DTD № 74: Is philosophy of any practical use? Would you buy a Designer guard dog, What is public life like for right-wing women? Pornography in the Age of AI, Abusive Fundamentalist Parenting

I’m back with Dinner Table Digest № 74, which contains 4 recommended reads for my free subscribers, and an additional three recommended reads for paid subscribers.

Sections: Usefulness of a degree in Philosophy / Designer Guard Dogs / Dogwhistle callback in Donald Trump Attack Ads / Conservative Women in 2024 / AI’s impact on pornography / Fundamentalist Child Discipline / Labels and mental health diagnosis / ADHD on the Rise? / Can we still trust photographs to fairly represent what actually happened or what actually exists?

What Do You Do With A Degree in Philosophy

I love this blogpost from University of Waterloo Philosophy PhD Student Kyle Adams because it describes exactly how I approached my wok life after I finished my M.A. When people questioned what a Philosophy grad student was worth in the real world, I always led with something like this:

"An essential part of any philosophical method is to question what we are presented with. Sometimes this means the evidence of our senses, and sometimes it means the nature of some important quality—wisdom, or justice."

In other words I have been trained to ask the right questions, questions that will help get us a solution. I remember interviewing for a job as a cellphone salesperson oons fter I had graduatyed with my MA. The interviewer noted that with a Masters in Philosophy, I was a little over educated or the role. He then asked, what made me think I could do the job, given my level of education: I responded by saying this: In grad school, I was responsible for asking the right questions and making convincing arguments to some of the smartest people in the world. If I have been trained to convince the smartest people in the world about some complicted topic, don't you think I'd be okay at figuring out how to convince the average person to walk out of the store with a new phone. You've convinced me, he says and hires me almost immediately.

A number of years later when I was doing communications work for non-profits, I always started with asking questions of my employer or my client. By asking good questions, I was able to figure out how to best communicate the needed message.

Combining my philosophical education with my experience working on political campaigns gave me some incredible career opportunities. I'm not going to lie, having been disabled now for 10 years, I miss having a career that brought together philosophy and practical politics.

When you have more money than God, buy a dog!

The latest fashion accessory and status symbol among the very rich is a $150,000 protection dog for threats real or imagined.

"Each dog is an undisclosed mix of Dutch shepherd, German shepherd, and Belgian Malinois."

"Clients, Greene says, sometimes ask if her dogs are suited for frequent travel by private jet or helicopter. “People say, ‘I have a big motorboat. I need to have my dog climb out of the water on a ladder.’” She makes an expression as if to say of course her dogs can do these things. She believes that most people undertrain their dogs and that both parties would be happier if dogs were asked to do more — much more."

"Stability is bred at the Phoenix, an obstacle course at the Svalinn ranch resembling a jungle gym. The Phoenix looks easy, but its components — swinging tires the dogs have to leap through, balance beams narrower than their paws — are designed to make them pant. Increased athleticism is one result, but the Phoenix is also meant to be a thinking exercise. Its components are reconfigured every day so that the dogs can’t complete it on autopilot."

"Most of a Svalinn dog’s price is derived not from breeding but rather the intensity of its training, which takes two to three years. Once a dog’s personality has been established, partway through that process, it is paired with its future owner — the bank head, the construction magnate, the rancher. Although some want the assurance of a lethal sidekick, Greene says, most are not facing an actual death threat. “People just want their dogs everywhere,” she says. “There’s an entitlement.” Her customers are “high-level people, economically and socially,” with an abundance of disposable income and free time. What’s missing from their life, she says, is “that next-level relationship with an animal.”"

"Lately, however, pets have also become symbols of politics. Last December, an editor at the New York Times, Alicia P.Q. Wittmeyer, wrote at length about the online world of dog training. Wittmeyer found two camps: those who believe in “aversive” training methods such as shock collars, and those who reject such methods or any attempt to discipline at all. The battle lines mirrored the culture wars “with unsettling precision,” Wittmeyer found. Anti-aversives are prone to linking their beliefs about dogs to larger battles against the patriarchy or colonialism, while their opponents see themselves as standing up to “woke idiots"

"Greene is an aversive. She is both a disciplinarian and a believer in replicating the harsh conditions of the wild. She wants to civilize dogs — to “give them manners” — at the same time that she hopes to bring out their inner savages. Not all animals in her care survive this process. “If nature takes puppies,” she says, “it takes puppies.”"

