I knew Jesse attracted some rather unhinged followers on account of being at least nominally "anti-woke" but I'm surprised to see this amount of pushback in the comments of a paid post to what is a very reasonable accounting of a very crazy man's batshit worldview.
*Restoring this comment to its former glory at the request of Cait. Slightly longer and harder as well*
Since the comments seem to be going wild, I’d like to leave my wildest, most off topic, totally-understandable if you need delete and ban me comment of all time:
There’s no way you could convince me that Bret Weinstein isn’t hung. It is the single most parsimonious explanation for everything else that makes him notable to the public eye.
1) The way he stood in front of all those students at Evergreen as if he had a secret power that would prevent him from getting hurt. Just watch that video in YouTube and tell me he isn’t packing heat.
2) The way his brother Eric seems to always be really insecure despite having a lot of objectively great accomplishments as if he was comparing himself as a man against someone he could never match. Brent may be a biologist, but Eric’s adult insecurities can directly be tied back to Brent’s incomparable pipe-laying abilities.
3) His wife seems to be genuinely turned on whenever he corrects her on a minor point in the few episodes of their podcast I’ve seen. Have you ever had someone seem thrilled to be corrected? Only one explanation fits.
4) His general high level of confidence about everything all the time as denoted above. Like he has something no one can take away from him that gives him superior and intrinsic value. Also when you have to use that much blood to power two heads you’re bound to just get things wrong from time to time.
In comparison to all other men I have known who were so blessed he is a perfect match. Just this laid back confident, generous air, but also it doesn’t necessarily strongly relate to what is actually going on around him because there’s a center of gravity in him so powerful that it distorts the nearby reality. In conclusion, all I’m saying is that if he ever makes the transition to OnlyFans I will subscribe for one day just to finally know.
Our long era of unrest in the late 2010s/early 2020s really did break some people. I know a few myself. They got so alienated by wokies and/or extreme COVID hawks that they just kept drifting further into crazyland.
My suggestion to them: get offline more. Spend more time with real people in the real world. Find things to do that are apolitical, or at least close to it. It'll help. It really will.
The thing is, many "deranged conspiracy theories" turn out to be true. You don't even need to go back as far as MK Ultra. Remember when talking about a lab-leak in Wuhan was one of those deranged conspiracy theories? We were instead supposed to follow the oh-so-reasonable theories about bats and pangolins at a wet market. You're very dismissive of Alex Jones, just asserting that he's a liar in an "everyone knows" sort of way. You want to call out Weinstein and/or Jones for specific things they said or did, then fine, that's valuable. Just making a broad assumption that someone is a "deranged conspiracy theorist" and therefore shouldn't be listened to is not. You might as well go work for MSNBC.
When I was a biology undergrad in the early 2010s, what I heard from my professors about the inventor of PCR was
1) he got very rich
2) he became a crank
3) he moved to Hawaii to live a life of luxurious leisure
I also have a hard time believing someone who worked in higher education didn’t know that some Chinese people would really, really like to be Americans. It didn’t take long for me to figure out that many Chinese nationals at American universities had at best mixed feelings about their homeland and at worst would tell you their life’s goal was to get US citizenship.
Thanks, Jesse. The comments here are as fascinating as the article. I’m as surprised about Bret’s trajectory as you. He could have evolved into a valuable source of useful doubt, but didn’t. Is he an example of audience capture?
I briefly followed Weinstein on Twitter after the Evergreen College thing, but it became apparent that he was just another right-wing troll. I'm sorry, though not especially surprised, to learn that he's gotten so much worse than that.
There's only about 100 million other people who think man-made global warming is a colossal hoax (including countless credentialed, if cancelled, scientists). Also, the theory that HIV causes AIDS is questioned by many credible people. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has at least two chapters of "The Real Anthony Fauci" on the backstory of the "settled science" about AIDS. Bottom-line: That science was never settled.
Why can't someone do an interview on Alex Jones's show? Are you for free speech for some, but not everyone?
Eric's broad comments during his Triggernometry discussion with Sam Harris about how Bret fell into the rabbit hole are very clarifying. He suggests YouTube demonetization during Covid-mania is what set him down his current path.
I will always appreciate how he held up during the Evergreen flapdoodle - but he's been embarrassing to watch for years and, I think, ground zero for how alternative media morphed into "just asking questions." His obsession with public dunking on Sam, regardless of Sam's beliefs, is adolescent.
Covid and Covid-denial have sent so many people into mental health crises. The most damaging effects of the pandemic will be mental and emotional. Regardless of how one feels about the school shutdowns, it's obvious that an entire generation of children have been hurt in small, large, and epic ways. And it appears that it's also greatly affected Weinstein's mental health. His real trauma seems to have led him into dark fantasy.
