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

[John Landolt]

Robin, Ken, et al:

I strongly concur with the comments you have expressed about the  
"Merchants of Doubt" .  This insidious problem relates to individuals  
(scientists or otherwise) who connect themselves and are paid by  
special interest lobbying groups to simple muddy the waters enough so  
that the general public is more willing to accept the idea that they  
are safer with the status quo, even though the status quo is  
frequently (not always) detrimental to their (general public) self  
interest.

It's one way to make a buck if you have no scruples or you can ignore  
them.

My (less than) 2 cents

John

John C. Landolt, Ph.D.
Research Professor of Biology, Emeritus
Shepherd University


On Apr 22, 2011, at 10:19 AM, Robin Leech wrote:

>> 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
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>>
>>> Taxacom Mailing List
>>> Taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
>>> http://mailman.nhm.ku.edu/mailman/listinfo/taxacom
>>>
>>> The Taxacom archive going back to 1992 may be searched with  
>>> either of
>>> these methods:
>>>
>>> (1) http://taxacom.markmail.org
>>>
>>> Or (2) a Google search specified as:
>>> site:mailman.nhm.ku.edu/pipermail/taxacom  your search terms here
>>>
>>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
>
> Taxacom Mailing List
> Taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
> http://mailman.nhm.ku.edu/mailman/listinfo/taxacom
>
> The Taxacom archive going back to 1992 may be searched with either  
> of these methods:
>
> (1) http://taxacom.markmail.org
>
> Or (2) a Google search specified as:  site:mailman.nhm.ku.edu/ 
> pipermail/taxacom  your search terms here