"She means that if newborns are abandoned by their mother and seem likely to die — perhaps of exposure — she and her staff refuse to intervene. “If we were a puppy mill, we would sleep with the puppies,” says Greene. “We’d give them heat lamps. But you know what? These are protection assets. And if six of them are going to pass, there’s a reason.”"

"She aims to “keep everything as close to nature as possible.” That means choke collars, no toys or treats, and a diet of beef or raw elk meat served on the bone. Dogs grow up in the Pit, a dirt-floored barn with an odor so intense I feel the urge to run outside."

"Being admitted to the club means buying into Svalinn’s philosophy of the dog as a functional organism, born to perform tasks. “Dogs are like humans,” Greene says. “They get pretty spun out when they don’t know what the rules are. They thrive on structure.” Not surprisingly, Greene subscribes to pack theory, the belief that dogs, like wolves, are born innately willing to be led by a dominant leader. Critics say pack theory can be used to justify an aggressive, bullying approach. “I don’t love the word dominance myself,” says Greene. Nevertheless, she adds, “This isn’t a democracy. There is a hierarchy.””

Donald Trump Attack Ads and callbacks to George Bush Sr:

I’ve been watching a lot of football over the past few weeks, which means I’ve seen a lot of American advertising. I’ll never get used to pharmaceutical ads, it’s so weird… Unfortunately I’ve also had the unpleasant experience of seeing Donald Trump’s attack ads on Kamala Harris, including the one below, played at Trumps most recent rally in Pennsyvania. What struck me is the similarity of the ad to the famous Bush Sr. ad from the 1988 Presidential election, which famously put the face of a Black Man named Willie Horton in his ad attacking the crime policies of Michael Dukakis and the Democrats. The ad became known as a prime instance of a dogwhistle - while the ad did not explicitly state that all Black men are criminals, it intimated that idea by putting the face of a Black Man on the supposed crime problems faced by a late 80’s America. As a Vox article notes,

The ad was intended to drive scared white people to the polls to vote for tough-on-crime Bush, seeking protection from black criminals like Horton and black-friendly candidates like Dukakis. As political-science professor Claire Jean Kim said in a 2012 PBS special, “the insinuation is, if you elect Gov. Dukakis as president, we’re going to have black rapists running amok in the country.”

The Donald Trump ads currently being aired are pulling the same stunt, using the faces of Latinos and Black Men, and in some ads referring explicitly to “illegals flooding our borders” to attack Kamala Harris and the Democrats crime policy, in particular Harris’s support for Trnd transition program in the prison system. Unlike the Willie Horton ad, which left the main message unspoken, these Trump ads are explicit in their suggestion that at the crime policies of Harris and the Democrats favour "‘illegals”, while Donald J. Trump would protect You (the average white middle class Americans) nd not ‘They/Thems’

I am grateful for the work of Waterloo philosopher Jennifer Saul, which has educated me about how dogwhistles work. She recently published a book length examination of the language of racism in Dogwhistles and Figleaves ; How manipulative language spreads racism and falsehood. She draws many of her examples in the book dirfrom President Trump’s first campaign and his term as President of the United States.

What does it take to be a conservative and a woman in 2024?

The Republican Party in the United States can be an alienating place for a woman. And yet there are more than a few women who not only consider themselves to be conservative, but also look to take an active role in supporting the GOP’s Presidential candidate, Donald Trump.

“A true conservative woman,” Valentina Gomez, one of several Republican candidates vying to be Missouri’s next secretary of state, told me in an email this spring, “speaks the truth, works hard, loves and knows how to use guns of multiple calibers, cares for the wellbeing of children and her family, doesn’t sleep with multiple men and most important, does not murder babies.””

"Gomez told me feminists “have made men the enemy,” adding, “they end up alone with three dogs at the age of 50 with no kids or husband” — a time-honored Republican sentiment that liberal women, unlike conservatives, are sexless, unmarriageable spinsters. But even that rusty rhetorical frame is wobbly: In April, 31-year-old far-right activist Laura Loomer, standing outside Donald Trump’s criminal trial in New York, told the New York Times, “You think I have a dating life? You think I’m married? You think I have kids? Do you think I go out and do fun things? No. Because I’m always putting every extra bit of time that I have into supporting President Trump."

