Comments on: Andy Kindler Doesn’t Know What (Or Who) He’s Talking About

By: crashburn32

crashburn32 — Thu, 13 Apr 2017 06:39:47 +0000

I guess I’m the only atheist Kindler doesn’t have a problem with….

By: Roger

Roger — Thu, 06 Apr 2017 20:50:07 +0000

During the podcast Kindler days he doesn’t know anything about Harris and has tweeted that he won’t read anything Harris has written. Yet he’s willing to publicly make claims about Harris’ beliefs which he cannot know. Wouldn’t that make him a bigot?

By: scottoest

scottoest — Fri, 31 Mar 2017 19:18:10 +0000

I don’t know anything about Kindler’s portfolio or writing, so I can’t comment there. If you thought the above-quoted nonsense was an example of him acquitting himself well, I suspect you and I get off on different floors.

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. This is the definition of being a mindless blowhard.

By: bootjangler1

bootjangler1 — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 20:40:58 +0000

I could say I don’t care about this at all.

And I do wonder why the likes of Sam Harris bothers with inconsequential podcasts, bloggers and some You Tube Channels.

By: Simon

Simon — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 16:27:51 +0000

Listening to the podcast, I couldn’t quite put my finger on who this guy reminded me of. Then it hit me. Trump! 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. WTF?). I could go on. I defy anyone to re-listen and not see the similarities.

By: Chester Winslow

Chester Winslow — Mon, 27 Mar 2017 21:09:35 +0000

Perfectly true that Europe has a problem with IS and immigration. It is not the same in the US – because of the ocean and because the vetting procedures are apparently more robust, but in concept it is a valid concern. 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. Sam has made the point many times, however, that if the goal is to reduce jihad-ism and violence related to Islam, then it’s a good thing to allow immigration of Muslims who are willing to adapt to western ideals relative to free speech, women’s rights etc. – that has never struck me as the point of view of a “bigot”. Andy Kindler has a very black and white point of view, however, and he is clearly not interested in nuance. Trump supporters share the same deficiency on many topics.

By: Dermot O'Sullivan

Dermot O'Sullivan — Mon, 27 Mar 2017 19:45:40 +0000

The IS-infiltrating-Europe-as-refugees story is true. At least two of the Paris attackers came through the Greek island of Leros. German police last year arrested a 17 year-old who had returned from IS training in Raqqa, the Caliphate’s capital, on the Turkey-Greece refugee route. IS would be fools not to use refugees as cover, especially after Merkel’s unilateral opening of the borders.

So Trump actually has a point based in fact that IS does use the Syrian refugee crisis as cover: in fact ex-members of Assad’s Shabiha, the rape-and-death squads, have turned up in Sweden and the Netherlands. They presumably use the refugee route as well.

The US in this case is lucky as there is an ocean between it and Syria. But everyone who knows anything about IS’s relations with what AQ called the ‘far enemy’ knows that it is happy to advise remote atrocity-baggers like Omar Mateen and the San Bernadino 2 and to honour them as their ‘soldiers’. That was their strategy even before they started losing ground in the Caliphate. Indeed it was their MO even before they had a Caliphate. The first IS UK attack was in 2007, the Glasgow airport attack. Their first foreign attack was in Jordan in 2002.

It’s imaginable but almost completely impractical for them to get into the US as Syrian refugees: at least one extra hoop to jump through.

By: Isosceles Kramer

Isosceles Kramer — Mon, 27 Mar 2017 17:46:13 +0000

Andy Kindler is a hack.

By: alexi

alexi — Mon, 27 Mar 2017 17:44:03 +0000

I’ve seen no evidence of that

By: Chester Winslow

Chester Winslow — Mon, 27 Mar 2017 17:23:46 +0000

Kindler states his problem pretty clearly about halfway through when he says, ” …I’m not an expert on anything, except what I believe in, I believe in very strongly.” That’s how Trump got elected – by an army of people who don’t know anything except what they believe, and they have no interest in listening or engaging in thoughtful discussion. It’s that sort of knee-jerk dogmatism that is central to religious belief and that Harris, Krauss, Dawkins, Hicthens, Maher, Gervais, etc. have been speaking out against. On the left it takes the form of Andy Kindler. 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. It’s not any specific ideas that made the space for Trump to get elected, it’s intellectual dishonesty.