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Comment by downbad_ | Hacker News Reader

Wasted?

I think so, personally. I wouldn't bank a lot on "the soul" per se, but Dawkins is absolutely one of those "smart but not wise" people.

I imagine people don't dig it because it can be woo and vibey, but the older I get the more I understand the value of the "imprecise" metaphysical/religious/etc whatever you want to call it.

Someone in this space who handles this very well, unlike Dawkins, is Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

Wise man Nassim Taleb who voted for Trump to help Palestinians and now Gaza and 10% increasing of the country he was born in is rubble.

Maybe the lesson is that all those public intellectuals are not that wise and we should follow people more that stay in their lane.

Quite a few people appear to have voted against Harris because they thought Biden didn't do enough to help the Palestinians. I can't imagine how they thought Trump would be better, but somehow they did.

do you have a source for the claim that he voted for Trump?

A few high-profile Muslims spoke out against Harris. This means every Muslim American voted for Trump. Obviously.

He's a Lebanese Greek Orthodox Christian, not a Muslim.

It's an even stupider assumption, then!

He had a few tweets about how Trump is better for peace in the middle east (https://x.com/nntaleb/status/1847252132665114887 ). And then he posted about "voting against genocide" https://x.com/nntaleb/status/1849547336143245549/photo/1 . That's when I unfollowed him and that's where the assumption is coming from.

( Also note the "Trump comes out against regime change in Iran: We can’t get totally involved…We can’t even run ourselves" thing in the first post, lol)

He hinted at it on twitter. But looking now claims he voted for a third party candidate ( https://x.com/nntaleb/status/1910066542399967268 ) . Doesn't make it much better because of the first-past the post voting system. Also he has a bit of influence and when he hints Trump is better on the Palestine issue, people might make this influence their decision ( https://x.com/nntaleb/status/1841515651820576902 ).

Yeah, I'll grant you that one. I don't think he necessarily voted for Trump, and for me he did a good job of explaining Trump's appeal.

But also, there is some sadly common brand of stupid that Taleb fell victim to when it came to thinking about Harris v. Trump on matters in the Middle East.

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