"The Republican women seeking to steer their party into the future are finding themselves in a series of constrictive binds: between upholding a conservative white patriarchy that has outlawed abortion and asserting their value as women; between projecting traditional notions of compliant, cheerful femininity and channeling the testosterone-driven rage of the conservative infotainment complex; and, above all, between trying to build independent political identities and slavishly following Donald Trump. That devotion has come at the cost of alienating suburban white women, who have been crucial to Republicans for decades but, since 2016, have been peeling away in response to Trump’s pussy-grabbing malevolence and his party’s ruthless campaign against reproductive rights.

It’s surely a nasty tangle for them, but for those of us watching at home, Republican women’s efforts to bridge these impossible chasms have a stupefying quality: What to make of these women?””

What do emerging AI technologies mean for Erotic Imagery and Pornography in 21st century

Leo Herrera opens his piece. In Technology Review by suggesting that the power of pornography is found in the definitions. If obscene. He says,

“The power of pornography doesn’t lie in arousal but in questions. What is obscene? What is ethical or safe to watch? 
We don’t have to consume or even support it, but porn will still demand answers. The question now is: What is “real” porn? “

As Artificial intelligence begins to drive technological innovation in the 21st century Herrera wonders how public perceptions about the morality and acceptance of pornography will change as the multi -billion dollar industry incorporates AI innovation into their products.

“what if porn is wholly created by an algorithm? In that case, whether it’s obscene, ethical, or safe becomes secondary to What does it mean for porn to be “real”—and what will the answer demand from all of us? 
During my time as a filmmaker in adult entertainment, I witnessed seismic shifts: the evolution from tape to digital, the introduction of new HIV preventions, and the disruption of the industry by free streaming and social media. An early tech adopter, porn was an industry built on desires, greed, and fantasy, propped up by performances and pharmaceuticals. Its methods and media varied widely, but the one constant was its messy humanity. Until now.”

I have personally witnessed the increase in ads on apps like Facebook and Instagram, which offer the services of an Aim girlfriend, something that has freaked me out. Having been a user of online chat services in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, I know how easily I developed feelings for people that Iknew only through the internet. While I believed that they were who they said they were, it was very possible that I was being catfished, resulting in developing feelings for an imaginary person., someone who literally didn't exist. I can only imagine how strange it would be to find yourself invested in a relationship with what you knew at the outset to be an AI generated individual. I'm fascinated by Herrera’s questions about whether AI developed erotic material is “real” Or not. The truth is these questions have been in play for many years as pornography consumers tend to prefer material produced by “real people”or “amateurs”

Breaking a Child’s Will - Talia Lavin - The Cut, New York Magazine

fWhen I was a kid, the verse "Obedience is better than sacrifice, to obey is better than the fattened lamb" was burned into my head. James Dobson was where my parents got their parenting adice. Which means that we got hit. A lot. My dad had what he called "The Helper", intnded to “help” me and my 5 younger sisters remember that od rewards and commands that children obey their parents. After all, they would say obwdiwnc to parents was the first of the Ten Commandments that came with the promise of a long life. The Helper was a belt, folded over with one end taped to make a handle. There were leather strips along the sides of the belt, which gave you extra sting when you were hit.

Such is the childhood of a fundamentalist Christian who grew up in the 80's and 90's, and even now, particularly in homes where children are homeschooled with distinctly Christian cirriculums.

"Rachel, 44, who recalls being beaten with electrical cords, belts, yardsticks, willow switches, Ping-Pong paddles, and fishing rods, told me that obedience extended far beyond external behavior. “Not only should you obey but obey willingly with no rebellion in your heart and with a cheerful attitude,” she said. “I got spanked for not cleaning my room fast enough once, and when I went back to cleaning after my spanking, I had a depressed — or ‘rebellious’ — attitude, so my dad made me sing a cheerful hymn while I cleaned, and if I didn’t sound happy enough, I would be spanked again.”
Just now

