Richard Dawkins has gone from anti-religious to obliviously prejudiced. I know I know, he’s always been dismissive of religion, and I still agree with much of his attitude, but after this tweet:
Listening to the lovely bells of Winchester, one of our great mediaeval cathedrals. So much nicer than the aggressive-sounding “Allahu Akhbar.” Or is that just my cultural upbringing? pic.twitter.com/TpCkq9EGpw
— Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) July 16, 2018
He leaves me with a certain ickyness. And you can’t ignore the seemingly clueless ending question. His response to criticism of that tweet contained further cluelessness:
The call to prayer can be hauntingly beautiful, especially if the muezzin has a musical voice. My point is that “Allahu Akhbar” is anything but beautiful when it is heard just before a suicide bomb goes off. That is when Islam is tragically hijacked by violence.
— Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) July 18, 2018
Sam Harris has always been problematic for me. I liked some of his writing at the time of the New (Angry) Atheist movement that came into being 5-or-so years ago, but even then he had–like Dawkins–a little too specific an anger for Islam as opposed to Islam’s cruelly manic adherents. And I unfortunately was introduced to his podcast via his Jordan Peterson interview [ed. blech]. Needless to say etc., it didn’t hook me.
Glenn Greenwald’s interviews with Snowden and release of documents outlining the craaaazy overreach of our intelligence agencies’ molesting of citizen’s rights were and are to be praised. The “liberated” documents most likely weakened our intelligence community’s power and even safety around the world, but that result must be viewed against the level of their abuses against privacy. Extreme, unchecked power may need a certain lawlessness to be corrected.
Still, his recent whataboutism towards anything America is erratically out-of-balance with reality. His argument that Trump’s position against Germany getting oil from Russia exonerates Trump from any collusion-adjacent crimes is… batshit.
One of Putin’s highest priorities – one of Russia’s most vital projects – is a new gas pipeline between it and Germany under the Baltic Sea. Trump is vehemently opposed to it & is bashing it mercilessly. Is this relevant to any of the theories being aired? https://t.co/yjeGxfgeus pic.twitter.com/YPcCxaWohg
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) July 11, 2018
Julian Assange. I had defended him, to a point, when the sexual assault allegations came out. There were many facts around the case that suggested innocence as much as guilt. I haven’t revisited that since and really don’t have the intellectual energy to care. I respect his founding of Wikileaks and, like Snowden’s document leak, believe there’s a need for such David/Goliath levelings of playing fields. Now, both he and Wikileaks are likely being manipulated by Russia to serve their ends. Are there truths in the releases? Certainly. Was there manipulation before? Most likely. And yet today the releases are used to attack considerably lesser evils with a laser-guided adherence to the media cycle and in support of a barbarous regime. To a certain degree, David has become Goliath.
Still, I’m a little bit hypocritical.