Steven Pinker – Too Much Morality? | London Real

39 thoughts on “Steven Pinker – Too Much Morality? | London Real”

1. I agree with most all Pinker says, things are better overall compared to the past, but, he ignored challenges like wealth inequality. SInce the last 30 or so years, things have gone south in that respect. It does not matter what gimmicks you try to contain violence with, if people are hungry and marginalized, they will most likely get angry, and if you use repression, it's even worse. You can tell he comes from a privileged world in that sense. I'm really curious as to how he got in this show. I'm also sure Pinker has never been at the receiving end of a drone strike.

2. 6:01 Beginning of the talk.

3. too much morality? what does that even mean

4. joy to watch

5. Steven Pinker reminds me of one of the archetypal smug middle-class intellectuals seen sipping cocktails in the dinner party scenes in Woody Alan’s film Annie Hall, does he include the decimation of virtually every other species on the planet as violence? And what about the development of weapons of mass destruction and the implications of there use?

6. Holes

7. Great stuff until the gun talk. As a linguist, Pinker should realize that the Second Amendment is clearly an individual Right. "…the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed". It's not the Right of the state or the militia. It is the Right of the people.

8. Anyone who likes Marx like him is a complete fraud (I am referring to Chomsky) You guys (Whattado and mythology) would literally suck a fart out of Chomskys ass wouldnt u haha. Can't wait for him to die already.

9. two guys from London Real r smarter than this pretentious schmuck. cheers!

10. if Pinker made porn id watch it and it would be good stuff.

11. Pinker is a mental stud of the first magnatude

12. Interesting. I have mixed feelings regarding Pinker (and for that matter Chomsky), but overall, I think this area needs more research. For instance, looking at the number of police per capita (by nation) you get a really mixed picture. Some nations with staggeringly high numbers of police still have high levels of violence, while others with relatively low numbers, have a very favorable profile (in terms of violence). So it seems too simplistic to just look at aggregate numbers of violence and jump to … ergo, Leviathan. Certainly other factors are at play. We can assume things like distribution of wealth, average quality of life, access to basic necessities, education level, and a wide range of other factors play into this analysis. But this sort of discussion sheds light on how important it is for us to learn more. I suspect (given Pinker's overall disposition) he might agree that we need more research. And even though I don't think the analysis has been deep enough to justify some of Pinker's conclusions, I also think that there's perhaps less support for some of the assumptions of guys like Chomsky. But the thing with science (perhaps social science in particular) … policy makers will tend to latch on to studies that confirm their preexisting biases (and correlate with their interests), so on that basis, I think researchers have a responsibility to be really careful and not over reach in their conclusions. It can even harm science in general (if new social science converges on an idea that policy makers like, then presumably they will be less open to providing funding for research that might challenge those earlier findings). Anyway, great video and interview.

13. Forced to downvote Pinker video because of host's intro

14. Pinker is a fucking idiot.. "How can ppl be patriotic and still think tyranny can occur"
    If you believe government if is nation then that makes sense, but nation is made up by ppl. To be patriotic is to pledge loyalty to ppl not government. Pinker fancies himself as open minded but always disregards ideas that differ from his as being "out to lunch." sounds open minded to me

15. Pinker is speaking out his ass about gun violence. Gun violence occurs more in urban areas where guns are banned. not in rural areas.

16. How this doesn't have 500,000 views?

17. Interesting ideas, articulate speaker but I also enjoy listening to Chomsky.

18. I didn't watch much of this. If the interview is a boring as the long winded introduction, it would be a waste of time. If you want to catch our attention, cut out the waffle. Steven Pinker is usually interesting, that's why I came here but this had me yawning 30 seconds in.

19. pinker is brilliant. he may want to look a little closer at where the gun crime in the USA occurs. it is not where he stated.

