"Hi, I'd like to talk about these things but I take issue with your presentation and will therefore quiz you relentlessly," is not debate.
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That a person as intelligent, competent and well-exercised in debate as Harris appears not to know is an indication of ulterior motive.
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A common technique to make your counterpart look bad is to debate in bad faith, to throw up pointless verbal games like Harris does here.
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This is in no way a defense of Chomsky's views in general, btw, although I do agree with him on his interpretation of the plant bombing.
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A characteristic of all the so-called New Atheists is that they appear to be very convinced they, themselves, lack petty motivations.
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That's a take which is laughable to anyone who understands half as much about human motivation as they profess to do. It shows, here.
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"I, Sam Harris, am here to engage you in fruitful conversation. What constitutes fruitful conversation is equal to my definition of such."
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The attempt to find common ground is visibly disingenuous, inasmuch as the easiest way to find common ground is to respond directly.
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... not to entangle the person *you approached for debate* in some morass of verbal cliches and thought experiments.
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In that sense, Chomsky's anger and vitriol is both entirely justified and entirely expected, regardless of what you may think of his views.
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To me the only standout criticism of Chomsky here is that his language is insufferably academic and stilted. But so too with Harris!
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Lastly, the implication that Harris published this letter "just to show the difficulty of debating" is completely, utterly ridiculous.
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Who would do such a pathetic thing? Does anyone need a demonstration that debate, particularly hostile debate, is hard?
Be honest...
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