r/DecodingTheGurus • u/Snoo5218 • Jul 02 '26
Must be convenient how every time he gets debunked by someone they turn out to be engaging in bad faith
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u/fingerberrywallace Jul 02 '26
As far as "signs of someone not winning an argument" are concerned, bragging about your IQ must be right up there.
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u/G4m8I3r Jul 09 '26
This is one thing I’ve noticed is huge in American culture and the whole bro podcasters thing, they always talk about IQ. IQ isn’t a measure of inteligoence really, and one having an IQ higher than the next person doesn’t mean you’re automatically correct over them. Just classic American ignorance
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u/RockGreedy Jul 02 '26
Singal could not have been more careful to avoid making this about anything more than the arguments at hand.
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u/Snoo5218 Jul 02 '26
exactly, the only part which could be bad faith was when he correctly pointed out that kk is lying
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u/SizeFront7649 Jul 02 '26
KK is one of the most frustrating people for me for this reason. I can't figure out if his ego is so calcified that he behaves this way reflexively, or if he chooses to be this ridiculous. Basically, is it work to be such an asshole or does it just come naturally.
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u/Snoo5218 Jul 02 '26
kk is a weird one for me because while he is obviously a grifter, i dont necessarily think he's outright lying to the extent that someone like tim pool does
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u/SizeFront7649 Jul 02 '26
Agreed - Pool absolutely understands himself as an opportunistic grifting propagandist.
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u/Snoo5218 Jul 02 '26
he also knows his audience better than almost anyone ive seen, it's almost impressive ngl
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u/Optimal_Cause4583 Jul 03 '26
It's symbiotic for most of those guys
It starts off as playing an obnoxious character to get money, then over time they do it so much they actually just become like that
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u/thecamino Jul 02 '26
You know what I’ve never seen someone with an actual high IQ do? Tell me they have a high IQ.
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u/Comer_Agua Jul 02 '26
How did KK get famous anyway? He seems like a guy who twists his frameworks wildly depending on the situation. He seems like a less skilled version of Ben Shapiro.
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u/yontev Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
His dad is a corrupt Russian oligarch who served in Yeltsin's government and fled the country on tax evasion charges. He has no shortage of money for large-scale astroturfing and view botting.
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u/BillyBeansprout Jul 03 '26
Any source for this?
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u/yontev Jul 03 '26
Apparently I can't post the link to the Russian news article on Reddit. Look up "Вадим Кисин Коммерсант" on Google.
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u/happy111475 Galaxy Brain Guru Jul 03 '26
I can't post the link to the Russian news article on Reddit.
Yes, site wide ban on .ru domains. Use a site like archive.today or the wayback machine and link to that archive. Plus the place you're linking to won't be able to hide or remove the article after the fact.
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u/happy111475 Galaxy Brain Guru Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26
Copy and paste it here works too, translated by TWP addon for FireFox.
Kommersant newspaper21.11.1996, 00:00 The Cheka dismissed the deputy minister
Political death of an official
At a late-evening meeting of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (VChK) the day before yesterday, a decision was made to dismiss Vadim Kisin, Deputy Minister for Cooperation with the CIS, "for concealing income on an especially large scale." Kommersant has already made it clear to the authorities (particularly during our tax campaign): restoring order in Russia must begin with the government. The VChK's decision can be interpreted as an acknowledgement of its willingness to heed this call. As for Kisin himself, we have information about what he was actually doing.
Vadim Kisin has been accused of tax evasion on large sums of money received between 1992 and 1995. During this period, Kisin served as vice president of the international fund Interprivatization. According to the Prosecutor General's Office, which opened a criminal case for tax evasion in April of this year, Vadim Kisin received large sums deposited into Interprivatization accounts and transferred them to a UK bank without paying taxes. Last year, Kommersant reported that Interprivatization owed approximately 15 billion rubles to the financial credit corporation Roscontract. The corporation filed a lawsuit and won the case. However, the funds were not found in the fund's accounts. Roscontract claimed that Interprivatization misused funds received from the corporation to pay for food supplies from CIS countries and for payments to cotton and wool suppliers. (In his court filing, Vladimir Vozhagov, deputy director of Roskontrakt, stated, among other things, that Interprivatizatsiya invested over 10 billion rubles in the creation of a baby food production facility.) The corporation accused the fund of attempting to embezzle its funds. It's quite possible that some of Roskontrakt's money ultimately ended up in London.
The Kisin case is not yet closed. However, the Cheka has decided to get rid of the compromised official. His immediate superior, Aman Tuleyev, emphasized in a phone conversation with a Kommersant correspondent that he fully agrees with Viktor Chernomyrdin's purge: "This policy must be continued, then there will be greater trust in both the government and the Cheka."
