For this show we will explore the psychology, history, and political climate that has fueled the rise of the right-wing and its most prominent symbol of today, Donald J. Trump.
Following Dr. Seltzer, we will speak with attorney Tom Turnipseed, who served as the executive director to conservative George Wallace’s 1968 campaign. Joining him will be his wife, Judy, who also worked in the Wallace campaign. The Turnipseed’s experienced dramatic political and personal changes since then. Mr. Turnipseed later served as Chairman of the Board of the Center for Democratic Renewal, worked as the co-council for Macedonia Baptist Church in Clarendon County, S.C. in their case against the Ku Klux Klan for burning their church in 1997, and has promoted additional progressive causes.
What leads people to promote and support racism, and what led some of them to change? What is the psychology behind Donald Trump and his most adamant supporters? What can we learn from the past to change the present? Listen to the show below!
From a 10-step “Baloney Detection” guide to investigations into alien abductions, 9/11 conspiracy theories, creationism, therapeutic magnetism, and Bigfoot, Dr. Shermer’s new book, Skeptic, presents readers with the tools necessary to think critically about everything, from innocent but misguided assumptions, to baloney, bunkum, balderdash, and bullsh*t.
Michael Shermer
by Matthew LaClair | WBAI 99.5FM Equal Time for Freethought
Steven Pinker is an experimental psychologist and one of the world’s foremost writers on language, mind, and human nature. Currently Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, Pinker has also taught at Stanford and MIT. His research on vision, language, and social relations has won prizes from the National Academy of Sciences, the Royal Institution of Great Britain, the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, and the American Psychological Association. He has also received eight honorary doctorates, several teaching awards at MIT and Harvard, and numerous prizes for his books The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, The Blank Slate,and The Better Angels of Our Nature. He is Chair of the Usage Panel of the American Heritage Dictionary, and often writes forThe New York Times, Time, and other publications. He has been named Humanist of the Year, Prospect magazine’s “The World’s Top 100 Public Intellectuals,”Foreign Policy’s “100 Global Thinkers,” and Time magazine’s “The 100 Most Influential People in the World Today.”
Better Angels of Our Nature
From Amazon – “A provocative history of violence—from the New York Times bestselling author of The Stuff of Thought and The Blank Slate
Believe it or not, today we may be living in the most peaceful moment in our species’ existence. In his gripping and controversial new work, New York Times bestselling author Steven Pinker shows that despite the ceaseless news about war, crime, and terrorism, violence has actually been in decline over long stretches of history. Exploding myths about humankind’s inherent violence and the curse of modernity, this ambitious book continues Pinker’s exploration of the essence of human nature, mixing psychology and history to provide a remarkable picture of an increasingly enlightened world.”
The Sense of Style
From Amazon – “‘Charming and erudite . . . The wit and insight and clarity he brings . . . is what makes this book such a gem.’ —Time.com
Why is so much writing so bad, and how can we make it better? Is the English language being corrupted by texting and social media? Do the kids today even care about good writing—and why should we care?
In this entertaining and eminently practical book, the cognitive scientist, dictionary consultant, and New York Times–bestselling author Steven Pinker rethinks the usage guide for the twenty-first century. Using examples of great and gruesome modern prose while avoiding the scolding tone and Spartan tastes of the classic manuals, he shows how the art of writing can be a form of pleasurable mastery and a fascinating intellectual topic in its own right. The Sense of Style is for writers of all kinds, and for readers who are interested in letters and literature and are curious about the ways in which the sciences of mind can illuminate how language works at its best.”
Today on Equal Time for Freethought… after my recent interview with South Carolina Representatives Jenny Horne (R) and Joseph Neal (D) on the Confederate Flag, voter ID laws, and religious tolerance, ETFF digs a bit deeper and speaks with life-long South Carolinian and Clemson University professor, Orville Vernon Burton.
Professor Burton is an expert on the South, focusing on race relations, the Civil War, and the civil rights movement. He has written numerous books including The Age of Lincoln, has provided expert testimony in high profile voter ID cases including the South Carolina v Holder 2011 case, has previously served as president of the Southern Historical Association and the Agricultural History Society, and has received myriad awards for his work.
Prof. Burton listened to our show with the SC representatives, and gives us his take on the program as we address the issues of culture, law, and history of the South.
