Program Archive - Capital District Humanist Society

Dr. Joseph Gerson spoke about U.S. policy on China. He called it “U.S.-China Relations
101,” tracing the historical background, the current issues, and prospects going forward.
Gerson sees intense competition for supremacy in military, geopolitical, and economic
spheres. And likened the global picture to the rules of the game among mafia families. He
sees parallels between today’s situation and that which led up to World War I.
Gerson said that China’s thinking is still heavily influenced by what it sees as its past
“Century of Humiliation,” with “hegemonic forces” (meaning America, mainly) trying to
hobble its rightful place at the forefront of the world. And he said China has in fact risen,
drawing more or less even with the U.S. on measures like GDP, manufacturing capacity,
military might, technology, etc.
While Trump is actually shredding America’s power and influence. His path is defined by
enriching his family and cronies; promoting white supremacism; with an attitude of
“Sovereigntism,” meaning doing what we want, and to hell with others. While he
undermines the reasons why America previously commanded respect and admiration — its
rule-of-law institutional foundations. With an anti-foreigner gestapo-like force, attacks on
science and universities, etc., and bludgeoning our former friends with tariffs and other
hostile policies. All this reduces our influence and increases China’s.
While China strives to build a neighborhood sphere of influence, pushing its way into
nearby seas, this is still countered by what Gerson called a “latticework” of U.S. alliances
— centered upon Japan, the Philippines, South Korea, and Australia. With Taiwan a
particular hinge-point.
The island has been effectively independent since 1949, but China derangedly insists on
“reunification,” to be achieved militarily if nothing else works (and nothing else will). This
will come to a head in not too many years; the confrontation will be decisive.

Recap prepared by Frank S. Robinson

Whitney Phillips and Mark Brockway spoke about their book, The Shadow Gospel — How Anti-Liberal Demonology Possessed U.S. Religion, Media, and Politics.

Well, not all of it, but a big part. Phillips said what’s involved here is not love of God but hatred of the “liberal devil.” Today’s American right does thrive on conflating “liberals” (and Democrats) with Satan. Indeed, for them the category extends even to some conservatives and Christians not fully on board with their political project.

But another key point is the complexity of this political landscape, with some of the issues involved not being obviously political. For example, DEI, obsessively demonized by today’s American right. Phillips opined that the DEI idea shouldn’t even be politically divisive. [Perhaps a naive notion — FSR.] Anyhow, she suggested that this rightist movement is fear-driven, while it’s not even clear what the threat is — a “fight against shadows,” she called it.

Brockway traced today’s anti-liberal demonization as the successor to 1950’s anti-communism, with its fears of subversion. He also cited a 1942 preacher gathering identifying “liberalism” as a threat to the Christianity they valorized, thus rejecting the “social gospel” of compassion for the disadvantaged. Schools pushing such ideas seen as a particular threat — the preachers felt a need to save children’s souls from Satan. Which was linked with communism. Still today (despite the USSR’s demise) invoked as a bogeyman by the right, the name “Marx” ubiquitous in their messaging.

But the bigger bogeyman now is homosexuality and, especially, transgenderism. The new thing they want to protect children against in schools. Here again, coded as being associated with the liberal left. And here too, Brockway suggested such matters shouldn’t even be political issues. He questioned what the term “liberal” even really means anyway. The right treats it as referring to everything in American culture they loathe, especially anything having to do with sexuality.

Trump was quoted talking about kids’ gender being changed in schools without parental consent. But the right cloaks its crusade in language about “local control, school choice, and protecting parents’ rights” which, Brockway said, “sounds much less nuts.”

Recap by Frank Robinsn

Journalist Murray Carpenter has authored the book Sweet and Deadly – How Coca-Cola Spreads Disinformation and Makes Us Sick.

He cited a growing body of research showing that sugar-sweetened beverages are a leading cause of U.S. ill-health. Coca-Cola [originally named for an ingredient you can guess – FSR] is a big part of that picture. This is a major global company with $47 billion in annual revenue, $300 billion market value, and 21 “billion dollar brands.”

