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Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 5, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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I wrote a long post for this before realizing it was basically stupid.

What is Sam Hyde?

My read on him is that he is basically a very far-right person who sort of realizes you can't be openly far-right even ironically without choosing to sacrifice basically all the benefits of participating in mainstream society. So because his political beliefs, aka, what he thinks is true about the world, need to buried under many, many layers of irony in order to allow him to semi-exist in and benefit from the mainstream, everything he says or does ends up being buried under many layers of irony.

But at a certain point I don't even know. Apparently he was dating a transgender person a few years ago. Not that you can't be far-right politically and do this. But it throws me for a loop. This is also something that Hyde might just make up about himself as a rumor to spread around. Not exactly sure why he would, but I'm not exactly sure why he does much of what he does.

Is he smart? He bragged about being admitted to Mensa on twitter, which strikes me as actually not something that a smart person would do, but also something he would absolutely do ironically. But that aside, he actually did join mensa, meaning he has at least 98th percentile IQ, regardless of how 'smart' that makes him.

Is he a sociopath? His acting ability is extremely good and he's able to avoid dropping character for really long periods of time, to the point if I question whether or not a typical (non-sociopath) person would even be capable of doing the kinds of acts he does.

What's anyone's best read they think they have on him as a person? He's stumps me in a way few other people who nominally don elaborate public-facing facades still don't.

He’s a modern version of Andy Kaufman. The rules have changed since the 60’s so Hyde’s transgressions are more provocative, but it’s basically the same act.

He's responsible for every single mass shooting known to man

#HeCantKeepGettingAwayWithIt

Yes, he is a comedian first and foremost. If he thinks something is funny, he'll say/do it. That's the main driving force. Most of the time he is mocking people he believes deserve to be mocked, or putting people into uncomfortable situations. He will make racist jokes. I don't believe him to actually be a virulent racist or antisemite or whatever. I don't even think he is a particularly political person.

Is he smart?

98th percentile sounds right. I think he's currently running his own company with a few employees. He is not a moron.

Is he a sociopath?

No, not for my understanding of 'sociopath'. But he is willing to commit to the bit and put on a production, like what he did to idubz. Again, in the name of comedy, and in that specific case, because Sam thought idubz was going to negatively portray him.

I don't believe him to actually be a virulent racist or antisemite or whatever. I don't even think he is a particularly political person.

Can you explain your thoughts on this?

Haha I guess it is a contrarian take. Most/all of his content isn't political, not in the way that people like John Oliver, John Stewart, Glenn Beck, etc, are. If you watch World Peace, the sketches are things like a parody of a /fit/ guy, or a wife who cucks her husband with an IVF sperm donor, or a pickup artist helping a disabled guy get laid.

I mean, a lot of the comedy is subversive. It's funny precisely because you can't say it, e.g. MDE released a book titled 'How to bomb the US government'. So in a world where you're not supposed to quote crime statistics, standing up in front of a crowd and quoting crime statistics becomes funny, but also gets you labelled as all kinds of things. Or, after getting your show on adult swim, wouldn't it be funny to sing "Jews rock!", and include footage of producers looking uncomfortable?

I don't see Sam as a culture warrior, like Nick Fuentes or Milo. During the BLM protests a couple years ago, he was telling people not to protest/counter-protest, not to get arrested, it's not worth it, just be cool, etc. I feel like he's generally sceptical of politics, he doesn't have an agenda, he's not trying to enact change. He has anti-establishment views, and satirizes the PMC, the Davos elite, etc, but I feel like it comes from a position of accepted powerlessness.

As for 'virulent racist', that's just not the vibe I get after watching him. I mean, Sam invited Harley Morenstein (Epic Meal Time guy, and jew) to come and train with him. Sam made holocaust denial jokes and they both laughed. It feels more like a "I don't care what race you are as long as you're racist" type thing.

Interesting perspective, thanks for the response.

He definitely is far-right in some genuine way (see the censored 'stay tuned shooters! 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 H8' at the end of the 'jews rock' video, or the lectures about art degenerating). He also, though, has a deep interest in weird humor, and it's also his job, which is what you are noticing. There are plenty of far-right people who are gay/trans/date trans people, just like there are people who are white-nationalist adjacent but indian, 'ideologies' aren't unified wholes but groups of related tendencies one can hold some but not all of. My guess is he wasn't dating a trans person and that's either a bit he did or a false rumor though.

The bragging about being admitted to mensa was a joke. As part of the "pretending to do dumb things" bit.

He's a comedian first and foremost, and I think the reason he seems so hard to pin down is that he's doing more than dressing up an ideology in plausibly deniable terms.

He reminds me most of Andy Kaufman. One of the few bright parts of a mass shooting is when some media firm falls for the viral reports that the killer was Sam Hyde.

Given the level of competition aimed at fame, I tend to believe the error is more often under estimating the intelligence of people who sustain fame, even the ones who seem pretty dumb.