The Bret Weinstein Drift has been so sad to witness. I feel bad for ever having defended him. Jesse I don't think you get enough credit for not having turned into a monster, as so many people in this space seem to do. Thank you for maintaining your principles and integrity.
Let me just say this clearly: I believe anthropogenic climate change is likely, but the theory that humans are not driving the majority of global warming and HIV does not cause AIDS are miles apart in terms of scientific plausibility, it's a bit of a red flag for an uninvestigated opinion that they would be grouped together. We do not have another Earth we can run experiments on where we raise the temp by adding carbon dioxide. We can infect cells in the lab with HIV. We are left with very complicated models, occasionally sus surface temp collection and longitudinal correlations to demonstrate anthropogenic CO2. You have to model CO2 effect on water vapor, determine upper atmosphere contributions, and it sure looks like CO2 fits into a warming effect--but there are so many cpmplicating factors like clouds, solar irradiation and planetary albedo that have to be considered--apart from factors like organic decomposition and global plant biomass. Rational, practical belief in anthropogenic global warming is based on the precautionary principal or it's faith in science few of us have the ability to grasp and ascertain for acccuracy
I find the recent history of conspiracy-ism so fascinating. I'm in my forties. A significant amount of my social time in my 20's was spent poo-pooing left conspiracies about Bush amongst lefty friends. 9/11. Rigged voting machines. He'd cancel elections, etc. In fact for the first 3 or 4 years I knew of Alex Jones I thought he was a Keith Olbermann lefty type loudmouth because it was my lefty friends who were sending me links to his stuff! (Which I admit I wasn't reading closely because I thought it was nuts.) I'm honestly not sure how many lefty anti Bush conspiracists have migrated to right-ish conspiracies or if the current right ish conspiracists are a whole different group. Does anyone know of a good apolitical and (relatively) non judgemental book/article discussing "conspiracy theory in the 21st century" or something like that? I would love to read it.
(There may not be such a thing since this is such a political hot button. But if there is I think it'd be interesting as heck.)
It's a shame. As someone with a biology background, I initially enjoyed his and Heather's podcasts. When Covid began and he started peddling conspiracy BS he lost me, and apparently he's really gone off the deep end.
I knew Jesse attracted some rather unhinged followers on account of being at least nominally "anti-woke" but I'm surprised to see this amount of pushback in the comments of a paid post to what is a very reasonable accounting of a very crazy man's batshit worldview.
*Restoring this comment to its former glory at the request of Cait. Slightly longer and harder as well*
Since the comments seem to be going wild, I’d like to leave my wildest, most off topic, totally-understandable if you need delete and ban me comment of all time:
There’s no way you could convince me that Bret Weinstein isn’t hung. It is the single most parsimonious explanation for everything else that makes him notable to the public eye.
1) The way he stood in front of all those students at Evergreen as if he had a secret power that would prevent him from getting hurt. Just watch that video in YouTube and tell me he isn’t packing heat.
2) The way his brother Eric seems to always be really insecure despite having a lot of objectively great accomplishments as if he was comparing himself as a man against someone he could never match. Brent may be a biologist, but Eric’s adult insecurities can directly be tied back to Brent’s incomparable pipe-laying abilities.
3) His wife seems to be genuinely turned on whenever he corrects her on a minor point in the few episodes of their podcast I’ve seen. Have you ever had someone seem thrilled to be corrected? Only one explanation fits.
4) His general high level of confidence about everything all the time as denoted above. Like he has something no one can take away from him that gives him superior and intrinsic value. Also when you have to use that much blood to power two heads you’re bound to just get things wrong from time to time.
In comparison to all other men I have known who were so blessed he is a perfect match. Just this laid back confident, generous air, but also it doesn’t necessarily strongly relate to what is actually going on around him because there’s a center of gravity in him so powerful that it distorts the nearby reality. In conclusion, all I’m saying is that if he ever makes the transition to OnlyFans I will subscribe for one day just to finally know.
Our long era of unrest in the late 2010s/early 2020s really did break some people. I know a few myself. They got so alienated by wokies and/or extreme COVID hawks that they just kept drifting further into crazyland.
My suggestion to them: get offline more. Spend more time with real people in the real world. Find things to do that are apolitical, or at least close to it. It'll help. It really will.
The thing is, many "deranged conspiracy theories" turn out to be true. You don't even need to go back as far as MK Ultra. Remember when talking about a lab-leak in Wuhan was one of those deranged conspiracy theories? We were instead supposed to follow the oh-so-reasonable theories about bats and pangolins at a wet market. You're very dismissive of Alex Jones, just asserting that he's a liar in an "everyone knows" sort of way. You want to call out Weinstein and/or Jones for specific things they said or did, then fine, that's valuable. Just making a broad assumption that someone is a "deranged conspiracy theorist" and therefore shouldn't be listened to is not. You might as well go work for MSNBC.