Carpenter said chronic “diseases of lifestyle” are becoming more endemic. Obesity a big part of this. He noted that drinking one 12 ounce can of Coke daily increases the risk of Type 2 Diabetes by 25%.

That can has 39 grams of sugar. A 20-ounce can has 65 grams, and Carpenter showed a plastic bag holding that much sugar. He could hardly lift it (slight exaggeration; but it’s a lot of sugar).

It was also noted that Coke has a lot of caffeine — in fact, sodas comprise a bigger share of global caffeine consumption than coffee and tea.

Carpenter asserted that Coca-Cola has followed the “tobacco playbook,” a public relations strategy to counter scientific information. Other examples are Exxon Mobil and Purdue Pharma.

A further relevant strategy is “price mixing,” offering the product in containers of different volumes, including “mini-cans,” the aim being to get the most money per unit of volume.

Another problem ingredient endemic in modern food products is high fructose corn syrup — it’s very abundant and cheap (and makes things taste good). But in health terms, calorie-for-calorie it’s worse than plain old sugar, because the body metabolizes it differently.

Asked about Diet Coke, Carpenter said he strongly favors it as a halfway-house alternative to the Full Monty. However, he said it tricks the brain into thinking it’s getting sugar, and pointed out that it actually has more caffeine than regular Coke.

Recap prepared by Frank Robinson

Dr. Tyina Steptoe is an Associate History Professor at the University of Arizona. Her presentation was titled “Big Mama Thornton, Little Richard, and the Queer Roots of Rock ‘n’ Roll.” (Note: sometimes written as “Rock and Roll,” but mine is the correct orthography.)

Steptoe started with a nod to the Great Migration of southern Blacks moving north, invoking a “Second Great Migration” toward the west. Her story really begins in Houston, whose Bronze Peacock night club spawned the Peacock Records company around 1950, technological advances making it easier and cheaper to produce mass-market records.

Willie Mae Thornton (1926-84), later known as “Big Mama,” started singing in bars in her native Alabama at a very tender age, then joined a traveling “theater group” with motley performers and thereby wound up in Houston and connected with Peacock. Her metier was “Rhythm & Blues,” a largely Black thing, later bleached as “Rock ‘n’ Roll” for wider audiences. Thus her first hit song in 1953, “Hound Dog,” became a much bigger hit in 1956 when Elvis Presley (1935-1977) did it.

Steptoe’s interest was kindled by finding a family photo of her grandfather with Big Mama. A rare one showing her in male garb, which she actually favored; most of her pics have her in dresses, which she normally performed in. She never married; lesbianism is inferred. Steptoe played a recording of her singing, described as “low register,” in other words, sounding very male.

A counterpoint to Mama’s bigness was the littleness of Richard Penniman (1932-2020). Little Richard’s gayness was more flamboyant, though not publicly acknowledged for decades. His early drag-like persona onstage was called “female impersonation” and was a fairly common shtick, with homosexuality anathematized in those 1950s. Even associated with hated Communism. Thus the Civil Rights movement tried to steer clear of anything smacking of queerness.

Steptoe noted that some Little Richard hit songs were redone by Pat Boone (1934 – ), made even bigger hits, though Boone’s renditions were pretty weak tea compared with Richard’s electric performances. But Boone was white and straight. A signature Little Richard song was “Tutti-Frutti;” Steptoe played an excerpt, noting that the hit version’s lyrics were sanitized of the original’s overtly sexual content (“good booty” etc).

Prepared by Frank Robinson (1947 – )

Michael Miller is an author that was born in a New Jersey village similar to Fayetteville, NY, where both Matilda Joslyn Gage and Grover Cleveland lived for portions of their lives.

