[ May 6, 2024 ]
In one of the most reprehensible statements to come from the Left in this Year of the Left Behaving Reprehensibly was spoken on Friday by the famous atheist Sam Harris, who claims to be a “rationalist.” During an episode of his Making Sense podcast, Harris said: “Osama bin Laden, as a person, is far more understandable to me and far less reprehensible, personally, psychologically, than Trump.”
This was no gaffe or momentary slip-up. As outrageous as it is, this is a statement that Sam Harris has said before. In a February 18 audio clip, Harris declares: “I find Trump more despicable than I found Osama bin Laden… With Osama bin Laden, it’s just obvious to me that he could have been a mensch in some sense, right? He’s making serious sacrifices for ideas that he deeply believes in. He’s committed to a cause greater than himself.”
Harris, apparently oblivious to the fact that he was making a world-historical ass of himself, continued: “I don’t doubt he” – that is, Osama – “had real ethical connections to the people in his life that he cared about. He’s a real person, right? And in some ways, he is kind of a moral hero in a very bad game. And so therefore, he’s kind of prototypically evil when viewed from my game. He’s a person of actual substance — he’s just committed to the wrong ends, whereas Trump is the negation of all those things.”
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Harris here he demonstrates that the Left’s hatred for Trump can race far beyond all the bounds of rationality and become cultlike in its perfervid intensity.
This has been a long time coming. A few years ago, Harris became one of the very few high-profile figures on the Left to break ranks with the Left’s general denial of the jihad threat and willingness to ignore or even excuse the most inhumane Sharia oppression. His calling Islam “the mother lode of bad ideas” on a famous appearance on Bill Maher’s show with Ben Affleck was only the most notorious of many criticisms he made of Islam and jihad, to the fury of many of those who had previously admired his work. Indeed, the reaction was furious from what his friend and coauthor Maajid Nawaz dubbed “the regressive Left”: Glenn Greenwald and others skewered Harris as an “Islamophobe,” and Reza Aslan, with his typical dishonesty, misrepresented statements Harris had made in order to portray him as a racist, genocidal maniac.
Harris held out, but he was clearly stung by the tidal wave of negativity he received from people whom he had previously counted as friends and allies. He went out of his way to demonstrate that the straw man charge that he “hated all Muslims” was false: he coauthored a book with Nawaz, a Muslim reformer, and obediently shunned those who had been smeared by the likes of Greenwald and Aslan in exactly the way he had been, but who were identified with the Right — including me.
That was where the fatal weakness in Harris critique of jihad and Sharia began to manifest itself: just as three-time presidential election loser Henry Clay averred that he would “rather be right than President,” Harris was showing that he would rather be Left than counter-jihad. He began to make it clear that, despite his strong words, he wasn’t opposed to jihad terror and Islamic supremacism in any meaningful way, and Leftists were making sure that he couldn’t be. And so during the 2016 presidential campaign, he came out strongly for Hillary Clinton.
Then in 2018, Harris called on Twitter to ban President Trump for supposedly issuing “credible threats of war” against Iran. The Islamic Republic of Iran had been issuing credible threats of war against the United States for years, and Sam Harris said nothing. As I show in my book The Complete Infidel’s Guide to Iran, for years, Iranian leaders have engaged in extremely bellicose rhetoric against the U.S.
That was apparently fine with Sam. But Trump responding? A bridge too far! And in reality, Trump was not issuing “credible threats of war,” he was responding to them. And he was responding by demonstrating that the Obama era of appeasement of the Islamic Republic is over. But apparently Sam Harris and his ilk would rather have continuing appeasement of this brutal, bellicose, rogue regime that has oppressed its own people for decades, rather than a strong stance for freedom.
In light of all that, Harris’ latest revolting dive into the most fetid dumpster of Trump Hatred, and awe-inspiring example of moral myopia that he has now provided, is not altogether unexpected. But that doesn’t make it any less disgraceful.
Robert Spencer is the director of Jihad Watch and a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. He is author of 21 books, including the New York Times bestsellers The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and The Truth About Muhammad. His latest book is Rating America’s Presidents: An America-First Look at Who Is Best, Who Is Overrated, and Who Was An Absolute Disaster. Follow him on Twitter here. Like him on Facebook here.
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42 Comments
3 years ago
Yawn…………Harris, huh? Kin of Caemella?
3 years ago
What a POS moronic libturd idiot oxygen thief!!!!!!
3 years ago
Reply to
patd
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3 years ago
How Muslims LAUGH at us.
Another “useful idiot”.
3 years ago
Reply to
felix1999
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3 years ago
How Muslims LAUGH at us.
Another “useful idiot”.
3 years ago
The left took away this cultural icon too! Kids loved going to the circus.
No more….
3 years ago
this kocksuckker is going to have a complete meltdown on Wednesday.
so will joe if someone tells him what’s going on.
3 years ago
Reply to
Thurston Howell III
” … so will joe if someone tells him what’s going on.”
TOO forkin’ funny!
Did you get that line from Lovey?
3 years ago
Reply to
The Jesus Gypsy
i don’t click on links by someone i don’t know replying to a comment that’s 2 months old.
3 years ago
What a jug head. Why do people think he is smart?
3 years ago
What a calloused, insensitive, despicable wretch.
No thought for all who died violent and horrible deaths—leaving grief-stricken widows and mournful widowers, brutalized orphans and torn families behind—in wake of barbaric acts of pitiless terror, over wide geography, by that savage Saudi Islamist mastermind?
What an insulting nonsensical and outrageous thing to say!
He must now be mentally deranged, man I never heard of. Let him go to Al-Qaeda atrocity sites of mass-slaughter, and spout his irrational stupidity their, though that would be an obscene offense. Survivors would not appreciate his sick sentiments.
