The art of misleading the public

[NNadir]

This book review is in the current issue of the scientific journal Science.

The review is by Sheril Kirshenbaum.

The book is:

The Triumph of Doubt: Dark Money and the Science of Deception David Michaels Oxford University Press, 2020. 344 pp.

The Art of Misleading the Public Science 14 Feb 2020: Vol. 367, Issue 6479, pp. 747

A large excerpt of the review:

At the dawn of a new decade and in a pivotal election year, we face unprecedented challenges that threaten the environment, public health, and security. Meanwhile, dark money is being funneled through powerful lobbyists, plaguing the process of enacting informed, evidence-based policies. David Michaels's new book, The Triumph of Doubt, is a tour de force that examines how frequently, and easily, science has been manipulated to discredit expertise and accountability on issues ranging from obesity and concussions to opioids and climate change.

Michaels is the quintessential voice on the influence of special interests in policy-making and government inaction. An epidemiologist and professor of environmental and occupational health at George Washington University, he spent 7 years leading the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) under President Obama and previously served as President Clinton's assistant secretary of energy for environment, safety, and health.

His book offers account after account of unethical bad actors working against the public good on issues ranging from asbestos to climate change. Powerful firms and individuals seeking personal gain repeat the tactics of a well-worn playbook of denial and misdirection proven effective by Big Tobacco more than 50 years ago. Michaels pulls no punches, naming the corporations and people responsible for fraud, deception, and even what he terms “climate terrorism.” He reveals the dirty ways that industries have succeeded at shaping their own narratives regarding safety and health by producing articles and diversions designed to deny and distort science while confusing the public.

When a Boston University brain study found that 110 of 111 National Football League (NFL) players' brains showed pathologies consistent with the rare disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the NFL hired its own conflicted scientists to counter and discredit these troubling findings. When reports from the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the U.S. National Toxicology Program, and the World Health Organization independently linked alcohol consumption to certain cancers, the alcoholic beverage industry claimed that these associations were not real and doubled down on its messaging that moderate drinking is good for us. When the opioid epidemic hit the United States, ravaging families and communities, well-documented evidence suggests that drug companies suppressed research and misrepresented the clear science demonstrating that opioids are addictive and easily abused.

What is most striking in The Triumph of Doubt is that Michaels is not merely reporting on how corporations and industries manufacture uncertainty. Rather, he provides an insider's perspective on the machinations taking place in the nation's capital, in courtrooms, and across the country...

[hunter]

1. Critical thinking skills are something that could be taught to grade school children.

Alas, that would cause trouble in many homes and churches.

[NNadir]

2. From my perspective, it is more difficult to teach critical thinking than to learn it.

Here, I think, experience is the best teacher.

I feel that for the most part I have learned to think critically, but doing so involved conceding that many things I passionately believed did not stand up to scrutiny.

I learned by questioning myself, and, of course, from having made so many serious mistakes, the consequences of which were difficult to escape.

Learning to think critically was painful, but then again, I was a particularly gullible person, since I generally believed that everyone was smarter than I am.

Some people, I think never question themselves and in general, they are disasters. Witness the orange asshole Kruger-Dunning specimen in the White House. He doesn't know how to think at all, never mind how to think critically. It's amazing that someone can masturbate so frenetically while being paralyzed.

As for faith...yes...I think you're on to something. Too much of it can be debilitating, but so can its absence be debilitating.

Nevertheless, I retain some romantic faith. I still have faith in a better world, although there isn't too much evidence to support such faith in any serious analysis of the human condition. Things are getting worse, not better.