“There is a long history of when there is a perceived threat by whichever party is in power, Democrats or Republicans or it could be Martians as far as I’m concerned, you see that literally they bring in restrictive laws to someway disadvantage African American or minority voters…” – Vernon Burton
“In 1895, African Americans were still voting. They were electing people like Robert Smalls, the black civil war hero, to Congress, and in certain areas they had power and could make a difference. You had the third party political movement commonly known as the Populist party, that is the People’s party which was calling in many places for allowing African Americans to vote and doing fusion tickets with the Republican party.” – Vernon Burton
The recent South Carolina voter ID laws “would not allow a South Carolina State government ID and they would not allow student ID’s… and it’s very clear that is because there are a larger proportion of African Americans who have those. The classic one is Texas, where they allow a gun permit but not a State of Texas or student permit for voting and the statistics there are very clear.” – Vernon Burton
“It is a tragedy I think that the grand party of Abraham Lincoln, started with Barry Goldwater, Strom Thurmond’s changing to the Republican Party, then with the Southern Strategy of Richard Nixon and you move from there to Ronald Reagan’s speech at Neshoba County, Mississippi where he talks about state’s rights, that the Republican Party in the South decided to become the party of white people and identify the Democrats as the party of black people. So it’s become so that you can hardly separate partisan politics from race itself because to disadvantage the Democratic party, you disadvantage minority voters.” – Vernon Burton
“I’ll tell you, these politicians who have taken issues like race and who have taken issues such as abortion and gay rights or women’s rights and use those in a religious context to manipulate people to often vote against their own economic and social interests, if there’s not a hell for them, I’m not gonna be happy in heaven.” – Vernon Burton
The state of South Carolina has taken a positive step towards combating discrimination as state representatives came together to remove the Confederate flag from the State House lawn. But other potentially discriminatory practices, such as voter ID laws and South Carolina’s constitutional prohibition on non-theists holding public office, remain intact. Matthew LaClair speaks with two members of the house of representatives, white Republican Jenny Horne and black Democrat Joseph Neal, who came together on the issue of the Confederate flag, while disagreeing vehemently on issues such as the voter ID laws.
Be sure to join us for our post-show discussion with Professor Orville Vernon Burton, who delivered expert testimony on behalf of the Department of Justice on the issue of South Carolina’s voter ID bill.
Jenny Horne
Republican - South Carolina House of Representatives
Jenny Horne is serving her fourth term in the South Carolina House of Representatives for House District 94 in Dorchester and Charleston Counties. She serves on the Judiciary Committee where she chairs the Special Laws Subcommittee. In 2013, Rep. Horne was elected by her peers to serve on the House Ethics Committee.
Representative Horne is the managing partner of the Jenny Horne Law Firm, LLC in Summerville where she practices in the areas of real estate, family law, employment law, and general litigation. She is a 1994 graduate of the University of South Carolina Honors College and a 1997 graduate of the USC School of Law. After graduation, she clerked for federal trial Judge Margaret Beane Seymour. She and her husband Marc live in Summerville with their two children and their spoiled Maltese Baxter.
You may recognize Rep. Horne from the passionate speech she delivered on the floor of the house on the Confederate flag issue. Matthew asks her about this speech, her views on the Confederate flag both before and after the shooting in Charleston, SC, her justification for passing a voter ID law that was proposed just a few weeks after the first black president was sworn into office, and her views on the South Carolina constitution.
Joseph Neal
Democrat - South Carolina House of Representatives
Joseph Neal is a Democratic member of the South Carolina house of representatives. Rev. Neal was chairman of the South Carolina Black Legislative Caucus back in 2000, when citizens gathered before the State House demanding that the Confederate flag be removed from the State House dome. The decision to remove it from the dome to a flag pole out front was challenged by Neal and the Black legislative caucus, where it remained until last month. Matthew discusses this experience with Rev. Neal, and asks him about the walkout staged by the 2009 Legislative Black Caucus in opposition to the voter ID bill.
Rev. Neal is Minister and Vice President of New Horizons Systems and Pastor at Calvary Baptist Church. He is the founder of Area Communities in Economic Development and Rural Sumter Communities for Economic Development, two non-profit community development organizations and co-founder of the South Carolina Environmental Watch Network. His numerous affiliations include membership in the NAACP, Moving Forward Community Group, Lower Richland Water Authority, Lower Richland Community Council and Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. He serves as Chairman of the Citizens for Hopkins Neighborhood Associations; co-chair of the South Carolina Progressive Network, a statewide grass roots organization; and as a board member of the Carolina Peace Resource Center.
The state of South Carolina has taken a positive step towards combating discrimination as state representatives came together to remove the Confederate flag from the State House lawn. But other potentially discriminatory practices, such as voter ID laws and South Carolina’s constitutional prohibition on non-theists holding public office, remain intact. Matthew LaClair speaks with two members of the house of representatives, white Republican Jenny Horne and black Democrat Joseph Neal, who came together on the issue of the Confederate flag, while disagreeing vehemently on issues such as the voter ID laws.
