Comments by "" (@tekannon7803) on "What Have We Learned from the Pandemic?: A Conversation with Nicholas Christakis" video.

  1. Sam Harris has done it again with one of the most amazing guests and this time with the brilliant and articulate Professor Christakis. I'm coming in at timestamp 1:11:27and I think you in America have to agree that former President Donald J. Trump has himself acted like a stubborn media-virus in which no vaccine as yet has been invented to see him fade away from public view and world consciousness. I'm only repeating people like Jacques, who says that Trump has done irreparable damage to your Republic and to America's relations around the world. Jacques goes on to list what he thinks Trump has done to your country and one only hopes he's not right. What is disturbing in a country like America is how once one is catapulted to the world stage via being president for example, a person can be dishonest, a charlatan and a fountain of alternative facts and outright lies and still hold people's attention and have followers who are die-hard supporters no matter what allegations prove true about him. Once in the public eye a person gets a teflon contract practically for life and a permit to be a clown and get away with murder in terms of evil deeds and deceitful behavior. It beggar's belief that there is actual talk of Trump running again for president in 2024, but turn on any TV or Cable TV news show and it keeps getting discussed. It's sad because former President Trump is such an unAMERICAN person to begin with. American's don't lie; they don't need to; they tell it like it is. Where did Trump go to school? Don't answer that... When you hear the clarity of thought and the wisdom of discourse that Professor Christakis speaks from his heatrt and his open mind and higher thinking, it is a sad symptom of the way the fates are that someone like him isn't in your nation's highest office. But what is our dilemma as a global family is how social media and mainstream media hold sway over public opinion at such an alarming rate in the ever-increasing ways. I wrote to Tim Cook today if he could come up with an App that would be able to be inacted as an option that would group e-mails, messages, phone calls and everything else and signal to the person every 20 minutes--3 times an hour, for example. This would end the constant pocket to hand to eye to screen that is making us all act like pidgeons to corn kernels. That America is heading towards being a dystopian society is a day to day thought on a lot of people's minds, but until a way is found to get people in an emotional state able to be fact-checked, I think we're all in trouble. However; could your problem be solved by Professor Christakis' suggestion of asking what proof someone needs to sign up for a vaccine or believe in a Corporation's message or a politician's policy? Maybe that's the answer: start asking what people need to see to get off their fantasy island. Religious folks will of course be the last train out of the station of reality, but new thinking has to be employed. Lastly, I would like to say to Sam Harris a hearty thank you for bringing to the world so many interesting vidcasts and to offer his own brand of worldly wisdom which has caused many people to question their own beliefs. We wish Sam and Professor Christakis some very Happy Holidays to their colleagues and friends and families and a fine end to a very challenging year for everyone in the world. Unlike Sam, for me this year, I literally cannot remember back to January. But emotional vulcanos were erupting all the way through it making it an extremely long year that seems to have been so full of events that I can't believe in two weeks it will be over, but it will be and 2022 will be a game changer. I think everyone feels that something is going to boil over. In a final nod to a great thinker, Christopher Hitchings' passing 10 years ago makes us see that on the flip side of social media's annoying habit of getting a buffoon like Trump on the world stage, there is still hope because it also means fine talented intellectuals like Hitch and Sam Harris and Professor Christakis will always have a place on center stage as well.
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