Decoding The Gurus
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Ranking the Gurus
🕑 Added 2024-07-22 07:19:15 +0000 UTCSince we have been doing this for a while we thought it might be fun to have a light-hearted tier-ranking video of all the previous decoding figures.
So find our tier ranking and discussion attached, and play along at home if you like at this link: https://tiermaker.com/create/modern-gurus-17331102
Editor Andy will make a nicer version in a while so consider this the early raw cut with no fancy editing!
Comments
BZ00000
S = sigma, right?
Linda Sears
Moon was an outlier, so I think you’re okay not including him. Although it would be funny to see his face sitting beside Brand’s.
Gavin Boyter
To be fair to Sam, anyone who emails to ask for a free sub because they can’t afford one gets it. That’s pretty poor profiteering.
Christopher Kavanagh
God damn it
Intergalactic Panda Wrangler
Oh, yeah. I wasn’t saying being left or right made someone a guru, just that his ability to convince his followers that he *is* of the left is illustrative of his skill *as* a guru. Unlike most of the other people you cover, he actually offers a path to spiritual and moral enlightenment (albeit through a paid podcast and an app, rather than a back and mortar cult). The profiteering thing you are right, I just mean that a lot of the others need to do the protesting more, so being super rich matters because you don’t need to do it. Same thing with Musk, he doesn’t sell supplements and actively squanders money to secure power/influence, but he is still in S.
Reinert
Fair enough
David Noble
I concur. Harris has a talent for making hysterical ideas sound reasonable.
Níall Faughnan
Would love to hear more about what Matt has to say about Russell Brand
Christopher Kavanagh
Excessive profiteering isn’t to do with how wealthy you are. And guru-ness isn’t determined by whether you are right wing politically. That said after discussion with Matt we did come down on B, 😉.
Intergalactic Panda Wrangler
Self aggrandisement? He literally thinks he has transcended the self. Profiteering? He is certainly among the richest of the gurus discussed (although a lot of that is inherited), and once his followers became dedicated enough, made his podcast subscriber only, and now charges his disciples $20 a month to learn to think like him and become enlightened. Conspiracy proneness? He thinks all institutions have been ‘captured’ by the woke left conspiracy and is still talking about lab leak. That also speak to antiestablishmentarianism. Cassandra complex? He has been predicting (incorrectly) that there will be and claiming (incorrectly) that there is a Muslim take over in Europe for around two decades. These are only some examples, but his greatest skill as a guru is convincing people that none of this counts, that he is liberal or even ‘of the left’, and that he is, in some way, special. He isn’t any of those things. He is, in my view, the quintessential secular guru.
Linda Sears
And Reverend Moon, the angry duck.
Reinert
He is a mixed bag. Some of the elements you mention he indeed scores quite highly on, but on others I'd say he's rather middling compared to the likes of Peterson, like with regards to self-aggrandizement, Cassandra complex, conspiracy proneness, profiteering, antiestablishmentarianism. I haven't done any careful analysis but I'd land on a C probably.
Nancy Hale
Need to cover more mid gurus to achieve that proper distribution curve!
Intergalactic Panda Wrangler
No way! He is B at least. Grievance monger 10/10, cultivating in group/out group among follower 10/10 (I am sure this is why his podcast became subscriber only), he has a meditation app in which he offers access to revelations that will make you agree with him, and people lap it up. Despite all the many problems with his thinking, his galaxy brainness, his misrepresentations of his expertise and so on, even people in this group still listen to him and take him seriously. Of all the people you cover, perhaps with the exception of Peterson, he is the closest to running an actually successful cult 😂
Kurt Ressler
He’s in the illusory space between C and D which is a tribe of his own
Mike Dawson
*morally confused
Richard Hardy
Dawkins and Wright missing too
Desma
An Irish cognitive anthropologist and an Australian psychologist walk into a ranking system… 🤣 You guys are my favs… so entertaining! Tiers of laughter. ‘O’ for awesome! Also I literally had a nightmare with Russel Brand in it after listening to that latest clip so that’s bad: he is THE WORST GURU AND MOST ANNOYING AND OFFENSIVE IDIOT OF ALL TIME (sorry, that was a bit shouty). 🥸
True Brexit Geezer
You're confused. He has no tribe.
lun
Anti Islam or anti Muslims?
Christopher Kavanagh
She gets bonus points for being a YouTuber. Dennett and Bregman also seem less likely to get caught up in public interpersonal drama or to have very committed fans.
Ymirsdreams
In other orders of business: https://tiermaker.com/create/ultraman-kaiju-creatures-243928
David Noble
I think the only one I would disagree with is Contrapoints. If she is D tier because she formulates theories then Dennett and Bregman would be D also. So would any philosopher or economist... but then DtG's infamous philosopher *hatred* would probably be fine with calling them all gurus.
Awakening Wonk
One thing missing from the commentary that matters to me is either antisemitism, anti Islam, and anti lgbt levels. But I still loved this refresher. Thanks for putting it together.
Linda Sears
Clearly, he is in a tribe of his own.
Graham Clarke
I think you need to sort them based on the gurumeter scores and see how close you got!
Adam Sher
Bret leaving his wife in the dust. Are you sure it's not on account of Bret talking the most like Chris does? Maybe she's the full professor of the relationship
Christopher Kavanagh
Agh he was there! But I tried to replace his image with a square one and seems I deleted it! I think we would put him in C or D class.
Thomas
Sam Harris?
Rufus Evans
It's about time!
Duncan
A tier list! You're finally a real YouTube channel.
