Rationalists of East Tennessee Newsletter

September 2025

Blount County First Wednesday Meetup

Wednesday,  September 3  6:00 - 7:30 pm  

Come join us at "The Bird and The Book" Cafe,  1509 E Broadway Ave, Maryville, for socializing and dinner.

If you have any extra copies of Free Inquiry, Skeptical Inquirer, Freethought Today, or other Freethought magazines, bring them to the social. We will try to have RET stickers ready to place over your addresses to make the magazines suitable for distribution for outreach. 

This will be a monthly event, normally on the First Wednesday.  All are welcome to join in.

First Sunday In Person Meeting

September 7, 2025 10:30 AM - 12:30 PM Eastern Time

The Happy Activist

Dr. Terri Lyon and Trish Lockard will talk about Terri’s book The Happy Activist: Journey the 5-Step Activism Path to Focus Your Passion and Change the World. 

At the heart of The Happy Activist is the idea that you should thoughtfully identify the cause you are most passionate about and then craft a unique activism opportunity that draws on your own skills, talents, work experience, and education. An astonishing 2 of every 3 volunteers and activists quit within the first year of starting. Why? Because they have chosen an area of activism that is not their true passion or they are doing work they are not trained or suited for. Or both. The 5-Step Activism Path guides you toward your perfect activism match and away from work that won’t satisfy you. If you are suited for the work and doing something you enjoy, you will be happier, more productive, and stick with your activism longer. 

Coffee and other beverages will be available. Bring a snack to share if you wish. 

We meet in the Cafeteria Annex of the Goins Administration Building. Please enter from the rear of the building where there is direct access to our meeting room. 

RET Skeptic Book Club

September 14,  2025  Sunday    4:00 – 6:00 pm EST

Zoom Meeting

Ricardo's Dream:How Economists Forgot the Real World and Led Us Astray

by Nat Dyer

Ricardo’s Dream: How Economists Forgot the Real World and Led Us Astray

Nat Dyer

From the workings of financial markets to our response to the ecological crisis, economic theory shapes the world. But where do these ideas come from? Ricardo’s Dream tells the fascinating story of David Ricardo, Adam Smith’s only real rival as the ‘founder of economics’. The wealthiest stock trader of his day, Ricardo introduced the study of abstract models to economics. He also developed the theory of trade that underpinned globalization and hides, behind its mathematical facade, a history of power, empire, and slavery. Brimming with fresh ideas and stories, Ricardo’s Dream shows how too many economists, from Ricardo’s day to our own, have turned away from observing the real world and led us astray. 352 pages.

September Third Sunday Zoom

September 21, 2025 10:30 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

MAGA Cults 

Member Aaron Tyrrell will be presenting on: MAGA Cults and reconverting those in one. 

Cult dynamics aren't just for weird religious communes! Before the Internet, you had to isolate people from the civilization and bombard them your recorded sermons on a loudspeaker until they gave you all of their possessions. Now, you can bombard them with social media feeds and text message notifications, let them isolate themselves in their basements, and convince them to spend all their money on online coaching courses and natural health supplements.

Stephen Hassan is one of the world's leading experts on cult behavior and deprogramming. A former Moonie, he escaped the cult and went on to publish his thesis on the BITE model of Authoritarian Control that has served as the standard for assessing high-control groups. BITE stands for Behavior, Information, Thought, and Emotion, each of which can be deployed to subvert someone's will. Hassan also wrote the book The Cult of Trump which outlines the methods used by Trump and MAGA to control the Behavior, Information, Thoughts, and Emotions of his followers. He also offers advice based on his years of deprogramming experience on the best approach to persuading MAGA cult members that bypasses their defenses and lets you actually get through to them.

Knox County Fourth Wednesday MEET-UP

09/24/2025 6-8 pm, Corner 16 Restaurant, 9637 Kroger Park Drive

Come join an informal gathering for food and conversation at the Corner 16 Restaurant, 9637 Kroger Park Dr, Knoxville, TN 37922 near Pellissippi and Northshore.

If you are interested in seeing the menu beforehand, you can check it out here.  

September RET Reflections

09/28/2025  4:30 PM - 6:00 PM Zoom

Call for books for the Skeptic Book Club

RET members,

 It is again time for us to select books.  The books must be nonfiction but can cover a wide range of topics: medicine, history, religion, politics, science, biography, ethics, economics, you name it!  We don’t have a page limit, but remember there is a month between meetings, so select something you think can be covered in about a month.  A couple of shorter books would be welcome for a change.  In fact, I would like it if some of you could recommend some essays or articles of less than 50 pages or so that can be read in less than a week so some of our busier members can jump in; web references are okay but watch for paywalls.  A golden oldie perhaps?

 Leading a session is not hard as this group has plenty of opinions and viewpoints, so feel free to dive in with something you have always been interested in.  All you need is an outline to guide the discussion; you can be more elaborate if you wish, but it is not necessary to have a full-fledged power point presentation.  Ideas and knowledge are the goal.  Open your mind and ours!

 Please send me your titles soon so I can put together a list for 2026.   Previously, I have been compiling the book list over the months as I get titles, but I would like to have a complete list by the end of this year.  Send the titles to:

 rmorris126@comcast.net

Thanks for your participation,

Bob Morris 

Skeptic Book Club Coordinator

Local Pride Events 

For the first time RET is participating in Blount Pride. This event will take place on Saturday, September 6 at Springbrook Park in Alcoa. Let’s support our Pride friends by attending or especially volunteering to table at the booth that RET is sharing with FFRF-East TN. There is a Sign up Genius for those who are willing to help out. 

Then in October KnoxPride is coming up. This year we are going to participate in the Parade on Friday night, October 3, as well as the main event at the World’s Fair Site on Saturday, October 4. We will need volunteers for both of those events. We do not yet have the details for the gathering place or route for the Parade, yet, but we are asking for volunteers to go ahead and sign up now. We will be marching with ASK (Atheist Society of Knoxville), which will be providing a new and improved Flying Spaghetti Monster, and with FFRF-East TN (Freedom from Religion Foundation, East TN). There are two separate sign-ups for those events:

• PARADE: October 3
• KNOXPRIDE at the World’s Fair Site: October 4

Something else our members should know about:

In the past RET had a lively discussion forum that many members really enjoyed. It isn’t quite the same, but RET still has a discussion group on Facebook. Feel free to join the group and post topics that you would like to have discourse about, or events that you would like to attend with other like-minded folks. We are also in the planning stages of creating a calendar for sharing events. 

If you are on Facebook, search under Groups for Rationalists of East Tennessee Discussion.