Fayetteville is east of Syracuse, NY near the route of the Erie Canal, which connected the Great Lakes to New York City. After its construction in the early 19^th Century, the Erie Canal quickly began an economic hub of the country by facilitating the movement of goods, people, and ideas, which contributed to the growth of cities like Chicago, Toledo, Cleveland, and Buffalo. The areas surrounding the Erie Canal came to be known as the Burned Over District due to the birth and spread of various religions, free thinking, and humanist groups as well as abolitionists that operated the Underground Railroad to help slaves escape to freedom in the north and Canada.

Matilda Joslyn Gage spent much of her life in Fayetteville. As a child she was influenced by her father Hezekiah, who was a physician and political activist. Joslyn was expected to become the first female physician in the country but was rejected from medical school due to her gender. However she went on to become a prominent figure in the fight for women’s rights and education. Joslyn attended the first women’s suffrage convention in Seneca Falls in 1848 where her speech and involvement was well-received. Some of the other things that Joslyn is noted for include: support for universal rights, including those for blacks, indigenous people, and women; her representation of Susan B. Anthony in court after Anthony was arrested for voting; and Gage’s strong opposition to the patriarchal structure of the Church and her belief in the importance of women uniting against it.

Michael also noted that Joslyn’s son-in-law, L. Frank Baum, wrote the Wizard of Oz, which includes a strong female character that was inspired by Matilda.

Grover Cleveland, who spent part of his childhood in Fayetteville, went on to become the 22^nd and 24^th President of the United States. Grover was influenced by his father’s Presbyterian philosophy. Cleveland moved to Buffalo, became an apprentice lawyer, and eventually became the sheriff, then Mayor before becoming Governor of New York and eventually the President. He was the only Democrat elected to the Presidency between Lincoln and Woodrow Wilson. Cleveland was known for his honesty, work ethic, and belief in the people. He vetoed many bills, established the Department of Labor, supported pension rights for veterans of the Civil War, and fought against the robber barons. He also navigated diplomatic lines to keep Hawaii independent. Cleveland’s humility was evident in his simple tombstone, which only listed his name, birth and death dates.

Matilda Joslyn Gage and Grover Cleveland were both were influential figures in their respective fields. Gage was a free thinker, advocated universal rights, and was a leader in the women’s movement. Cleveland was a devout Presbyterian and later became a president. Their only known meeting occurred at the Executive Mansion, when Cleveland hosted leaders of the Women’s Suffrage movement, including Gage.

Recap prepared by Don Porterfield with assistance of Zoom’s AI Companion

Penny Higgins is a consulting geochemist. That’s a mash-up of chemistry and geology; using chemistry to tease out the processes that shape the planet, by studying rocks. Hence her talk’s title: Reading the Rock Record — Understanding Our future.

Higgins also runs a retirement home for cats, but that didn’t enter much, except parenthetically, into her talk.

Which was related to climate change. She explained the difference between weather and climate — weather determines what you wear on a given day, while climate dictates what you have in your closet.

The biggest climate factor is temperature of course. But to get a handle on it, how does one measure and compare global temperatures over time? One thing she spoke about in this context was heavier versus lighter Oxygen molecules, the former having more neutrons. Water contains some of both. But the heavier version has a greater tendency to fall as rain. And the difference then shows up in the teeth and bones of animals that drink the water; so studying them provides clues about the climate when they lived.

Her main focus was on the MECO — The Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum, a temperature spike about 40 million years ago. To understand what was going on there, and how it affected mammals, she’s been part of a project studying rocks from that time found mostly in a Utah geologic feature, the Uinta basin. Saying she’s “so excited to see the data that she’s losing her mind.” She also called this rock stratum the “Caffeine-Free Diet Pepsi layer.” However, it’s still not clear what caused the MECO.

What is clear, however, is that climate is now changing in ways that will pose massive problems for future humans. And cats.

Frank S. Robinson is a long-time member of CDHS, a professional coin dealer, and author. His topic, “AI and Our Future,” provided a summary of Yuval Noah Harari’s 2024 book, “Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks From the Stone Age to AI” along with Frank’s own comments about this subject.