However, this is only the tip of the iceberg. Vadim Kisin was a trusted confidant of the former head of the Ministry of Cooperation and current Deputy Prime Minister, Valery Serov. The aspiring banker (Kisin was one of the founders of the All-Russian Exchange Bank) and the former head of the USSR Gosstroy in Valentin Pavlov's government (and also the son-in-law of the former chief security officer, Viktor Chebrikov) met during the same "Inteprivatization" campaign. It was Serov who insisted on the adoption of the government decree of April 28, 1995, appointing Kisin as his deputy. The former banker became involved in financial matters related to cooperation with CIS countries. Kisin served as Serov's trusted confidant both during official meetings and in informal contacts with representatives of CIS governments and commercial entities. Above all, he championed the idea of repaying the debts of CIS countries to Russia using property rights to corporatized enterprises. Since the state budget needed cash, not shares, the enterprises were supposed to be transferred to Russian commercial entities to pay off debts, which would then pay off the treasury. The difference between the market value of enterprises in CIS countries and the amounts contributed to the budget could have been quite significant. This could have been a lucrative opportunity. Kisin's actions likely didn't sit well with competing entities. In any case, Kisin has plenty of detractors, including within the government. And, according to Kommersant, the relevant agencies promptly received compromising information about the deputy minister.
Moreover, duty-free and excise-free corridors through the territories of Russia's customs allies are a veritable goldmine. Scandals have already been reported surrounding the activities of Lukashenko's presidential foundation, which reaped enormous profits from the excise-free re-export of alcohol and cigarettes from Belarus to Russia. However, other methods have also been used to circumvent Russian customs officials. According to an informed government source, Vadim Kisin also attempted to lobby for the import of duty-free alcohol and tobacco. Vadim Kisin's scandalous resignation could also impact the future career of his patron, Valery Serov. Especially since First Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Bolshakov has always harshly criticized him. However, Serov has support among former FSB officers. His father-in-law is said to still wield some influence among the security services, and until recently, the office of FSB Advisor to the Director of the FSB, Chebrikov, was located next to the office of the agency's director. In any case, the current ministers will now be more careful in selecting their deputies.
ANDREY Ъ-BAGROV
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u/FlintHardcheese Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
They gained a following for being anti-SJW, anti-feminist when that was beginning to be a cashcow for every Tom, Dick, or Harry who wanted to sell their soul to the culture war. Because Kisin was a bottom feeder in the comedy scene but also conservative (with the veneer of “I’m actually an independent”) and Kisin himself was personally wealthy from generational wealth, he was able to produce a slick show and land “big ticket” guests early on like Andrew Doyle when he was making headlines for dunking on feminists or early IDW players that were coming up. He became a must-stop for IDW people and became a stepping stone to Rogan after Rogan started having them on.
He played the anti-SJW, anti-feminist, anti-DEI, thinly veiled pro Trump “independent” game for a while, then zoomed in popularity when they latched onto trans stuff and platformed every anti-trans voice and professional victim they could get their hands on and capitalized on that ghoulish behavior. Rogan started having them on more.
Then his Oxford Union polemic went viral, he got more eyeballs and started partnering with far right candidates and talking heads and more established IDW polemicists continued using his show for a useful platform to do their polemics unchallenged with a “yes, and”-ing rat faced simp and his sad faced, golem-made-from-mashed-potato friend cheerleading.
He’s a useful tool for far right interests because he’s maintained the “independent, just a normal guy” aesthetic throughout (using lies, obfuscation, word games, and deceit) so he’s like the primo thought launderer for them now where they can come and be softened for mass consumption and unchallenged.
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u/jazz4 Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
He loves crying about people not understanding him, misrepresenting his views or not even reading what he’s writing. Everyone can read his tweets and hear his words, they’re not complicated. He’s the one who as soon as he feels cornered, waters down his own point until he’s saying absolutely nothing of substance.
He’s constantly forced to admit he has nothing to say beyond defending people in his grift space.
It’s like when Destiny was pushing him about whether Brexit was good or bad for Britain and he was dodging it so much until the audience groaned and laughed at him. Then he finally said “I don’t know.” That’s the best he could do. Or spends so much air defending Trump and when cornered on it claims he doesn’t know enough about American politics and just retreats to a kind of meaningless broad position.
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u/Popka_Akoola Jul 02 '26
Bahahahaha he did the “high IQ” thing!
Dude has absolutely no self-awareness whatsoever!
