Home
Creators
Search Recent Random
Posts
Search DMs Popular Hash Lookup Tags Random
Importer
Import FAQ
Register Favorites Keys Review DMs Logout
Community
Telegram ThePornDude
Home Creators Posts Import Register Favorites Logout

In the Valley of the Sensemakers (Interview on Rebel Wisdom) (Patreon)

Published:
2022-03-30 04:44:25
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

Content

Hey everyone,

Some of you might enjoy this interview I did with David Fuller of Rebel Wisdom about... well Decoding the Gurus, appropriate skepticism, the IDW & heterodox spheres, our biases, etc.

I think it was a fair interview and David asks good questions/makes good arguments. We disagree on some things on a fundamental level but as with Eiynah I think there is value in these kind of meta discussions as long as you know what you are getting into.

Interested to hear anyone's thoughts or sense making efforts!

Also, I was very amused with the profile image David selected. He asked me for some headshots and I sent him the only ones I have and included some joke ones. He ran with the joke one which I approve of!

The response from his audience also hasn't been *that* negative, which is always nice to see.

P.S. Part of the reason Matt was not there is that the interview took place at 3am!

Files

Criticism & Online Gurus, Chris Kavanagh

Chris Kavanagh is a cognitive anthropologist, and the co-host of the increasingly popular and influential podcast 'Decoding the Gurus'. This is a podcast that critiques many of the new breed of public intellectuals, including some who have been featured on Rebel Wisdom. Together with co-host, psychologist Matt Browne, they analyse the methods and messages of what they've described as 'secular gurus'. This is an important conversation, about the necessity of criticism, of what counts as good and bad faith, and how truth seeking gets warped. It's a controversial project for many, and in this conversation, Rebel Wisdom's David Fuller puts many of those criticisms to Chris directly. Alongside this video, David Fuller has written a detailed and exhaustive analysis on Substack, highly recommended to read: https://rebelwisdom.substack.com/p/decoding-the-gurus-and-the-necessity?r=ye9pq&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Also referenced in the conversation are: An earlier recording with Chris 'Criticising the IDW': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByZCCmQVPdg Chris's presentation of the 'Gurometer' at The Stoa: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EazLoBk9gA Peter Limberg's 'Memetic Tribes of Culture War 2.0' piece: https://medium.com/s/world-wide-wtf/memetic-tribes-and-culture-war-2-0-14705c43f6bb

Comments

Andy First

Love the leprechaun pic

Rasterisk

Chris was thoughtful and thorough as usual but David comes across as sensitive & nitpicky, especially about Jordan Peterson. (How can anyone *not* make fun of that tux? And how do you steelman a sentient word salad?) That guy needs thicker skin & a sense of humor.

Richard DV

David seems like a good guy but he seems like he’s way too much on line. He strikes me as the really keen new acolyte who struggles to articulate beyond the course handbook. His language is full of these ‘in crowd’ statements that put me off him. Who speaks like that ? It feels a bit alienating and psychobabbly … I am really not sure why the IDW had such a profound effect on him and others, didn’t anyone read books and papers before there ‘intellectual giants’ came along ? Peterson has turned out to be unstable and full of hate and the way that people like Rubin, Rogan, Shapiro et al carry on, why shouldn’t there be some criticism and a clipping of their wings ? The self importance is there to be shot at IMO

MaxPlan

I get David's criticism about his issue with DtG criticizing people instead of taking what these people say in insolation. But come on, these people build a brand, they don't give their ideas in insolation, they use their brand to brand to promote their ideas. How many times have we listen to JBP say that we should listen to him because has read a lot about fascism, or Bret & Heather when they keep reminding us that they are two evolutionary biologists that know what is going on in the culture wars because the woke came for them. Also, has David listened to the content of these people make? Bret & Eric love to talk about specific people too and how what they are doing is destroying western civilization. Bret with his beef with Carol Greider, and his hatred of Fauci.

Jenny

David seems like a sincere enough guy but come on with the false equivalency! The gurus wield their rhetoric outwardly to influence their followers to do damage to themselves (by lying about things like vaccines) or to others by stoking fear of amorphous bogeymen (liberals, globalists, whatever), whereas you direct your efforts toward the gurus themselves by dismantling their bullshit. You’re not whipping up armies of people to go out and fight against a non-existent enemy. Sheesh. Would he criticize the Knowledge Fight guys for being mean to Alex Jones or not giving him a fair hearing?

Jason Trock

How can David take himself this seriously? Dude needs to get offline for a hot second.