#455 — More From Sam: Guns, Propaganda, AI, and Power Unbound

In this latest episode of the More From Sam series, Sam and Jaron talk about current events. They discuss the killing of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, the lack of outrage from gun culture, the escalating humanitarian crisis in Iran, Melania Trump's pay-to-play documentary deal, the societal implications of AI-driven job displacement, the fascistic social media imagery of the Trump administration, Sam's youthful misadventures with psychedelics in Muir Woods, and other topics. If the Making Sense podcast logo in your player is BLACK, you can SUBSCRIBE to gain access to all full-length episodes at samharris.org/subscribe http://samharris.org/subscribe.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:06Sam Harris?

  Welcome to the Making Sense Podcast. This is Sam Harris. Just a note to say that if you're hearing this, you're not currently on our subscriber feed, and will only be hearing the first part of this conversation. In order to access full episodes of the Making Sense Podcast, you'll need to subscribe at samharris.org. We don't run ads on the podcast, and therefore it's made possible entirely through the support of our subscribers. So if you enjoy what we're doing here, please consider becoming one.

• 0:37Speaker 01

  Okay, we're back with another episode of More From Sam. Hi, Sam.

• 0:40Sam Harris?

  Hey.

• 0:41Speaker 01

  How you doing?

• 0:41Sam Harris?

  Good to see you.

• 0:41Speaker 01

  Good to see you too. Before we begin, I just want to quickly run through yet again, your upcoming shows. LA was amazing, by the way.

• 0:48Sam Harris?

  Yeah, that was a good crowd.

• 0:50Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was a great one. Again, for the audience, Sam will be giving a talk in a number of cities in North America this year. Next week, we are in Dallas and Austin. And March, we're in Portland and Vancouver. And then May, we're in Toronto, DC, and wrapping up things again in New York. If you'd like tickets, you can find all the information at samharris.org. And also, I just have to announce that yesterday, the Waking Up app was named App of the Day in the Apple Store.

• 1:15Sam Harris?

  Oh, yeah, that's great.

• 1:16Speaker 01

  Yeah, like all overnight sensations, it only took us seven years.

• 1:19Sam Harris?

  Yeah.

• 1:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, in the making.

• 1:21Sam Harris?

  Yeah, I don't know what took so long, but that was, hopefully that's helpful. Graphically, it all looks great.

• 1:26Speaker 01

  It looks amazing. I think they did a great job. The app is bigger than ever, and I can only imagine it's at least due in part to many of the things we discuss here on the podcast. So if you're listening right now and been meaning to try it out, you can find Waking Up in the App Store, but now with a big shiny Apple endorsement. All right, last week, we began in Minneapolis, and this week, we're unfortunately back in Minneapolis again with another utterly depressing killing, this time of Alex Preddy, again by what appears to be very poorly trained ICE officers. What's happened there?

• 1:56Sam Harris?

  Oh, yeah, beyond. I don't even know. I mean, this is poorly trained, poorly vetted. I mean, this is just people who are not behaving like law enforcement officers that are recognizable. The most amazing thing about this killing, apart from how Pointless and horrible it was is the response or lack of response from the gun owners of America. I mean, there's been a few tepid complaints from gun organizations, but we would be in a completely different world if this had happened under Biden or Kamala Harris presidency. I'm as astonished by this lack of outrage as by anything that's happened in this last year or so.

• 2:38Sam Harris?

  Because this, more than anything that has happened in my lifetime, is a complete repudiation of the Second Amendment. We have millions of Americans who have been telling us for their entire adult lives that the Second Amendment is basically the central precept of their civic religion. And unlike some gun owners like myself, the real reason to care about it and to own firearms is on the account of these people, not for home defense, but for the remote chance that we're going to find ourselves in the presence of a federal government that is acting tyrannically. They've been preparing for this moment their entire lives, or so they've said. And where the hell are they?

• 3:20Sam Harris?

