Faking Sense: Unpacking Sam Harris' Attack on RFK Jr.
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Faking Sense: Unpacking Sam Harris' Attack on RFK Jr.
Is Sam Harris truly trying to make sense of RFK Jr's claims?
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Yesterday I had a conversation with my good friend Dr. Madhava Setty regarding an episode of Sam Harris’ podcast called Making Sense.
The episode was essentially an attack on Robert F. Kennedy Jr and suggested he shouldn’t be platformed. An aggressive claim coming from someone who has been seen to have controversial views of his own.
The video below contains a conversation between Madhava and I that breaks down the key points in Madhava’s essay and showcases where Sam Harris is faking sense. I believe there are a great deal of important things to consider here, and this piece does not attack Sam, it sheds light on the type of thinking that happens in many circles. In that sense, we can all reflect on our own sensemaking.
I am often reluctant to do content like this because I don’t want it to appear as though my intention is to defend RFK Jr. My goal is to get to the truth in all cases, even if that means people I like have to be wrong.
I’m not a US citizen and I don’t vote at the moment. I observe what is happening in our world through a lens of understanding what is driving our culture for the purposes of better identifying how to bring about solutions.
In that sense, Madhava’s essay intrigued me because it showcased how orthodox views are often dogmatic. Highly celebrated thinkers and voices are stuck in their thinking at times, yet are trying to claim de-platform those who would challenge their thinking.
No one is going to get everything right all the time, that’s impossible. But in what spirit are we approaching our sensemaking? Are we willing to be flexible? Are we truly trying to make sense? Are we open to changing our minds? These traits are usually found in someone truly engaged in understanding what’s going on in our reality from a place of playful curiosity.
Embodied sensemaking becomes key here as our connection to ourselves and our body is paramount in sensing the subtle resistances we can often have in our system. These resistances can lead us to avoid some facts while acknowledging others. To see only what is wrong with a person’s views and not where they get it right and where we overlap with them. Resistances also push us to employ double standards that reduce our capacity to make sense and truly connect.
If we can’t make sense together, we will be divided, and true societal solutions will be nearly impossible to bring about.
It’s easy to say an opposing political side is causing division or polarity, or that only the mainstream media is dividing us, but this isn’t entirely true. We do it to ourselves as a society as well because it’s built into our existing culture and consciousness.
I invite you to check out the conversation between Madhava and I below.
Faking Sense: Unpacking Sam Harris' Attack on RFK Jr.
I'm ultra slow with learning about what's happening in our world and up until this post, I'd never even heard of Sam Harris. He seems to have lived quite the life according to what I've read and heard about him today alone, but as far as sensemaking goes, for any number of reasons this episode seems to fail miserably. You and Madhava already covered much of what I wanted to say [and more that I hadn't thought of myself] but I personally have two other glaring red flags based on his statements:
1. Right around 0:50 he states that "RFK has been everywhere and I declined to have him on this podcast. At one point a mutual friend reached out offering to put us together and I declined for the time being. Perhaps I will talk to him at some point but [um] I hope it doesn't come to that". So rather than invite the very person you're "critiquing" [if it can even be called that] in an effort to "sensemake", he instead decides to make the case that RFK Jr. shouldn't be platformed b/c of his alleged statements and stances on controversial issues? I wonder if he bothered to watch the House hearing that took place this past Thursday regarding censorship and its many facets. Moreover, this reminds me of Dr. Peter Hotez's refusal to debate RFK Jr. because he was being "brave" by not giving "conspiracy theorists" and "crackpots" a platform to peddle their own "selfish" causes.
2. At around 22:21 he states: "Everybody's just trying to get rich, they're just trying to sell you medicine; dangerous, ineffective medicine. And again the problem is there is some truth to this bad incentive story [which I've discussed previously on this podcast]. But the further truth is the drug approval story is quite mixed. Half the time it's a story not of dangerous and ineffective drugs being rushed so that pharmaceutical companies can profit off the igorance and vulnerability of a trusting public. Again there may be some of that, and wherever it exists we should stamp it out; but rather often the opposite happens. [Right] There's a galling, sluggishness in the drug approval process. There are sick people desperate for new medications. [You know] there are drugs that are approved in Europe that are not approved in the U.S. (and vice versa, in my opinion), and this is really frustrating. That is the opposite problem. That is not people rushing to get rich; that is regulators being too cautious or seeming to be too cautious." I don't know how many new (and old) drugs I see advertised on T.V. every damn day thanks to direct-to-consumer advertising, and I've been seeing more headlines about new vaccines being approved for use in various age groups -- all of this suggesting to me that regulators actually seem to have thrown caution to the wind with most (if not all) drugs and vaccines. Not only that, it sounds to me like he wishes for the drug and vaccine approval process to be even faster than it currently is which sounds very dangerous and possibly wreckless to me; we need not forget Operation Warp Speed which fast-tracked the COVID vaccine in under one year when it usually takes (or is supposed to take) at least 7-10 years for a vaccine to be available on the market (correct me if I'm wrong).
All in all, this episode seemed to lack any basic inquiry and insights into what RFK might have been trying to say and Sam seems to me to have misrepresented much of what RFK Jr. allegedly "misrepresented". That's a key strategy of censorship and I think he should listen to what RFK had to say in Thursday's censorship hearing.
Gosh what a crazy world lolol
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The Man Stands Behind His Statements.
That Minorities Have To Twist Them
Into Awful Attacks Against Themselves
Says More About Them
Than It Does Mr. Kennedy.
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