20. Agree with Pinker on most things but his ability to explain why americans value guns is a bit off the mark.
    The founders designed the country to avoid the mistakes of the old world, a place where rule was through the divine right of kings, which has left a legacy, a mentality of peasants ready to be ruled, many times by tyrants. They were influenced by enlightenment values and based their government on the principle that the government only rules through the consent of the governed, and for consent to have any meaning it requires force, an army, because tyrants do not care about votes.
    So the people were given the final safe guard because the most dangerous forces in history are governments, the body count of the last century should be proof enough of this, the unthinkable happens over and over again.
    Those who disarm the people have a very short sighted view of history.
    The mentality of the disarmed is one of the ruled, the government becomes their only protection, instead of systems of honor, the people are enfeebled, externalizing responsibilities, no longer able to even access danger, as we've seen with the migrant crisis. "progress" as the left depicts it is simply decadence and degeneracy, which will eventually have you over run. Too worldly and enlightened to even protect yourselves…
    Funny to watch this now knowing all which has happened since.

21. Great interview – love listening to Steven Pinker (and reading some of his works). However, the conversation quickly went downhill as soon the issue of gun control came up. Here you have a guy who is scientifically minded and data driven, except when talking about gun violence in the US and those that he calls "gun nuts". Also, his assertion that it is better to outsource law and order to police institutions rather than every man with a revolver for himself is a strawman and a false choice.

22. Who knew that moral progress was measured by the degree to which we all become utilitarian?

23. Great job! Great questions and interview!

24. "governments don't say 'should we conquer our neighbours' anymore"

    then came ISIS.

25. Pinker tries way too hard. He seems insecure. Desperately seeking approval and validity.

26. This was a really interesting and respectful conversation. Time well spent.

27. If everyone is going to have a peaceful mindset where exactly would the problem be with owning a gun? I think he distorts the problem a little bit about who and where guns are used in the US to kill people. In switzerland everyone is required to keep their rifle after service and they have basically zero problems with guns and guncontrol. It's the society and mindset that makes guns problematic, not generalisation of ownership. If the arguments to keep them are childish how many items do you own that could potentially be used to kill people that you would consider "childish" to own? Every household has them, and their general purpose was killing or train to kill in the past. I do not own a gun and I don't want to, I just think this argument is always displayed pretty singleminded, even from a brilliant person like Pinker.

28. Excellent. One of the best interviews I've heard in a while.

29. new respect for the pinkster !

30. the video format is horrendous.

31. Talked about slavery as though is a problem in the past! There are 46 million slaves in the world today 👀, what planet is he living on?

32. Elimination of gun rights is behind, not ahead, of the curve.

33. dirty weaselly Jew is all this guy is.if he wants to talk about morality and pontificate about so called islamist palestinians perhaps he could slither on over to Israel and tell his co-Jews to stop stealing other peoples shit .An absolute pseudo-intellectual shill is all this guy ever was.

34. Abolish the police now. Violence against people doing drugs? No, I don't fucking think so!

35. Goyishe Kop is indeed bad, but Yiddishe Kop is something strange too. Look, Steven, the police won't and apparently cannot function as PEACEKEEPER you dumbass. Get harassed by some creep-stache weirdos from the conservative south and see very very soon why your cop-loving is so bad and see what life is like when they make you have PTSD. It also wasn't long before the Police were fulfilling very racist functions and creating the series of VICTIMLESS CRIMES like drug/alcohol prohibition.

36. Who's the guy on the right who listens with headphones and sometimes drinks water, and I would be interested if there's a day he can't make.

37. I like Pinker a lot, but the "debate" about gun rights is completely disingenuous.

    The crux of question is not cost/benefit analysis (though I disagree with him there as well), it's about whether you have a fundamental right to defend yourself, and whether an individual freedom can be curtailed or denied because a few misuse it. I think it's interesting that he portrays european populations as getting 'disarmed' by the monarchies and everyone seems fine with it, but then fails to mention that a lot of those monarchies came to bloody violent ends, and that today in europe there is an epidemic of knife violence.

38. The second presenter isn't very clear in his speech. How did he became a radio host?

39. 1:05:30 "Young men, no government, no women = violence"

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