Frank noted that Harari’s book focuses on how artificial intelligence will shape the future. Harari’s book also explores the implications of AI for the future of democratic societies, contrasting it with more authoritarian modes of social organization.

The book uses the metaphor of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice as a cautionary tale about AI’s power. The book posited that our first information technology was the story, which can manipulate us regardless of truth or falsity. The danger of false information can be associated with the rise of populist political movements. Because humans have a tendency to summon powerful forces with unintended consequences, a potential concern is that the use of AI-based systems might lead to the rise of new totalitarian regimes.

Frank noted that Harari does have issues with AI systems, particularly their non-correction and lack of self-correcting capabilities. In addition, AI may be harder for humans to control and may lead to pervasive control. There is also a concern about political radicalization and the potential for spreading misinformation due to the influence of AI and algorithms.

Frank also noted Harari’s concerns about AI’s impact on social trust and society. Harari fears that AI-generated disinformation could erode people’s ability to trust anyone or anything, potentially leading to intrusive totalitarian regimes. Harari also noted the “alignment problem,” where AI’s decision-making may not align with human intentions due to its different way of thinking and an AI system not knowing what it doesn’t know. However, one of the potential benefits of AI is the convergence of biological and mechanistic components, leading to the evolution of future beings beyond their biological limitations, while still retaining human-like minds. Frank recognized that Harari’s pessimistic views on the future of AI are based on potential misuse and weaponization of AI technologies.

Frank stated that he believes that AI does offer potential benefits, especially in assisting differently-abled individuals. In order to conduct a personal assessment of the capabilities of AI systems that are currently available, Frank related that he had used Chat GPT to generate a Valentine’s Day poem for his wife, who is poet. Frank shared the poem during his presentation and his wife indicated that she enjoyed the poem.

Recap prepared by Don Porterfield with the assistance of Zoom’s AI Companion.

Dr. Mark Reimers is a quantitative neuroscientist at Michigan State University. His topic was “The Social Psychology of Group Delusions.”

He defined a “delusion” as a belief or impression firmly maintained despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality or rational argument. This has usually been associated with disordered thinking — psychosis or mental illness.

Yet most people are deluded about some things, at some times. A good example is when one is “madly in love,” a fairly common phenomenon. Reimers noted that the brain activity there has been found to resemble that in the brains of addicts.

But he also discussed what he called “everyday delusions.” A basic one is self-importance. Most people believe they are above average (mathematically impossible). Such beliefs help us navigate through life. False memories are a part of it — we love to tell stories, and to embellish them, making ourselves more central, and our memories are actually continually rejiggered to comport with that.

Another topic was “dogmatic thinking,” with the key factor being not the content of a belief, but how one believes it. Dr. Reimers referenced an impatient cognitive style — jumping to conclusions, unwilling to consider nuance. And such cognitive and personality traits govern the likelihood of adopting an ideology, like QAnon.

Key indicators there include bold, sweeping language; considering other people not just wrong, but bad; insulting them. There’s a heavy use of abstract moral nouns like “necessity” and “freedom.”

Important in all this is not so much the validity of the beliefs, but rather keeping in good stead with your group. This is especially true with religion — also helping us deal with what some might see as the meaninglessness of existence. Countered by imagining there’s a God who loves us.

The social element is particularly important given how many people feel anxiety about their social connections. Feeling isolation, resentment, humiliation, and economic stress. All amplified socially. And Dr. Reimers noted that such stress itself alters our cognition style.

He opined that this is increasingly salient in America, with hollowed out opportunity for working class people. Who can’t think clearly about their life situation. There’s a breakdown in shared societal consensus. And while modern society disperses us, social media creates the equivalent of the mob.

So — how can we combat all this? Dr. Reimers pointed to two persuasion techniques that have been developed, which seem to have some success in changing at least some minds. “Street epistemology” employs the Socratic method, starting by asking people, for example, how confident they are in their beliefs. “Deep canvassing” begins by trying to connect with people as individuals, following up on concerns they express.

