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
A brief history of 20th-century literary criticism ... John's battles against radical feminists as a grad student at SUNY Albany ... Post-structuralism and "how...
Nathan’s recent essay, "Is it Time for the Humanities to Strike?" ... The attack on the humanities goes international ... Are non-college graduates deficient...
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...