Dealing in Deception

Last Updated on January 2nd, 2019

Film Recommendation 

Merchants of Doubt (2014)

How Special Interests Buy Doubt

Last night I watched this documentary and was seriously impressed by what the writers and filmmakers were able to expose. Merchants of Doubt is based on the book (same name), written by Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway. The story covers the marketing and confusion peddled by the fossil fuel industry. Their goal is to sow deception around man-made climate change, and buy the fossil fuel industry more time.

This is primarily (but not uniquely) done through creating controversy around the topic of global warming. Those that profit from the fossil fuel industry (see The Koch Brothers) spend vast sums of money on influencing both public opinion and national policy. These special interest groups channel considerable payments to key influencers in order to help maintain the status quo and obstruct relevant public health and environmental action.

Click for more on the UN’s Latest Climate Change Report (Oct 2018).

As Real As It Gets

Most educated people are keenly aware that climate change is real. There is no controversy! Humans have changed the face of the planet, and impacted it in ways that are creating increasingly dire repercussions. Undoubtedly!

You can’t expect to cut millions of trees, burn copious amounts of fossil fuels, and release multitudes of chemicals into the atmosphere daily, and not expect it to have adverse effects on our very unique life supporting systems (learn more about The Interconnected System). It’s fairly logical even before looking at all the overwhelming scientific consensus.

Welcome to the Danger Zone

The documentary covers the transition of corporate denial in tobacco companies (despite said companies being blatantly aware of the evidence), as they sought to mask the harm that their products provoked. This was also true for a number of chemical companies (flame retardants for instance), and is currently true for the fossil fuels industry.

Rather than argue the science head on, they learnt that they need to merely sow doubt and deception. With the public caught up in all the noise, they need not even bother with the science at all!

Masters of Deception

To perform this nefarious task is a crew of well paid commentators who seek to slow down and immobilize any climate change action. The film clearly demonstrates that many of these debilitating orators happen to be the very same people that had spoken up for the cigarette and chemical (flame retardant) companies. These are the deception dealers.

Truly an enlightening documentary! The information was clear and startling, and the film itself was nicely edited to illustrate an analogy between magicians and these purveyors of doubt and deception. I highly recommend watching this documentary. For those in need of more information about the film, book, or the research, check out their website, http://www.merchantsofdoubt.org/.