Recap prepared by Frank S. Robinson

Dr. Yotam Ophir is an Associate Professor of Communications at the State University, Buffalo. His talk was titled, “Misinformation, Conspiracy Theories, and Extremism in an Age of Political Mega-Identities.” Based on his studying thousands of years of misinformation, and his forthcoming book, Misinformation and Society. It’s a pretty bleak assessment.

He started off discussing the epidemic, noting inequality of impacts, surprise, horror, anxiety, distrust of experts and officials, widespread conspiracy theories, quack solutions, scapegoating, and violence. Of course he was not talking about Covid, but the 1854 cholera outbreak. With Covid, in contrast to earlier times when diseases’ causes were not understood, information was widely available and spread fast. Yet in America, it was politicized like no disease before.

Giving Ophir his Lesson #1 — Nothing is new, but nothing is the same.

We’re living in what’s been called the “Post-Truth” era, blamed on Trump and social media. Yet before that we did have JFK assassination conspiracy theories, the 1980s-’90s “Satanic Panic” (resembling QAnon), and even further back, literal witch hunts. Today’s “Great Replacement Theory” also had antecedents. But what differs now is ubiquity of tools to create visual misinformation, and our intimate relationship with our devices.

His Lesson #2 was that we did not evolve to be seekers of accurate information. Yet we’ve had a longtime preoccupation with assessing reality, going back at least to Plato’s cave allegory. What evolution did endow us with is pattern recognition. Seeing what might be a tiger in the bushes, running away fast preserved your genes to reproduce, while if you deliberated, you’d be eaten. But such quick judgments often disserve us.

Ophir discussed some examples, displaying a chart showing a seemingly strong correlation between Maine’s divorce rate and margarine consumption. But a key point is that correlation does not mean causation, a principle most people don’t instinctively apply. And feelings tend to trump facts; if people feel crime is rising [they always do — FSR] facts won’t sway them. Meantime, another thing evolution gave us was prioritizing tribal solidarity over facts. We feel it’s more important to be in good with our social groups, which was vital for group survival.

His Lesson #3 was that misinformation is growing more political. The group thing operates especially strongly here, with many people’s principal sense of identity being their politics. And, further, the misinformation problem is asymmetrical — much bigger on the right. Ophir cited Chris Mooney’s book, The Republican War on Science. Battling the scientific consensus about climate change; even about evolution. We saw this too regarding Covid, with Trump voting areas having higher infection rates (due to science rejectionism). And it’s not just science, but misinformation and fake news more generally, which the right is more prone to seek, see, and spread.

The other side is not somehow magically protected. However, on the right, leadership and elites actively working to push falsehoods is a much bigger phenomenon. And they do so with increasing impunity.

So Lesson #4: The price for spreading misinformation is in sharp decline. In fact, it’s rewarded, not punished. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s political clout keeps growing. And of course Trump goes from triumph to triumph the more he lies. Indeed, Ophir asserted his voters trust him more than their own families! [Says something about the character of those families — FSR.]

Lying, Ophir suggested, is actually a conscious strategy, quoting Trump’s sometime consigliere Steve Bannon’s “Flood the zone with excrement” (using a more graphic word which wouldn’t make it into a CDHS newsletter). And the media can’t turn away, because the public eats it up.

In the Q&A there was reference to “the marketplace of ideas.” A free marketplace, Ophir amended. Not what we have, when Facebook for example decides what you’ll see — based on trying to maximize “engagement” (and thus ad revenue).

Finally, Lesson #5: There’s no silver bullet solution. Ophir rounded up the usual obvious remedies, but said they really don’t seem to work; can even backfire, making people even more wedded to false beliefs. Instead we need big systemic changes — bolster democratic institutions; curb money in politics; restore the authority of party leaderships; rebuild journalism with perhaps public media; advance media literacy education. [And make pigs fly — FSR.]

But he ended by quoting Leonard Cohen: “There’s a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”