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Current time: March 28, 2024, 5:05 am

Poll: What do you think of Stefan Molyneux
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mixed feelings
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other
16.67%
1 16.67%
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Stefan Molyneux
#1
Stefan Molyneux
I don't think I've seen this persons name being mentioned on this forum before and I wondered what you all thought of this guy.

He's a youtube personality, a philosopher. Pretty opinionated guy.

I have mixed feelings about his videos.  He seems to make a lot of sense but I've mentioned before how I hate it when people present vague opinions on complicated topics as clear black and white facts.
It might seem like a petty example to give but in one video he's talking to a man about flirting with girls and he basically says the guy shouldn't have pride in flirting with a girl at mcdonalds because he's just manipulating a girl who has an IQ of 85 at the highest.

I'm not saying there's no correlation between career and IQ but I've personally known people who have had ups and downs in their career like a roller coaster and I'm pretty sure there was no IQ change relating to the career change and to brand the flirting as manipulation just makes it sound sinister.

Ontop of that the video also makes other oversimplified statements such as talking about how women won't want to be with a guy who has abs in the long term because they will sense that the guy spends too much time in the gym and not enough time earning money by putting overtime in work. That makes me think does that mean all a guy needs to do to attract girls is to stay at home on the playstation and eat donuts and she will then assume he's a high ranking executive putting the overtime in because he's podgy?

But then I do think his ideas are interesting, there is obviously some sense to his opinions even if they are arrogantly presented.  He calls out a lot of white male privilege as being bullshit and I agree with some of his ideas on that, but again I think some of his ideas on even the topics I agree maybe oversimplified.

 I don't know much about government and politics but he also talks a lot about taxation being theft.  I don't have much knowledge about a lot of the topics he talks about so that's one of the main reasons I'd like to know other peoples opinions on the guy.


Are you ready for the fire? We are firemen. WE ARE FIREMEN! The heat doesn’t bother us. We live in the heat. We train in the heat. It tells us that we’re ready, we’re at home, we’re where we’re supposed to be. Flames don’t intimidate us. What do we do? We control the flame. We control them. We move the flames where we want to. And then we extinguish them.

Impersonation is treason.





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#2
RE: Stefan Molyneux
First the disclaimer:  I do not recall having ever heard of this person before reading your post, and I have not bothered watching any of his videos.  From reading your post, I do not want to bother with that.  I do, however, have a couple of comments on some specific things you state in your post.  They follow selected bits of your post.

(September 21, 2015 at 6:56 am)paulpablo Wrote: ...
It might seem like a petty example to give but in one video he's talking to a man about flirting with girls and he basically says the guy shouldn't have pride in flirting with a girl at mcdonalds because he's just manipulating a girl who has an IQ of 85 at the highest.


If that is not intended as hyperbole, that is just an idiotic thing for the guy to say and from that alone we know not to take him seriously at all.  People work at jobs they can get.  Not everyone can afford to go to college, and not everyone can afford to be picky about the jobs they take.

Also, I am sure that it would be easy enough to demonstrate that his claim is false.  Just give IQ tests to the employees at a McDonald's.  My guess is, you will find most, if not all, of the employees at the first one you select randomly, to have IQs above 85.



Also, regarding flirting with women who are at work, you ought not harass them there.  They cannot tell assholes to fuck off on the job or they risk losing their jobs.  If you are not certain it is welcome, do not "flirt" with them.  Inconsiderate assholes do not think about such things, or they do not care about such things.  Don't be one of them.


(September 21, 2015 at 6:56 am)paulpablo Wrote: ...
Ontop of that the video also makes other oversimplified statements such as talking about how women won't want to be with a guy who has abs in the long term because they will sense that the guy spends too much time in the gym and not enough time earning money by putting overtime in work.


As soon as someone starts telling you, "women want..." you can be pretty sure that what follows is bullshit.  Women, like men, are individuals, and what they want varies, just like what men want varies.


(September 21, 2015 at 6:56 am)paulpablo Wrote: ...

But then I do think his ideas are interesting, there is obviously some sense to his opinions even if they are arrogantly presented.


Ironically, great arrogance is usually a sign of stupidity.  People who are smart and well-educated know that there is a whole lot that they do not know, and they will never know.  Ask Alex K about this; he is generally (and justly) regarded as a pretty smart guy.  He has a Ph.D. (or the German equivalent) in physics.  If you have any questions about physics, there is probably no one here better to ask than him.  If you ask him about this (and feel free to provide a link to him to this post), I am sure he will tell you that there are many things in physics that he does not know about, and further, he knows that there are many other subjects of study, in which one could get a Ph.D., and he does not have such a degree in any of those.  He knows that there are quite a lot of things he does not know, and will never know.  But he is probably one of the most intelligent people posting here, and he is not arrogant.  He is a good representative of what it is to be intelligent and well-educated.