When I was a biology undergrad in the early 2010s, what I heard from my professors about the inventor of PCR was
1) he got very rich
2) he became a crank
3) he moved to Hawaii to live a life of luxurious leisure
I also have a hard time believing someone who worked in higher education didn’t know that some Chinese people would really, really like to be Americans. It didn’t take long for me to figure out that many Chinese nationals at American universities had at best mixed feelings about their homeland and at worst would tell you their life’s goal was to get US citizenship.
Thanks, Jesse. The comments here are as fascinating as the article. I’m as surprised about Bret’s trajectory as you. He could have evolved into a valuable source of useful doubt, but didn’t. Is he an example of audience capture?
I briefly followed Weinstein on Twitter after the Evergreen College thing, but it became apparent that he was just another right-wing troll. I'm sorry, though not especially surprised, to learn that he's gotten so much worse than that.
There's only about 100 million other people who think man-made global warming is a colossal hoax (including countless credentialed, if cancelled, scientists). Also, the theory that HIV causes AIDS is questioned by many credible people. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has at least two chapters of "The Real Anthony Fauci" on the backstory of the "settled science" about AIDS. Bottom-line: That science was never settled.
Why can't someone do an interview on Alex Jones's show? Are you for free speech for some, but not everyone?
Eric's broad comments during his Triggernometry discussion with Sam Harris about how Bret fell into the rabbit hole are very clarifying. He suggests YouTube demonetization during Covid-mania is what set him down his current path.
I will always appreciate how he held up during the Evergreen flapdoodle - but he's been embarrassing to watch for years and, I think, ground zero for how alternative media morphed into "just asking questions." His obsession with public dunking on Sam, regardless of Sam's beliefs, is adolescent.
Covid and Covid-denial have sent so many people into mental health crises. The most damaging effects of the pandemic will be mental and emotional. Regardless of how one feels about the school shutdowns, it's obvious that an entire generation of children have been hurt in small, large, and epic ways. And it appears that it's also greatly affected Weinstein's mental health. His real trauma seems to have led him into dark fantasy.
The Bret Weinstein Drift has been so sad to witness. I feel bad for ever having defended him. Jesse I don't think you get enough credit for not having turned into a monster, as so many people in this space seem to do. Thank you for maintaining your principles and integrity.
I started listening to Weinstein early in 2023. But as I listened it seemed to me that he was getting more and more, to use a technical term, nutso.
Let me just say this clearly: I believe anthropogenic climate change is likely, but the theory that humans are not driving the majority of global warming and HIV does not cause AIDS are miles apart in terms of scientific plausibility, it's a bit of a red flag for an uninvestigated opinion that they would be grouped together. We do not have another Earth we can run experiments on where we raise the temp by adding carbon dioxide. We can infect cells in the lab with HIV. We are left with very complicated models, occasionally sus surface temp collection and longitudinal correlations to demonstrate anthropogenic CO2. You have to model CO2 effect on water vapor, determine upper atmosphere contributions, and it sure looks like CO2 fits into a warming effect--but there are so many cpmplicating factors like clouds, solar irradiation and planetary albedo that have to be considered--apart from factors like organic decomposition and global plant biomass. Rational, practical belief in anthropogenic global warming is based on the precautionary principal or it's faith in science few of us have the ability to grasp and ascertain for acccuracy
I find the recent history of conspiracy-ism so fascinating. I'm in my forties. A significant amount of my social time in my 20's was spent poo-pooing left conspiracies about Bush amongst lefty friends. 9/11. Rigged voting machines. He'd cancel elections, etc. In fact for the first 3 or 4 years I knew of Alex Jones I thought he was a Keith Olbermann lefty type loudmouth because it was my lefty friends who were sending me links to his stuff! (Which I admit I wasn't reading closely because I thought it was nuts.) I'm honestly not sure how many lefty anti Bush conspiracists have migrated to right-ish conspiracies or if the current right ish conspiracists are a whole different group. Does anyone know of a good apolitical and (relatively) non judgemental book/article discussing "conspiracy theory in the 21st century" or something like that? I would love to read it.
(There may not be such a thing since this is such a political hot button. But if there is I think it'd be interesting as heck.)
Love the phrase "conspiracy entrepreneurs"
It's a shame. As someone with a biology background, I initially enjoyed his and Heather's podcasts. When Covid began and he started peddling conspiracy BS he lost me, and apparently he's really gone off the deep end.