  Right? I think if that Preddy killing had happened under Kamala Harris, the next ICE deployment or the next Border Patrol, even more relevantly in this case, because they're the ones who killed him, would be shadowed by 500 guys with AR-15s. Right? I mean, it's just, it's unimaginable to me that they're having this lack of response. Because what we saw from the president and vice president to Kristi Noem to Cash Patel to Stephen Miller, the odious Stephen Miller, we had a full court press in one direction denying the reality of the Second Amendment. I mean, just simply saying that if you're carrying firearms in any kind of proximity to federal law enforcement,

• 4:03Sam Harris?

  that is very likely a death sentence and should be. Right? I mean, add to that the fact that they called him a terrorist and an assassin who's clearly bent on massacre and just automatically lied, once again, in impossible ways, because we all saw the footage. He never reached for his gun. He was fully disarmed, restrained, and then they shot him. They put 10 rounds in his body and killed him for no apparent reason. Where is gun culture on this? It's completely insane. I'm just, I mean, again, I'm as mystified by this as anything I've seen so far.

• 4:34Speaker 01

  I want to discuss a different reaction online that I saw. I want you to watch a bit of this clip and then I'll share Megyn Kelly's takeaway. And then I want to get your reaction to all of this. Can we play that clip, please?

• 4:44Speaker 02

  This is a moment the news movement filmed on January 13th in Minneapolis, showing a man who appears to be Alex Preddy, interacting with federal immigration agents 11 days before Border Patrol shot and killed him. Our footage was analyzed by the BBC, whose facial recognition technology confirmed his identity to a 97% degree of accuracy.

• 5:07Speaker 01

  Okay, so here's what she said. Alex Preddy was itching for another confrontation with Border Patrol, whom he'd been stalking, harassing, and terrorizing. He had been victimizing them. His felonies are on tape. He was reckless and it cost him his life. Find another poster boy, illegal, loving leftist. So, why can't she be mostly right but entirely wrong?

• 5:25Sam Harris?

  It doesn't matter what happened 11 days before. It doesn't matter who he is. I mean, honestly, he could have been some kind of hardened criminal that they knew they were apprehending for cause, right? And they find a gun on his belt. They disarm him. That's it. They don't kill him. Once he is restrained, and he, again, he never reached for his gun. They found it on his belt when they were wrestling with him. And I mean, that engagement, you know, the fact that they went hands-on at that point seemed totally illegitimate, but let's just say it was fine, right? Let's just say they, they had reason to force him to the ground, pepper spray him, etc. Again, the video doesn't suggest that, but even if you're going to price all of that in and give them the benefit of the doubt,

• 6:09Sam Harris?

  what then happened is they discovered a gun on his belt. You see one cop grab it and, and walk away. And then you see him shot by, I don't know how many guys. I think it was at least two for no reason. There's nothing about this video that changes that picture.

• 6:26Speaker 01

  Well, I'm saying, but even if he did those things in real time, which is what you're saying, and he kicked the cop car and he grabbed the cop, all of those things. So, what I'm saying that is that even if he did all those things in the video and he did it in real time to the cops, Megyn Kelly can be right about saying, you don't behave this way. You, there are better ways to protest. You can do all those things, but I guess I'm just utterly shocked that the conclusion would be the cost of any of this would be losing your life.

• 6:52Sam Harris?

  Yeah, well, so the thing I'm focusing on here, though, I mean, the thing that truly astounds me is that, I mean, yes, all of this is true. This is not the way you want to behave as a protester. I have no idea who this guy was. I mean, obviously, he was immediately vilified by the federal government at every level, which is insane, right? We shouldn't have a government that does that. But even if he was the worst person on earth, the way he was killed, the fact that he was killed and the subsequent statements about that killing are shocking, right? And they're, and they're especially shocking for how completely they repudiate the Second Amendment. I mean, that, that's the thing that I just cannot get my head around, that

• 7:29Sam Harris?

  half of America that cares so deeply about gun rights, uh, or whatever it is, let's say, so let's just say it's 25% of America that really cares deeply. Let's just say it's 10 million people for whom it's their, their single issue. Where the hell are they?

