David Niose: Fighting Back the Right (AHA Conference 2015)

For decades American politics and public policy have been sliding in the direction of unreason. Thanks in large part to the growth of the religious right, the political realm has become increasingly divisive and anti-intellectual, with little rational discourse and much pandering. How can humanists and others seeking rational public policy reverse this course? David Niose, former AHA president and current legal director, addresses this question in his new book, "Fighting Back the Right: Reclaiming America from the Attack on Reason." He shows how so much of the right-wing agenda—and not just the religious right, but the corporate interests that control the system as well—relies on the suppression of reason in American society. Thus, to fight back, those seeking rational, human-centered public policy must recognize what David calls the “reason deficit” and confront it head-on.

David Niose has been serving as director of the AHA’s Appignani Humanist Legal Center since January 2014, overseeing all of the AHA’s litigation and other legal activities. He has practiced law since 1990, most of that time running his own civil litigation practice in Massachusetts. David served two terms as AHA president and served on the board of directors from 2005 to 2013. He is author of "Fighting Back the Right: Reclaiming America from the Attack on Reason" and "Nonbeliever Nation: The Rise of Secular Americans."
Interview:
https://youtu.be/1weZfxY6rRI