Well… I don’t know if you are racist but you are a bigot. – that has never struck me as the point of view of a “bigot”.

It’s also possible a few of Kindler’s comments may have been in reference to me personally, but before I get to that: Kindler attempts an appeal to authority in the form of Reza Aslan a number of times in this discussion. Kindler’s reply: “Don't blame it on Muhammad!” Another non sequitur. One point made about Hitler rubbed me the wrong way. The Christmas Shoebox Appeal Is A Manipulative Indoctrination Campaign. In regards to his political ideology, there was very much a rational, secular component to totalitarianism. He really has a freakish obsession. Kindler then offers up “hidden racism” as an answer to his own question (of course). I won’t argue against the anti-racists, of course, but I don’t respect the moral claims of those who haven’t constructed a coherent moral philosophy to rationalize their beliefs. I think a lot of the hate for Sam is actually a result of people Sam has inspired in some way or another; and not necessarily anchored in things Sam has said himself. It’s that sort of knee-jerk dogmatism that is central to religious belief and that Harris, Krauss, Dawkins, Hicthens, Maher, Gervais, etc.

Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. Search the dude's Twitter for all the tweets where he mentioned Sam Harris, he's been attacking him for years. Kindler’s irrational hatred of Maher, Harris, Stephen etc stems first from his problems with Atheism…Once you check off the Atheist box for Kindler that’s it he hates you and he hates your friends and then throw in his problem with Trump and it escalates from there. Zepps—who was obviously frustrated with his guest's bloviating—read part of an email Sam Harris had just sent him. The way he tries to blag his way through difficult questions with bluster, the way he views requests for evidence to back up his claims as petty annoyances and responds to them with either extreme vagueness or complete irrelevancies, the way he paints everyone who disagrees with him (his “enemies”) with a broad brush, the way he so clearly hasn’t the first clue what he’s talking about, the unlettered Twitter rants, his hyseterical paranoia (acting as if Harris is threatening to sue him. Kindler cannot see beyond the legal use of this word and continually accuses Harris of “threatening people” for using the word ‘defamatory’ to note that he is being defamed. A place to discuss Sam Harris and to have difficult conversations with civility. That’s why there is an uncomfortable overlap between the rational, nuanced opinions of someone like Sam Harris and the bellicose rantings of Donald Trump. This guy is a caricature of all the bad arguments against Sam Harris.

People think it was some communal crazyness, not realizing that pretty much every big government in that era was like... 5 steps away from Fascism to begin with.

I imagine it would be hard to separate them from the man himself if they ganged up on you. Great summary. New Atheist vs. Regressive Leftist always makes for good social media theater.

Kindler started screaming that Harris was a bigot. Perfectly true that Europe has a problem with IS and immigration. I don’t know much about anything, don’t know what the fuck I’m talking about, not really any kind of expert on anything, not interested in learning and listening, not interested in arguing with people who know better than me…but you’re all racist! He does my favourite “Being an Idiot 101” thing, and passes detailed judgment on people, while AT THE SAME TIME openly stating that he can’t be bothered to read what they’ve actually said. He's an embarrassing person, and I'm embarrassed each time I hear him speak. I’ve listened to you speak, I’ve read what you’ve said. ", "@SamHarrisOrg @billmaher & @RichardDawkins walk into a bar. Kindler is precisely this type of moral imbecile.

He's also hurting the cause of Muslim reform by making people afraid to speak out. What I'm trying to say is that this view that totalitarianism is some kind of crazy weird outcome of some personalist weirdos in a post-apocalyptic world is quite dangerous. Kindler had a hard time staying on topic or making even a coherent point. Kindler (falsely) accuses Bill Maher of making “blanket generalisations about people” then goes on to label 62 million Trump voters as “the enemy”. Really layed into Stephen Fry and Richard Dawkins.

Then it hit me. The "Muslim Reformers are willing to do what's necessary to make white, atheist, Sam Harris happy. It is quite depressing - he is essentially just shouting "bigot" repeatedly and brought up the Bill Maher/Ben Affleck event. I don't want to defend Andy, but I don't really know what it's like to be in one of these Twitter dogpiles. Or maybe you’re another product of UK’s failed educational system. “I never thought I'd be defending organized religion.” He told Zepps everything should be criticized, including religion, but that doesn't mean you can use it to “justify rank bigotry.” If listeners were expecting a concrete example of Harris’ bigotry, they'd have been disappointed. One segment of the Twitter world lit up quickly. “Bill Maher is a fundamentalist atheist. It seems Kindler doesn’t care for the opinions of non-white Muslims either: I’ve no idea what Kindler understands the word ‘reform’ to mean, or why he considers such a process to be unconstitutional.

“Dear Sam, blow me,” the 60-year-old comic said. There are very important works written on this subject. Kindler bemoans that “some white guy [Harris] is going to interpret the Qur’an for you” then proceeds to throw non-white Muslims Maajid Nawaz and Asra ‘Romani’ (he means Nomani) under the bus in the very next moment for attempting to champion a more liberal interpretation of Islam. If you can’t tell if someone is talking about people or ideas, when the person in question actually uses the word ‘ideas’, I’m not sure what else can be done. It's just so childish and untrue on its face. It appears Andy has a problem with vocal critics of religion and is unable to separate dislike of ideas from bigotry towards actual people. I am the Godless Spellchecker I suppose, and it is true that Twitter has (unjustly) banned me before.

He’s also a comedian, I’m told. The narrative seems to imply that Hitler basically shouted his way into power without any "modern rational secular scaffolding" to support his ideas, be them political, philosophical, or scientific. Mo Shafiq: Supporter of Blasphemy Laws and Hate Preaching Extremists. If these are the words of an enemy to you, then your battles are ones of comfort. In it, Harris complained that Kindler had been defaming him for years as a bigot, and had viciously attacked anyone coming to his defense.

He hates Sam and everyone who fits under the label of New Atheist and refuses to have a discussion about it. He reveals stunning ignorance, arrogance, and incoherence in interview with Josh Zepps. Podcast host Josh Zepps, having previously hosted both Sam Harris and Andy Kindler on his show separately, extended an invitation to both men to discuss this ‘spat’ together on his show. Wouldn’t that make him a bigot? Cliff Schecter, explains why things could be even worse with Trump supporters. I would see him before I see a white neuroscientist atheist [Sam Harris]”.

On the left it takes the form of Andy Kindler. Bigotry is the symptom of a weak mind.

If I heard Rubin all the time, only heard snippets of Sam, and was told Sam inspired Rubin, I'd hate Sam too. On the right it shows up in people who think that Mexicans are flowing across the border to take their jobs and rape their children; that members of ISIS are are lining up in Syrian refugee camps to infiltrate America.