The belief that obedience to God requires doing violence to children continues to shape American public policy toward children, including in public schools. In March 2023, the Oklahoma legislature was presented with a bill that would have outlawed the physical punishment of disabled students, including slapping, spanking, and paddling. One Republican legislator, Jim Olsen, presented a fierce mien on the statehouse floor as he advocated against the statute. “God’s word is higher than all the so-called experts,” he said. “Several Scriptures could be read here. Let me read just one, Proverbs 29: ‘The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.’ So that would seem to endorse the use of corporal punishment.” The bill to protect disabled children failed, 45–43.
Just now

The regularity and implacability of physical punishment are two features that abuse survivors remember keenly. “I was young, probably around age 4, and I remember this experience very clearly yet remember almost nothing else from that age,” Mary, age 30, wrote to me. “We had been out in public. I’m pretty sure that the initial infraction was I started crying when my dad went to zip up my coat. … By the time we got home the punishment being dealt was 100 hits without any pants or underwear. My dad didn’t skip a single one. I just remember hearing my own screaming and wondering if it would ever end.”
Just now

n 1970, a child psychologist named James Dobson published a book, Dare to Discipline, that would galvanize a movement toward “biblical parenting.” He positioned it as a necessary curative for the permissive, sinful culture that had swept through the United States in the 1960s. Like much of the Christian right that came to transform American politics over the last half-century, the “biblical parenting” movement was a reactionary backlash to the rapid social change brought on by the youth-led feminism, civil rights, and anti-war movements. Dobson’s vision was undergirded by repulsion at this perceived social chaos, and at its core was his solution: the enforced submission of children to absolute authority.

Out-of-control children were unraveling the social fabric of the country. So it was absolutely critical for parents to get their kids in line. It started in the home: you discipline your kids, and then your kids will grow up to be functioning members of this social order, which was always understood in a hierarchical sense.” Dobson’s The Strong-Willed Child (1978; reissued 2004) is primarily a guidebook in how to create pliant, submissive children through judicious blows.

“Almost every spanking I’ve ever received was a result of me asking ‘Why?’” said Chloe, 34, of her parents. “I think they really tried to break me of ‘defying authority’ because they felt it was necessary for me to be a good Christian and a productive member of society and a good wife.”
Just now

By the end of the 1980s, the Dobson view of child rearing had permeated American culture to the point that when confronted with a choice to abolish cruelty against children as a society, Americans and their government responded with a resounding rejection.
Just now

In some hands, a wooden spoon is an innocuous object, a kitchen tool for stirring and scooping. In others, it is an instrument of pain that lingers in the memory far longer than any taste could linger on the tongue. If you strike a child enough times and with enough force with a wooden spoon, it will shatter.

In October 2021, I posted a tweet asking people who had had abusive Evangelical childhoods to reach out to me for a research project that would form part of my new book, Wild Faith. Within 72 hours, 150 people reached out to me, sharing their stories on email and DM. The respondents’ ages ranged from 22 to 65; many were my age, in their early 30s. They were grateful that someone wanted to talk about what had happened to them.

I wound up designing a 12-question survey: What was your experience of corporal punishment like? What parenting books or doctrines do you recall your parents using? Do you feel childhood corporal punishment has affected you as an adult? The responses were intense and contained so much candid anguish it felt as though they would etch holes in my computer screen. I have included many in this story, with the names of my respondents changed to protect their identities.

Within many Evangelical homes, violent abuse of children is cast as a direct act of service to God, and eschewing it a grave, even mortal sin that puts children in peril of losing their eternal souls. In tens of millions of American homes, there presides a structure in which the father dominates over his wife and children with unquestioned brutality, and the wife’s limited sphere of authority over the children is used to inflict further violence.

While Evangelicals might protest that the intended effect of corporal punishment is virtuous instruction, in the moral universe of Evangelical parenting, the ideal child is not necessarily smart, ambitious, or even kind or loving. Above all, he or she is obedient.

Nearly every survivor I spoke to emphasized that obedience was strongly emphasized in their homes — central, mandatory, and necessary, extending not just to outward behaviors, such as making a bed or cleaning a table, but even to the facial expressions of the child performing these duties, which must always be cheerful and compliant. As the novelist and former Evangelical Kristen Arnett told me, “Defiance included rolling your eyes, back talk, or even using a sour tone.”

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