As the first morning’s presentations came to a close at CSICon 2018, our ebullient emcee, George Hrab, commented, “I love that the theme today is understanding.” I had been thinking the same thing. If there’s a talk at CSICon that hints at being understanding of, and sympathetic to, those who harbor false beliefs in good faith, I’m probably going to put it in block quotes.
But that morning, understanding was the thread that held everything together. It wasn’t intentional; these talks weren’t arranged to be a “niceness block.” It’s just that this morning, empathy and introspection were among the main themes.
The most overt examples of the empathetic stance came from Dr. Jen Gunter, who has made a name for herself countering the false and dangerous claims of Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop empire, and Troy Campbell, a psychologist who held the title of “Imagineer” at Disney.