Robert Gressis (Cal State Northridge) and Kevin Currie-Knight (East Carolina University) talk about Kafkatraps. Kafkatrapping is a rhetorical technique where an objection to a particular charge will be used as evidence of that charge. (Are you a communist? If you say no, that just shows how sneaky a communist you are.) Rob and Kevin talk about how and why Kafkatraps work, their uses in cults, cospiracy theories, and other insular movements, and a few articles Kevin has written (for the Electric Agora) about Kafkatraps.
7:32 - When denials confirm the charge: what are Kafkatraps and how do they work?
16:31 - Kafkatrapping has a lengthy history
23:15 - Why do people (even unintentionally) employ Kafkatraps?
40:38 - Plausible and implausible reasons to doubt/dismiss the testimony of others
45:12 - Why cults often use Kafkatrapping techniques (and how Kevin almost became a scientologist)
54:34 - Why cults have to be small to see themselves as special
1:00:20 - How conspiracy theorists use Kafkatraps to dismiss naysayers
Realism vs. anti-realism ... Is reality the sum of human senses? ... Why Crispin is allergic to idealism ... “Rabbity moments” and Quine’s radical...
Robert Gressis (Cal State Northridge), Dan Kaufman (Missouri State) and Kevin Currie-Knight (East Carolina) discuss what is and isn't realistic to expect of philosophy....
E. John Winner and Dan Kaufman (Electric Agora) talk about the Marx Brothers and their relationship to American Comedy. 1:30 Vaudeville, Burlesque, and Musical...