People who are arrogant are usually too stupid to know how stupid they are.  Which explains their arrogance.





(September 21, 2015 at 6:56 am)paulpablo Wrote:   He calls out a lot of white male privilege as being bullshit and I agree with some of his ideas on that, but again I think some of his ideas on even the topics I agree maybe oversimplified.
...

You would have to give specifics if we are going to deal with details, but there is a lot of white male privilege in the world.  Some white males have trouble noticing some of it because some of it is not anything positive for them, but a lack of something negative.  By that I mean that there are extra obstacles that some people put in the way of people who are not white males, and since with a white male, there is nothing, unless the white male is paying attention to how others are treated, he will likely not realize what is going on.  Many people, for example, do not like having a woman for a boss, and will even plainly tell you this if you ask them if they like having a woman for a boss.  Ironically, many women do not like having a woman for a boss, so it is not merely how women are treated by men, but how they are treated by society generally (and, of course, for the individual, for the specific incidents in her life).  You can also see examples of the lack of a negative in reading through the thread Fucking Cops.  There emerges a picture of how the black experience with police is typically not the same as the white experience.  It is not that cops line up to kiss white ass, it is that many of them do extra bad things to black people.  So the white male privilege in that case is not getting anything extra that white males should not get, but it is that others are getting bad things that they should not get.

By the way, I am a white male.

"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
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#3
RE: Stefan Molyneux
I just realized there's been a thread about him already on this forum and not many people had heard of him when that last post was put on here either.
I haven't exaggerated about anything in my posts of what he said except he might not have said all women don't want a guy with abs long term, it might have been a certain type of woman.
But even so I can't see it being correct to pigeonhole a woman who wants or doesn't want a guy with abs as being a certain type, there's many different reasons behind attractions.  Additionally I think usually the physical attraction or repellent with abs and other body parts isn't usually a conscious choice I think, guys don't look at tits and think "That woman will definitely have fertile eggs and good breeding capability"  So I doubt a woman would  hardly ever look at a guys abs and assume he's not spending enough time in work earning money because he must be at the gym too much and would therefore not be a worthwhile long term partner.
I thought some people on here might have heard of him because a few people on here are into politics, and this guy does talk about atheism sometimes, I think he is an atheist from what I can tell.


By the way I think I probably cast Stefan in quite a bad light in my first post, I was only listing the things he does which annoy me. People post stuff online all the time that I find irrational and annoying, but the reason why this guy interests me is that I do find a lot of his opinions on other things either interesting or totally correct, but then he will come out with the odd thing that I find totally irrational.


Are you ready for the fire? We are firemen. WE ARE FIREMEN! The heat doesn’t bother us. We live in the heat. We train in the heat. It tells us that we’re ready, we’re at home, we’re where we’re supposed to be. Flames don’t intimidate us. What do we do? We control the flame. We control them. We move the flames where we want to. And then we extinguish them.

Impersonation is treason.





Reply
#4
RE: Stefan Molyneux
The guy is an idiot. His views are stark and extreme. If he ever says anything that you find yourself agreeing with, his version has not been tempered or balanced with exceptions or situational sensitivity. He's a walking blanket generalization.
I can't remember where this verse is from, I think it got removed from canon:

"I don't hang around with mostly men because I'm gay. It's because men are better than women. Better trained, better equipped...better. Just better! I'm not gay."

For context, this is the previous verse:

"Hi Jesus" -robvalue
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#5
RE: Stefan Molyneux
Never heard of him prior. Tried to listen to some youtubes, couldn't. Comes off as holier than thou IMO. That's when it's my time to check out.
I don't have an anger problem, I have an idiot problem.
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#6
RE: Stefan Molyneux
(September 21, 2015 at 10:07 am)Exian Wrote: The guy is an idiot. His views are stark and extreme. If he ever says anything that you find yourself agreeing with, his version has not been tempered or balanced with exceptions or situational sensitivity. He's a walking blanket generalization.

"Walking blanket generalization" added to list of interesting phrases. scribble scribble.



You can fix ignorance, you can't fix stupid.

Tinkety Tonk and down with the Nazis.




 








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#7
RE: Stefan Molyneux
Mixed for me.  I find myself agreeing with a lot of what he has to say, but it can come across badly.  Also I was also surprised that (during a debate) he was so open to a theist perspective on Evolution being a lie and the micro/macro distinction that is promulagted.  It made me wonder if he is as well researched on some of these topics as he might be.
"I still say a church steeple with a lightning rod on top shows a lack of confidence"...Doug McLeod.
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#8
RE: Stefan Molyneux
Never heard of him.
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