Find out if ‘truth’ really is ‘dead in America’

One of the tricks that my friends in high school used to play on people involved making up jokes and pretending the punchlines were real.

Say, for instance, one would say, “How many psychiatrists does it take to screw in a lightbulb”? And the unsuspecting foil would, of course, respond, “I don’t know. How many?”

“Three miles to the ocean!” the joke-teller would say. That or some other nonsensical retort. And then he (and it always was a he) would start laughing, as would others in the group, leaving the foil confused – still unaware that he (again, always a he) was being made fun of.

Sometimes the foil would start laughing, too, which would make the joke-teller and his pals laugh even harder. It seemed so easy to convince some people that they really knew what was going on. Adolescent boys can be quite dumb. (The girls I went to school with never fell for it.)

Anyway, all that came back to me when I read the announcement that Washington State University Prof. Steven Stehr is going to give a Zoom webinar at 6:30 this evening titled “Is Truth Really Dead in America?”

The online event, which is sponsored by Humanities Washington , is being hosted by the Asotin County Library . Registration is required.

Stehr, who earned his Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley, is WSU’s Sam Reed Distinguished Professor in Civic Education and Public Civility and director of the School of Politics, Philosophy and Public Affairs.

“Alternative facts, fake news, post-truth – these phrases have flooded the American conversation over the past several years,” reads the event description. “But how bad is it really, and what can we, as a society and as individuals, do to be better informed?”

Stehr no doubt will offer a few answers. And maybe a few workable solutions.

But don’t worry. No one is likely to be laughing.