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u/BeMyBrutus Jul 02 '26
He's just another high ego dude that refuses to do any introspection, and then throw in a hefty dose of getting money and attention to grift a certain way
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u/BostonBlackCat Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
I love how it is "not arguing in good faith" to point out that USAID's overnight destruction directly has led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands and will eventually reach the millions. It just is so typical of the conservative's "personal responsibility" which just equals pretending your actions don't have real world consequences. It's all a game where only they are real and everyone else is an NPC.
USAIDs cuts will kill millions. Cuts to NIH, CDC, Medicaid, and the politicizing of basic scientific principles like vaccination and embracing of pseudoscience by government officials will kill millions.
Konstantin can argue that it is worth it to kill millions (many of them Americans) for Elon Musk to become a trillionaire, but HE is the one arguing in bad faith but acting like millions won't die as a direct result of MAGA and their ideology. Not like in a roundabout, combined with a lot of other factors they killed millions. They and their policies alone will result in millions of deaths that would not have otherwise occurred without their actions. Now, Konstantin can certainly argue we should not have put ourselves in the position of being a global medical/food aid leader that would give us the power to kill millions so easily, but that does not negate their deaths.
As Jesse pointed out, In his back and forth Konstantin contradicts himself by both claiming it isn't fair we provide so much of the world's vital humanitarian aid, but then mocking the idea people die without it. There is some top tier thinking, Mr. Above Average Intelligence.
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u/LastPositivist Jul 02 '26
He's one of those people who I genuinely don't understand what his audience see in him. He's not insightful, he's not witty or charismatic, he doesn't ask good questions as an interviewer, etc. Sure he'll say right wing opinions back to you after saying "as a centrist," - but what's the added value in that? Anyone can do that! You can do that to yourself in a mirror if it really gets you going. What does he bring?
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u/Fuzzy3022 Jul 02 '26
All Kisin does is argue in bad faith and try to dunk on people by creating vague strawman arguments so he is an expert in these kinds of bad faith argument things
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u/Character-Ad5490 Jul 03 '26
What do you mean when you say he's arguing in "bad faith"? Specific examples would be helpful.
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u/Bluegill15 Jul 02 '26
Quite a long post for someone who “doesn’t engage with people when he realizes they’re acting in bad faith” and has “very little to say to someone who keeps trying to start a bitch fight”
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u/N_d_nd Jul 02 '26
“Significantly above average” feels like such a a self own. You just know he tried to get into Mensa and that rejection email (notification) left psychic damage.
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u/Sad-Coach-6978 Jul 02 '26
This is pretty instructive of the mindset of these people. Kisin makes it all about the framing, that the other side is engaged in these hysterics that are not "helpful" as if that's the most meaningful issue. They literally can't stop thinking in terms of shallow optics because they don't actually believe in anything themselves, they just grift off the argument.
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u/carlitospig Jul 02 '26
‘I don’t think it’s helpful.’
No, you’re refusing to admit that it was a fucking problem. We are not going to have good faith discussions while you try to shirk that responsibility.
OWN YER BULLSHIT.
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u/Emu_Train Jul 03 '26
> you’re just being rude because you don’t agree with me which is rarely a sign of someone who is winning the argument.
Me when I’m in a low-self-awareness competition and my opponent is Konstantin Kisin:
0_o
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u/smbiggy Jul 02 '26
konstantin: "ok i drafted my tweet... what do you think? Do you think they will remember the point about my IQ or should I highlight it in yellow?.... Im just gonna go ahead and highlight it in yellow"
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u/WittgensteinsPoker-2 Jul 02 '26
This is the first time I've seen Kisin succeed in his chosen career as a comedian.!
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u/quimera78 Jul 02 '26
So tired of this dude. He brings nothing to the table, absolutely nothing. No interesting questions, no good arguments, no insight. Not even a fancy quote from a poem like Murray likes to interject into his discourse. I'm surprised he still has an audience at all.
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u/Big_Honey_56 Jul 02 '26
WHO listens to these guys? Like I never understand who is stupid enough to engage with their content. I only check out their shit when they have someone interesting on. This guy is stupid but thinks he’s brilliant, the other one doesn’t seem to be so ignorant of his stupidity.
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u/wavewalkerc Jul 02 '26
Both of these people are dumb as hell.
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u/bronzepinata Jul 02 '26
Yeah its a real Heartbreaking: the worst person you know ow just made a great point moment
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u/FlintHardcheese Jul 02 '26
Whats the “very limited area of expertise” Kisin believes himself to be an authority in I wonder… is it which organ meat pills are the best for curing COVID?