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Sam Harris

2 scored debates · standard met in 2 of 2 · 2 with distinction

36 challenges faced · 18,971 words scored

92
Debate integrity · record

Range 88–97 across 2 debates. Weighted by challenges faced, not words spoken — how hard each performance was tested. Wide spread — these are genuinely different performances, not measurement noise.

Where these scores sit

050100

Sam: 97 (v Jordan Peterson) · 88 (v Ben Shapiro) · shaded to our ±5–8 re-run band · all 22 scored performances shown

Inside our ±8-point re-run band of this record: Mehdi Hasan's 92, John Kiriakou's 93, Dave Smith's 90, Peter Navarro's 94. We treat these as indistinguishable from it.

Component standings

Confronted the point92site 52–100
Argued clean100site 8–100
Dealt straight84site 9–89
Let them talk81site 72–100

Sam's strongest component is “Argued clean” at 100. Across the 22 scored performances Steelmanned has published, that component runs 8–100 — the highest we have recorded on that component.

A 100 on "Argued clean" means no fallacy points were charged, not that no fallacies were logged. The scorecard lists every logged event, including zero-valued ones.

The record

PangburnStructured debate2h 05m

Sam Harris vs Jordan Peterson | God, Atheism, The Bible, Jesus - Part 1

MET THE STANDARD · WITH HIGHEST DISTINCTION · 95+Met the Engagement Standard, with highest distinction, earned at 95+ DIS — an absolute threshold, not relative to the other debater.Rubric v0.4
Sam Harris
97Debate
Integrity
Opposite Jordan Peterson · their score 82
99Confronted
the point45%
100Argued
clean30%
86Dealt
straight15%
93Let them
talk10%

Confronted 16 challenges (33.5 of 34 weighted) with no fallacies recorded; conceded 'the problem of primate aggression... is deeper... than the problem of religious violence' and granted Peterson's abstract God 'is fine,' while 2 interruptions were logged and his 'evidence of what exactly?' reply to the persistence-equals-depth point ran out of time.

16 challenges faced · 9,162 words scored
The Free PressPanel debate2h 13m

Trump or Kamala? Ben Shapiro and Sam Harris Debate.

MET THE STANDARD · WITH DISTINCTION · 85+Met the Engagement Standard, with distinction, earned at 85+ DIS — an absolute threshold, not relative to the other debater.Rubric v0.5
Sam Harris
88Debate
Integrity
Opposite Ben Shapiro · their score 87
86Confronted
the point45%
100Argued
clean30%
82Dealt
straight15%
72Let them
talk10%

Confronted the crux on 20 of 20 challenges (37.8/44) and Argued clean with zero recorded fallacies; conceded 'it's not gonna be the Third Reich', the no-primary gripe was 'a completely legitimate preference', and owned border and Afghanistan 'mistakes'; on named holdovers (Pompeo, Friedman, Lutnick) answered with a 'grifters and maniacs' assertion, and recorded 5 interruptions.

20 challenges faced · 9,809 words scored

Photo credits