[Taxacom] Fw: "Merchants of Death" (ooopps, or more politely "Merchants of Doubt")

[Robin Leech]

> Hi Ken,
>
> You are totally wrong.  The doubt merchants ARE scientists, big
> name scientists, and the ones who started with tobacco are the
> same key ones who are now arguing against man-made problems
> in global warming.
>
> Here are a few names: Frederick Seitz, Fred  S. Singer, Bill Nierenberg.
>
> It all started in the mid-50s with physicist Frederick Seitz.  He and a
> cadre of other top US scientists were hired by the tobacco industry,
> firstly the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company.  They were involved
> in the following:
> a) tobacco and cancer
> b) SDI - aka "star wars"
> c) acid rain
> d) Ozone hole
> e) second-hand smoke
> f) global warming.
>
> And they did a revisionist attack on Rachel Carson. Reading
> this book may give yo an entirely different view of former Prez
> Ronald Reagan, too.
>
> Their method, simply put, was to cast doubt on substantiated
> and good research, yet not countering with any research
> results of their own.
>
> If you read only one book this year, let this be it.
>
> Robin
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Kenneth Kinman" <kennethkinman at webtv.net>
> To: <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
> Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2011 10:02 PM
> Subject: [Taxacom] "Merchants of Death" (ooopps,or more politely 
> "Merchants of Doubt")
>
>
>> Hi Robin,
>>       The "merchants of doubt" is probably too mild a phrase.  They are
>> more likely in the longer run to be branded the "merchants of death" by
>> future generations.  Therefore, they are likely to be branded (in the
>> long run) as extreme propagandists, not scientists in any true sense of
>> the word, and selling their Faustian souls to corporate "devils" for a
>> short-term gain.
>>       First they argued for decades that tobacco was not proven to be
>> harmful, and now they argue that "global warming" is also not harmful,
>> or at most an inconvenience.  Either they are totally ignorant or they
>> just don't care about the suffering of those who ultimately support
>> their extravagant, wasteful lives.
>>              -----------Ken
>>
>> --------------------------------------------------------------
>> Robin Leech wrote:
>>     And, Richard, if you read the book by Oreskes & Conway, MERCHANTS
>> OF DOUBT, 2010, you will see the reason that a few well-placed people
>> don't want or need any static from others.
>> It is a book I strongly recommend all of us read.  Even though it is
>> about US situations, I can see similar things here in Canada, so it has
>> strongly affected the way I view and no longer trust our govt.
>> Robin
>>
>>
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>