It won't work if I don't think you mean it

If you want to think I think you're a good person then go ahead.

That's all I'm asking

There's also no champagne in the Champagne Room.

Just a heads up.

They must think there is an identical store in the back room, but all the shelves are stocked.

Like Coraline but the button-eyed clerk can actually help you.

elph reminds me more of WALL · E than Coraline. WALL · E was just going through the emotions, bummed out with the drudgery of sorting a stowing thing away.

I admit I used to like Sam Harris. Eventually this started to fade. Now I actively dislike him and his podcast and his meditation course.

Key problems:

He strawmans every debate rival as disingenuous and/or hysterical and eventually accuses them of character assassination and acting in a dangerous “bad faith” manner.

He’s obsessed with downplaying the significance of white supremacy.

He’s not qualified to teach mindfulness meditation and drives very far out of his lane in his course.

He argues that putting his content behind a paywall is good for his listeners even though he’s already rich.

He’s never been poor. He brags about his time in Asia but he never worked in Asian economies. Obviously his parents sponsored his time in Asia and his education because he had no income at the time. I worked in Asia and paid for my travels completely on my own so I’m not especially impressed that he was there on someone else’s dime.

He thinks LSD and MDMA provide a shortcut to enlightenment and frequently tells the same drug stories again and again. This is only a partial truth. These drugs offer a new look at consciousness and LSD can create ego death but you can’t recreate it without using the drug again and then you fall on diminishing returns.

He can’t see things from the perspective of people who have different experiences.

He acts like verbal attacks are as damaging as physical attacks.

He considers himself a neuroscientist but he hasn’t contributed a single thing to the field. A scientist does experiments and publishes results for peer review. He hasn’t done that.

But Harris is the only one who uses Buddhist practices and claims he’s taken the BS out of it. In reality he’s worse because he still pretends he’s a guru even though there’s no tradition to back him. Self-appointed gurus who claim not to be are often the worst. The possibility that he’s doing harm doesn’t occur to him because he’s so arrogant.