The Columbia Basin Badger Club
Social media often acts like a funhouse mirror, reflecting a distorted version of what people believe, and making civil discourse harder to sustain. In that environment, organizations that create space for thoughtful, respectful conversation matter more than ever.
Founded in 2008, the Columbia Basin Badger Club promotes civil discourse by hosting public forums on important issues. Looking at today’s media environment, it is easy to see why that mission is even more urgent — and more difficult — than it was when the Club began.
How social media distorts public perception
In a 2024 retrospective of more than a decade of research at New York University led by Jay Van Bavel, it was noted that many digital media users scroll through roughly 300 feet of social media newsfeed each day (think of your 6-inch phone screen and the height of the Statue of Liberty). As people scroll, they form impressions about the state of the world, and about what others on their social networks believe. The problem is that the loudest voices online often represent the most extreme views. Social media often amplifies these views, making them appear as representative of the majority, when in fact they aren’t.
That overexposure has real consequences. Research suggests that society is not as polarized as social media makes it appear. Yet when people assume their own group — or another group — holds more extreme positions than it actually does, public understanding becomes skewed and divisions deepen.
In this environment, public conversation is often fractured, rushed, or reduced to hostile sound bites. That is why the Columbia Basin Badger Club forums deserve attention — and your participation. They remain one of the Tri-Cities’ most dependable spaces for thoughtful civic engagement, offering people a chance to slow down, listen carefully, and wrestle with the issues that shape shared community life.
What makes the forums valuable
The Badger Club is nonpartisan and nonprofit. The Club does not take positions, though speakers do. Because members hold a range of views, the organization works hard to present balanced, neutral forums that encourage informed discussion rather than partisan talking points.
- When appropriate and possible, forums include speakers who present opposing views.
- Informational forums provide foundational background — often from multiple perspectives — to support informed civil discourse on challenging topics.
Before COVID, the forums were held as lunch meetings. During the pandemic, they moved entirely online. In February 2026, the Badger Club forums became hybrid — offered both in person and online — and free to anyone who registers. This format gives speakers and participants more flexibility, while preserving the in-person discussion many attendees see as a vital part of the experience.
Badger Club forums address issues with direct local significance; this includes infrastructure, education, public health and safety, economic development, and workforce needs. These are not abstract policy debates — they are questions that affect everyday life in the region.
- Recent 2026 forums have explored challenges facing arts organizations, growing energy demand, declining water supply, and increased wildfire risk.
- Forums in development include addiction prevention and treatment, access to Laliik (Rattlesnake Mountain), and why some of the nation’s poorest states are planning to offer free college.
Why participation matters
Forum speakers bring expertise, but community participation brings lived experience — and that combination is powerful. As the Tri-Cities grows and changes, meeting new challenges will require informed residents who are willing to engage with complexity rather than retreat from it. Badger Club forums are places where that work of connection and understanding can happen.
You are encouraged to attend live Badger Club forums and explore previous forums in the online video ‘Video Gallery’ archive: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7554529. Bring your questions, concerns, curiosity, and willingness to listen. These issues matter, and so does your voice. Communities thrive when people show up — not only at the ballot box or in moments of crisis, but in the everyday work of understanding one another.
The vitality of the Badger Club, and the ability to provide free forums, is built on an active membership that does the hard work of creating engaging forums, and community participation. By joining the Badger Club, you support civil discourse, and your participation can help shape and develop future forums.
Don Baer is president of the Badger Club, an emeritus Laboratory Fellow from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and a volunteer meadow rover at Mount Rainier National Park. www.columbiabasinbadgers.com / info@columbiabasinbadgers.com
