There is this atheist, Sam Harris, I have quoted him before in some of my blogs regarding free will. He has some smart things to say about that. I knew little about him before that, mainly as an outspoken atheist, but I regard him as a smart man, and he is, at least, academically. This week, I came across an interview with him where he talked about Israel and Palestine, and he said some strange things. I did some more digging, and to me, he talks like a former colonizer in the way he disregards the Palestinians and how he thinks that everybody who is a Muslim is more or less a terrorist. 

I don’t like his views on that conflict but I also started to doubt myself. How is it possible that he is so smart about free will and well-thought-out but also, deep in his heart, a racist? I am not going to tell how I got to this conclusion, there is enough on the internet of and about him, and you can come to your own conclusions.

This is what I wrote under one of these videos, a little snarky and  pointless, I know, but sometimes it’s nice to say it out loud in a crowded room where no one listens:

Interesting take on the conflict. I always thought that Israel was one of the last colonies of white men after a long and often bloody history of colonial rule. He at least talks like the white man who explains how the world works in words he understands and with disregard for the brown man who gets stereotyped as savage. It would be too easy to see the conflict as one where people just want to go back to their homes and are pissed that the invader tells them that it is not allowed. And indeed, it is barbaric that people cannot live together.

I didn’t watch it all disappointed as I was, I really thought he was better than this. Let me know if I was wrong. 

 

As an antidote, I watched this video today.