Yesterday, the House Natural Resources subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held a hearing on the “denial playbook” and “how industries manipulate science and policy from climate change to public health.”
Apparently, though, the Republicans didn’t like a hearing about denial. Under pretense of the topic not being in the committee’s jurisdiction, GOP committee members voted to suspend the hearing, moving it forward as an informal Democratic forum instead of a formal hearing.
The first witness was Voices Project founder Ryan Hampton. As a former addict, Hampton said he is “living proof of the damage” of the “seismic misinformation campaign” that enabled the opioid epidemic. At the end of his prepared remarks, Mr. Hampton spells it out: “Because of corporate greed and misinformation, we are now in the midst of a massive public health crisis that killed 72,000 Americans last year.”
NFL linebacker Chris Borland was up next to speak about the impacts of concussions. (The NFL has worked to undermine health research on concussions to protect the League’s reputation and profits.) Borland explained how a panel set up by the NCAA and Department of Defense has done well in its studies on reported concussions but ignores the vastly more common unreported concussions and slightly softer hits. The effort, Borland said, has “done a better job at distracting athletes and the public by excluding vital information and appropriate context.”
Cherry picking examples and presenting information that’s lacking context in order to protect the profits of an industry at the cost of people’s health...where have we heard that before?
Next, Alexandra Precup’s harrowing testimony of surviving Hurricane Maria made clear the human cost of climate denial: lives upturned, homes destroyed, and widespread suffering. Her struggle is a lesson to us all, because despite whatever life throws your way, if nothing else, your voice like Ms. Precup’s, “can be used to raise awareness and hope of a better future to those who are still trying to get back on their feet.”
Rounding out the witnesses was Dr. David Michaels, author of “Doubt is Their Product,” a pivotal book on industrial denial. (If you’d like something about denial that’s little cuter though, check out this illustration!)
Dr. Michaels’s testimony pulled no punches in connecting how various corporate interests have relied on the tobacco industry’s playbook to continue profiting off of dangerous products. After all, he noted, “debating the science is much easier and more effective than debating the policy changes necessary to protect people.”
This “disinformation playbook has caused the sickness and deaths of millions through its use defending tobacco, opioids, asbestos, lead, stain-resistant chemicals, and many more toxic products,” Dr Michaels concluded. “And just like the tobacco campaigns that encouraged millions of people to become addicted to a product that will cut years off their lifespans, there is a concerted uncertainty campaign, generously funded by the fossil fuel industry, to stop action to reduce the buildup of greenhouse gases.”
It’s one thing for an individual to deny the reality of their addiction to drugs or alcohol or shopping or stealing. That hurts them, and probably their family, but it doesn’t wreak havoc on a societal level. It’s not on par to poisoning millions of people or destroying ecosystems, ultimately rendering large swaths of the planet uninhabitable.
When denial is propagated by well-funded campaigns with corporate backing, well, there might not be any greater threat to human civilization than industrial-grade denial.
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