I quit listening to Sam Harris a few years ago. I felt a disconnect between what he said and what he believed. Much of our reasoning is subconscious.

Then, on one of his podcasts, he was addressing health care worker burnout. He said something like, “Healthcare workers need to learn the difference between sympathy and empathy. They should be sympathetic rather than empathetic.

That is when I understood what bothered me about Sam Harris. Empathy is instinctive. It has to do with mirror neurons and physiology I won’t go into here. Sympathy can be pretended.

An intelligent sociopathic opportunist knows what to say and how to act to appear to have feelings like normal people. I will say no more.

I appreciated your critique. I would say more, but my grandchildren spent the night and are waking up. Take care.