The audio in this video is from Sam Harris’ Waking Up podcast, episode #65 — We’re All Cucks Now _ https://www.samharris.org/podcast/P7
Donald Trump got 3 things right:
- Crisis in American Rural Life
- The “inner cities” are having a revival, but the rural areas are struggling, and had not been heard
- The drug crisis
- Beliefs about Trade date back from times when other countries were democracies or small players
- Chinese trade imbalances have caused harsh dislocations
- We don’t have compensation like
- Immigration is described by economists as having no costs
- The costs (cultural) are born by the bottom 30-40%
But none of that suggests that Donald Trump is the right person to deal with these 3 issues.
There is a game-theorist idea that it might take a bull in the china shop to deal with our adversaries.
- Vested interests
Donald Trump is like a diamond that comes with a curse.
He is not cutting through bureaucracy. He is not confirming his appointments.
An undisciplined America aids adversaries.
Sam Harris roasts Trump again for 14 minutes
In episode #45 of “The Waking Up Podcast”, Sam Harris once again shares his thoughts on Trump. At 8:32 Sam hilariously demonstrates how absurd it would be, were he to speak like Trump. Furthermore, he addresses Gary Johnson’s Aleppo incident and talks about who Christopher Hitchens would vote for. This is an addition to Harris’ analysis of some of Trump’s policies during the 38th episode of his podcast.
The Argument That Gave Sam Harris Pause on Trump w/ Niall Ferguson
This is an excerpt from episode 117 of the podcast Waking Up with Sam Harris, titled Networks, Power, and Chaos: A conversation with Niall Ferguson, published in 2018, in which Ferguson presents Harris with the first argument to give him pause on the election of Trump.
Scott Adams: Sam Harris is Wrong About Donald Trump
(4 min) The people on the right are nicer to me when they disagree.
Trump departs from the fact checking more aggressively than we’ve seen before, but the results appear to be quite good.
Trump hasn’t broken stuff, which is better than people thought would happen.
It seems to be that Sam’s concern is the departure from the fact is so extreme that it will cause lasting damage. It will cause others to discard facts or cause people to not care about facts.
When Sam says there is a big problem with the Trump Experience I can’t see it because I see Trump as a unique experience. I think that the next President will be a reaction to Trump, like Trump was a reaction to Obama.
Sam’s assumption is wrong, but while his brand is “Rationality”, in the realm of politics, facts don’t matter.
(13 min ) The way people make decisions don’t depend on facts. Politics was always 100% bullshit, so Trump prioritizes winning outcomes in all cases.
Compare that to politicians whose priority is the truth.
In politics, the truth gets your economy in trouble because people loose confidence when you talk truthfully about the problems.
Sam’s prioritization of the truth is valuable in almost all except politics.
(19:55) In politics, there is no truth. There is no process to get there and even if there was, you wouldn’t want it because it wouldn’t be winning (and half the country wouldn’t believe you).
[Tim: since you can’t tell the truth all the times, disregard it completely]
Trump prioritied the Rust Belt states and made sure his message fit there. Hillary Clinton didn’t. She prioritized her gender.
Many Republicans would choose Nikki-Haley (showing that Hillary broke the glass ceiling)
(25 min) You’ve got to give Hillary credit for breaking the glass ceiling.
(14:26) If Putin continued to do the same things with elections in the future (and why would he because he seems to like a President Trump)
The best way to deal with interference is not to talk to that in a press conference. (Its just a good play)
I kind of like Putin’s play to say that we can interview the 12 Indicted hackers if he can interview Americans. (Uninformed)