson had a great response to Larry king asking him about his hero's. He said he has a hero a la cart. He admires a sports hero for his achievements, but doesn't care about his personal choices. He said that if you chose a hero when your a kid the likelihood that hero will let you down is great. 
In this same train of thought I admire Sam Harris for his strengths, but would ask for an explanation if he was my buddy.