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Who are your favourite public intellectuals?

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rousseau

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Using the term public intellectual, for lack of a better one.

People who are (or were) vocal in the public space, authors, pundits, politicians, whoever.. just people expressing opinions and theory to the public and who actually have an audience.

Lately I've really come to admire both Steven Pinker and Richard Dawkins. Both smart guys, good writers, and who are both voraciously interested in reality, feelings be damned. Out of most people I've come across in the public space, these two jive the most with my way of thinking.
 
I didn't know Steven Pinker until I read his "The Better Angels of Our Nature" but I became a huge fan.
 
James Brown said:
I didn't know Steven Pinker until I read his "The Better Angels of Our Nature" but I became a huge fan.
Click to expand...

Similar happened to me recently. I picked up 'Blank Slate' and was won over by a combination of clear-headed thinking, and him seemingly being on the edge of neuroscience. I learned a lot from the book.

More recently I picked up 'How the Mind Works' by him just to get a look at some more of his work. I did the same with Dawkins and 'The God Delusion'. No interest at all in the subject matter, but I wanted to see how Dawkins approached it.
 
My favorite person that would fit your description would be Thomas Sowell. Such a brilliant mind.
 
Stefan Molyneaux.

Nah, I'm just kidding.

Steven Crowder.

Nah, I'm just kidding.

Someblackguy

Nah, I'm just kidding.

Blackpidgeonspeaks

Nah, I'm just kidding.

Paul Joseph Watson

Nah, I'm just kidding.

Actually, two new up-and-comers I've found that refreshingly enough base their content on logic, reason, and the analysis of statistical data.

This first guy's name is Shaun, who almost exclusively does content of a political nature, usually debunking the claims of alt right commentators.

[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUbxVfSqtt8&t=1s[/YOUTUBE]

The second one is called hbomberguy, and he has been around a bit longer and is more well known but is more of a generalist in the topics he covers.

https://www.youtube.com/user/hbomberguy/videos

Then there's the likes of CCPGrey who covers topics we don't often hear of in other media sources which are often future-minded.

Edit: As an afterthought, looking over this list, I've found that they're all Youtube personalities. Perhaps I should consider branching out a bit.
 
Richard Feynman
Malcolm Gladwell
James Gleick
Oliver Sacks
Randall Munroe
Marcus du Sautoy
Lisa Randall
Stephen Wolfram

I also follow a bunch more people that are publicly active, but in much more specialized and technical areas so that they don't get the kind of readership that the real pop science people get.
 
Noam Chomsky, particularly because of Manufacturing Consent and the Propaganda Model, but I've also enjoyed what lectures I've found on Youtube.
 
Folks,

After a long and careful mulling of the question, I have come down to two contenders: the current pope and Donald Trump. After further mulling I would have to say that Donald Trump is my favourite.

Don't ask.

A.
 
Sean Carroll, the cosmologist. (The biologist is cool too, but he only publicly talks about science.)

Reading his latest book, The Big Picture.
 
Sam Harris, everything from free will, to god, and ice cream. He states it all very well.
 
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