Merchants of Doubt
How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming
by Naomi Oreskes, Erik M. Conway · first published 2010
74% recommend26% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Well-documented history of how a small group of scientists were hired to sow doubt on tobacco, acid rain, the ozone hole and climate change; approachable but scholarly, for readers curious about industry disinformation.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
"Merchants of Doubt " tells the story of how a loose-knit group of high-level scientists and scientific advisers, with deep connections in politics and industry, ran effective campaigns to mislead the public and deny well-established scientific knowledge over four decades that link smoking to lung cancer, coal smoke to acid rain, and CFCs to the ozone hole.
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…attempted to sway public opinion on acid rain, the dangers of smoking and secondhand smoke, the ozone hole, global warming, the Strategic Defense Initiative, and the banning of DDT. I recommend the book Merchants of Doubt [1], which documents this in exacting detail. [1] http://www.amazon.com/Merchants-Doubt-Handful-Scientists-Obs...
on “World won't cool without geoengineering, warns report” ↗Similarly, see "Merchants of Doubt" by Oreskes and Conway. A small number of scientists (whose scientific field is sometimes barely or even not-at-all related) routinely get hired by front companies for various business interests to deny…
on “Coca-Cola Funds Scientists Who Shift Blame for Obesity Away from Bad Diets” ↗…in the full lifecycle of public policy: authoring, negotiation, implementation and revision. Special interest bias currently has purchased more than it's fair share of overriding influence. See also: Merchants of Doubt
on “TTIP Secret trade deal can only be read in secure 'reading room' in Brussels” ↗If it helps you triangulate these things, its worth keeping in mind that very little of these tactics (and even many of the actors!) are unique to the oil industry. Merchants of Doubt [1] goes into the pattern in an almost legal/academic way: https://www.amazon.com/Merchants-Doubt-Handful-Scientists-Ob... Thank You For Smoking tells the same basic message but as a semi-satirical movie:…
on “How the oil industry made us doubt climate change” ↗…and so forth. It's the same tactics used by the tobacco companies, as I mentioned, and also global warming denialists and proponents of DDT. I recommend reading Erik M. Conway and Naomi Oreskes book Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Climate Change And stop quoting Wikipedia. Arguing over what Ivermectin can or can't do or how that fact is presented…
on “Joe Rogan Has Covid” ↗…corporate shills actively and deliberately sowed confusion on the matter, knowing full well that their position was false. Naomi Oreskes and Eric Conway have covered much of this history excellently in Merchants of Doubt. And there's the little matter of carbon dioxide emissions and their effects on global tempeatures and ocean chemistry, known since the 1880s, and recognised as a major threat since the 1950s, but still…
on “Is Facebook a Structural Threat to Free Society?” ↗…it worked." From the books about pseudo-scientific claims presented in media as "real" science I also recommend "The War On Science" by Shawn Otto: https://milkweed.org/book/the-war-on-science and "Merchants of Doubt" by Naomi Oreskes, Erik M. Conway: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/merchants-of-doubt-97815969161... In short, there are definitely enough people who earn money by "selling" falsehoods. It was never…
on “How Swedes were fooled by the book “Surrounded by Idiots”” ↗…many hundreds of other organisations around the world. Fortunately there's a handy list: https://www.atlasnetwork.org/partners If you'd like to know why, I recommend Naomi Oreskes and Eric Conway's Merchants of Doubt, which discusses the half-century-plus campaign of propaganda and disinformation these groups have carried out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchants_of_Doubt (As with much propaganda, there's often…
on “U.S. to release oil from reserves in coordination with other countries” ↗…party, start with The Republican War on Science by Chris Mooney, move on to Unscientific America by the same author, The Great Derangement by Matt Tiabbi, or Idiot America by Charles Pierce. Skim through Merchants of Doubt or Doubt is their Product to see some of the links to various corporate think tanks. The evidence is clear, maybe you should check some of it out.
on “Most Scientists in the U.S. Are Democrats. That's a Problem” ↗While the book doesn't touch on vaccines, I found Oreskes & Conway's "Merchants of Doubt" a fascinating read on the subject of how easy it is to spread FUD (or at least UD) about science.
on “Retracted autism/vaccine study an 'elaborate fraud,' British journal finds” ↗…exceptionally strong set of corporate backers behind it. I strongly recommend Philip Mirowski's work on the Mont Pelerin Society. Also Robert Proctor on agnotology, and Naomi Oreskes and Eric Conway's Merchants of Doubt http://www.worldcat.org/title/road-from-mont-pelerin-the-mak... http://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=11232 http://www.worldcat.org/title/merchants-of-doubt-how-a-handf...
on “Ralph J. Cicerone, scientist who worked to protect the ozone layer, has died” ↗…faling into the same pit: http://infolab.stanford.edu/~backrub/google.html Niel Postman. Technopoly and Amusing Ourselves to Death. Vance Packard, The Hidden Persuaders Naomi Oreskes and Eric Conway, Merchants of Doubt looks at influencing on a much broader basis. Banksy's art is, in many regards, a direct refutation of advertising. The letter attributed to him on the topic is originally by someone else however.…
on “Introducing the Invisible reCAPTCHA” ↗…geology, by at least one account I've seen, which is quite a feat. Naomi Oreskes, recently known for her work on the disinformation campaigns against tobacco, lead, asbestos, CFCs, and now CO2 regulations, Merchants of Doubt, wrote several papers and two books on this subject in the late 1990s and early 2000s, specifically about the history of science aspect, and the long rejection (and eventual acceptance) of the theory.…
on “Both geniuses and madmen pay attention to what others ignore” ↗…have no idea that climate change denial benefits oil and gas companies and is heavily funded by them. If you’re interested in disinformation and how it affects climate change policy, the book and movie Merchants of Doubt is really great- it explains some of the strategies used.
on “While the planet burns our politicians fiddle” ↗…only from one political direction. It is complex, it's not only a single ideology or a single religious group, but there are multiple correlations. See the books: "The War on Science" by Shawn Otto and "Merchants of Doubt" by Oreskes and Conway.
on “The Reason We Haven’t Directly Detected Dark Matter” ↗