• 7:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, well, I'm sure we'll continue to talk about this on future episodes, unfortunately, but we got to move on to another topic. Iran. It seems that last time we said it was 12,000 to 15,000 people who'd maybe been killed. Now that number looks to be closer or over 30,000. Anything new to add to this?

• 8:00Sam Harris?

  Yeah, well, I don't know how reliable these numbers are, but you know, obviously Trump's demand that they not kill their protesters went unheard. Perhaps we're getting ready to respond to that, that atrocity. You know, there's, I've heard some news that we're moving, you know, necessary equipment into the, into the region. So it remains to be seen what's going to happen there. I mean, I, I wouldn't be surprised if we respond. And again, I do think it's sad we didn't do it earlier, but I do think we should give whatever help we can give to toppling this regime and rolling the dice with whatever is the aftermath. Again, this is up, kind of up for, to the Iranian people to figure out what the aftermath will be. And I don't know what to hope for there, but you know, preserving this regime

• 8:43Sam Harris?

  as it is, is, seems to be in, in no sane person's interest, so.

• 8:48Speaker 01

  Well, we don't need to spend too much time on this next topic, but Candace Owens was apparently confused this week when she tweeted back online after internet blackout. I grew up in Connecticut and have truly never seen an ice like this ever. The temperature is 30 degrees, but the ice on our treetops is not melting at all. Never seen anything like this. Anybody else?

• 9:08Speaker 01

  So

• 9:09Sam Harris?

  Thirty degrees?

• 9:09Speaker 01

  Thirty degrees and the ice is not melting.

• 9:12Sam Harris?

  Huh.

• 9:13Speaker 01

  That's what you're That's what you're dealing with there.

• 9:15Sam Harris?

  She never understood much about climate. I remember going round and round with her around climate change. And there's a famous clip where she was on Joe Rogan's podcast many years ago, pretending to be a climatologist. So

• 9:29Speaker 01

  For that week.

• 9:30Sam Harris?

  I guess the weather is also mystifying.

• 9:32Speaker 01

  Yeah, well, while we're on the topic of climate concerns, is there anything you want to update here? I feel like there are so many things to worry about these days that existential climate risk has fallen out of the top 10.

• 9:42Sam Harris?

  Oh, yeah, nobody's got time to worry about that. It's just, it's too slow moving and it's, it's too hypothetical. You know, it would be great if we lived in a world where we could look at things that subtle, but where, you know, we've got, it's like the house is on fire and worrying about the climate is, I can't even imagine the climatologists have got all their bandwidth for the climate these days.

• 10:07Speaker 01

  We can't worry about emergencies six months away. Forget about anything beyond that. I do want to add some good news here. I saw that we've had over 150 hurricanes on record make landfall in the Gulf of Mexico through 2024 since they've been keeping track. But last year, after Trump changed the name to Gulf of America, ask me how many hurricanes we've had since then.

• 10:26Sam Harris?

  Yeah, how many have we had?

• 10:27Speaker 01

  Exactly, none. Let's give credit where credit is due. Got to celebrate those victories.

• 10:30Sam Harris?

  He is sharpie. I mean, if push comes to shove, he can just draw a different path to the hurricane and, and save many, many lives that way.

• 10:38Speaker 01

  Well, and while we're on funny things, I saw a clip this morning of Nicki Minaj walking out on stage with President Trump at some event. I don't know if you saw it.

• 10:45Sam Harris?

  No, really?

• 10:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, we gotta, let's play a bit of that clip for a few seconds.

• 10:50Speaker 03

  I am probably the president's number one fan.

• 10:59Speaker 03

  And that's not going to change.

• 11:02Speaker 01

  It reminded me of something, and many, many are claiming that you might be the next great prognosticator right up there with Alex Jones, because I want to play this clip of you from 2016 on Robyn's podcast.

• 11:14Sam Harris?

  If you'd like to continue listening to this conversation, you'll need to subscribe at samharris.org. Once you do, you'll get access to all full-length episodes of the Making Sense podcast. The Making Sense podcast is ad-free and relies entirely on listener support, and you can subscribe now at samharris.org.