If trace of love lingers in his breast, and he lost someone dear to him at the maniacal hands of that evil monster’s “serious sacrifices [yes, offering up HUMAN BEINGS to his malevolent god] for his ideas that he deeply believes in […], a cause greater than himself”, could he so speak?
The coward’s pot-hole-cast should be renamed: Senseless Podcast .
Former world-infamous chief TERRORIST, he says,”as a person, is far more understandable[?!] to me and far less reprehensible, personally, psychologically, than Trump.”
He needs to be investigated. Then, if still free, seek out urgent psychiatric care. Maybe a long stay in an Asylum will help him. Perhaps he Is tittering on the edge of insanity.
Thankfully, he only has 1,300 listeners. (Too many.)
3 years ago
Just looking at the face of this inbreed in the above photo is telling me everything.
3 years ago
A million Muslims enslaved and tortoured and killed in China and NOT A WORD from the Muslim world. An ice cream treat with a design that vaguely resembles the Arabic word for allah…. days of murderous riots. The diff. MUSLIMS RESPECT POWER and despise those who grovel to Muslims.
3 years ago
Who is Sam Harris and why should I give a shyte.
3 years ago
Who is Sam Harris and why should I give a shyte.
3 years ago
Sam Harris is a member of the soros 4th Reich he has taken millions to say this and he to wants to send you all to concentration camps for extermination. Seig Heil Harris you Nazi.
3 years ago
This atheist bastard should try going to any islamic state and publicly deny the existence of allah, after all, he doesn’t need his empty head. Although generally speaking I’ve noticed atheists have no problems denying the existence of G-d but they seem mighty reluctant to publicly deny the existence of allah, the ballah.
3 years ago
There is zero reason for this post when there is so much material out there about how horrible Biden is – and not enough space to cover it all. Most people have NO idea who Sam Harris is, why is he de facto be given a platform on this important web site?
3 years ago
EVIL people just aren’t afraid to show themselves for who they really are anymore, are they?
Now, if we can find someone who will provide LEGAL JUSTICE for these sordid nasty people like Hunter, Biden, Hillary and the many others who THINK they know what is best for the rest of us, while they rob, steal, and deceive the American people, I WOULD BE SO ELATED AND SO WOULD THE REST OF SANE AMERICANS. THESE EVIL PEOPLE ARE GONNA BE SOOOOOOOO SURPRISED ON JUDGEMENT DAY, IF THEY DON’T ALREADY KNOW.
3 years ago
Irrational Sam Harris aka the rationalist.
A well spoken flibbertigibbet – who would have thought?
3 years ago
Reply to
1PierreMontagne1
There is no doubt that Harris is educated and able to hold his own in a debate, but for someone who proclaims to be knowledgeable and ‘professional’, I have seen him grossly twist and manipulate certain Christian scripture to fit his narrative. This is not professional – it is dishonest and intended only to mislead the listener.
Did I not already surmise the evil within Islamic scripture and practice, I would be tempted to doubt his criticism of it too. His latest ‘backtracking’ on Islamic violence, is only further evidence of his dishonesty.
3 years ago
Trump didn’t kill any muslims. So, in his very sound logic, Trump must slaughter many, many muslims to be morally superior to Bin Laden. Actually, that’s one point I can agree on, 100%.
3 years ago
The lengths some people will go to get their bad “friends” back
3 years ago
Who the hell is Sam Harris? Any relation to John Doe?
3 years ago
I used to enjoy reading a few of Harris’s books, in particularly on atheism. I’m now of the opinion that the man is less than a piece of excrement. I’m sure Richard Dawkins would agree with me.
3 years ago
I used to have some respect for this silly, little man. Now he’s just another foolish, brain-dead lefty with his head up his a$$.
3 years ago
Reply to
Mdog
Formerly a heretic among leftists in criticizing and telling the truth about Muslims and the nature of Islam, however reluctantly, timidly, and apologetically, Harris has gone mad since the election of Trump as President. Since then he has had dozens of podcasts and videos in which he excoriates and vilifies and demonizes Trump, 4 podcasts with David From, 6-hours of deranged and psychotic Trump hatred by two deranged and psychotic Trump haters. From what I’ve forced myself to endure of this unhinged, paranoid, hysterical, and apoplectic lunacy, the focus is almost entirely on morality and Trump’s style and personality, rarely on issues and their cultural-political ramifications, almost entirely on what he says as opposed to what he does and has done and intends to do, apart from psychotic and paranoid fears and warning of Trump being a “existential threat to democracy.
Claiming that Trump is more “despicable” and “reprehensible” then Bin Laden and other Muslim terrorists is the nadir and ne plus ultra of his obsessive and virulent and pathological insanity. I wonder if his descent into madness and obsession with Trump will continue now that Joe Biden, a corrupt and greedy shyster and demented and senile buffoon and criminal, appears to have defeated Trump and will soon be President, soon to be replaced by Kamala Harris, generally the most radical and extreme of all 100 current Senators.
3 years ago
Wow! I have been an admirer of Sam Harris’s intellect. Turns out he’s just another putz.
3 years ago
When I first read about Harris saying such things about President Trump I kinda thought it was some kind of joke, but now that I see he was serious I have unfriended him in every Social Media contact I had with him.
What a prick and somehow I didnt see this in him before, shame on me.
3 years ago
I was totally unfamiliar with who this “sam harris” thing is/was. So, off to a search engine. He’s a big time member of The Religion of Atheism.
’nuff said.
3 years ago
Who is Sam Harris and why did he rate a forum, here?
3 years ago
PLEASE DON’T ‘TALK’ ABOUT HIM – EVER! You’re giving him FREE PUBLICITY!
WE ALL KNOW HE’S A PIG.
3 years ago
Hey Sammy, are you still Banging your Biological Mother ?
