May 7, 2018
Unlike our discussion with scheduled guests, live streams with Ali and Armin will be streaming live publicly. On these live streams, we'll take pre-requested questions from our Patrons (Mossad's Shoe tier +) and questions from anyone present during the live chat if we run out of Patron requested questions. We also might be joined by some of our Patrons as co-hosts (Jew Lover tier +).
Watch the video version of this show: https://www.patreon.com/posts/ex-muslims-ali-18147805
Here is the link to all our scheduled live Q&A sessions. Join us live next time and ask your question: https://www.facebook.com/events/172503603405302/
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Patron questions:
Brian:
Hi Armin. I’d like to know if you think recent events have
cost Linda Sarsour credibility. Like her women’s march openly
supporting Farrakhan. She seems terribly anti-Semitic to be and
doesn’t seem to be friendly with apostate Muslims. Do you think she
will lose support from the center-left?
Gareth:
Hi Armin,
Here is one I thought of:
Do you think that mocking religious beliefs reduces suffering in
the world? If so, why?
Anyway, good luck with the show, and thanks for doing it! 🙂
Alex:
1: Armin, you often explain your preference for promoting leaving
Islam altogether, as opposed to reform or substituting another
ideology like nationalism.
i) have you found that this option is much more viable for young
people, as oppose to middle-aged and older people who have spent
their whole lives as Muslims and either feel its too late to change
their mind (sunk cost fallacy) or are simply so entrenched in the
ideology/community/culture etc. that they simply cannot or will not
part with their beliefs. ie: under what circumstances would you
encourage reform or the adherence to another, while still false,
less harmful ideology.
ii) your preference for leaving Islam completely as opposed to a
more piecemeal rout is justified by the assertion that any other
ideology (nationalism, reformed Islam etc) is still a 'bull shit
story'. In Yuval Noah Harrari's book Sapiens he suggests that most
human activity is based on these kinds of narratives; human rights,
secular values etc. are also just stories we tell ourselves. We
would agree that these stories are much better than Islam, however,
is we are dealing entirely in a space of narrative, then we are
really on a continuum of narratives, with some better than others.
I don't expect this re-conceptualization to change your preference
for the ex-Muslim movement but I'm wondering if you can defend your
position in this context, which at first would make it seem like
any movement in a positive direction (including reform) would be a
good thing, but your position would be to draw a line on the
continuum and say that it should be crossed otherwise the movement
is not really worth it.
2: Ali, you have spoken about being a free speech absolutist.
Whenever this position is defended I always hear the phrase,
'sunlight is the best disinfectant.' It is a great metaphor but is
still just a metaphor. I wonder if you can bring it into much more
concrete terms: how does bring ideas 'into the light' 'disinfect'
them? this seems to rely on a 'truth shall set you fee' sort of
principal, that upon hearing the truth, people will have no choice
but to prescribe to it. Put this way, it starts to break down in
light of people's ability to continue to believe plain falsehoods
even in the face of mountain evidence. the very existence of
religion for example, or climate change denial etc. While I don't
mean to question free speech in principle, how can we be so
confident that it will truly lead towards the truth and not the
opposite? In other words, to continue the metaphor, we can explain
the chemical process that is disinfecting, I'm wondering if you can
convert this explanation back to the sphere of free speech.
Eric McIntyre:
Have you read Kanan Makiya's "Republic of Fear" about Saddam
Hussein's Iraq and what do you make of it? Also, what do you make
of Christopher Hitchens and Nick Cohen's support for the Iraq War,
which were largely based on Makiya's arguments. More broadly, when
the cause of anti-Totalitarianism and the cause of anti-Imperialism
are in direct conflict, how do you prioritize them?