How to spot wiles of climate deniers, street hustlers and big tobacco
Who here has gone to a magician’s show or seen gamblers playing cards in the street? Well, have you ever asked them to tell you their ruses? I have, and let me tell you a couple secrets I learned along the way. These “con”-men are trained to trick you and instill in you a false sense of “con”-fidence.
The easiest way for them to give you that confidence is by enlisting the help of others. That’s called a shill. Have you ever heard of a shill? If not, you’re not alone.
The word is believed to come from shillaber, a carnival attendee who appears to give an impartial endorsement of the show but actually works directly with the carnival. So basically, it is someone who talks about or describes someone or something favorably because they are being paid to do it.
Since the endorsement sounds independent and separate from the showmen, the crowd follows the shill. By using crowd psychology, the audience cannot tell they are being misled, let alone misleading each other by joining the crowd.
So what does this have to do with climate change? Well with over a 97 percent consensus from the scientific community on the topic, we now know that humans are causing climate change. The facts speak for themselves. But one might ask why a recent Yale/Gallup study found that only 48 percent of the American public believed that there is a consensus among the scientific community on the topic? Can we be honest with one another here?
Americans have been duped and deceived by special interest groups in regards to climate change science. The denial of climate change has come from companies and individuals that will be effected negatively by a price on carbon. It can be hard to think that corporations have been knowingly lying to the American public, so let me tell you a story of another industry who mislead Americans for decades.
Back in the 80’s and 90’s, big tobacco vocally denied that cigarettes caused severe health risks to smokers. Several times before Congress, tobacco companies told politicians that smoking may or may not cause cancer. After numerous lawsuits, internal research and documents from tobacco businesses surfaced, showing that companies knew of the risks associated with smoking back in the 60s. The film Merchants of Doubt explains in greater detail the substance of this article.
These papers were suppressed for decades because they were not in line with the businesses’ bottom-line. Just think about it. It makes sense. If the public didn’t know about the science research showing that smoking definitely causes cancer, then there was just enough doubt for the corporations to keep doing business as usual. In this case, the shill cast doubt on the scientific consensus by hiding information from the public. Unfortunately, for us, these shills are really good at hiding their true intentions.
Climate change science and fossil fuel companies are the modern-day equivalent of cancer science vs. big tobacco. After you realize that the climate denial game isn’t how it looks, all you have to do is a little research and find who is funding the denial. The hardest part is that transparency and full disclose in today’s world are hard to come by. Discovering these relationships takes digging.
My role is not to coerce you but only to alert you so you are not tricked by a shill. And I want everyone to have all the facts laid before you. That way, you can make an objective decision. People deserve information that has not been bought, sold or owed.
As an American, demand transparency from your institutions, businesses and governments. This is your right and you deserve to know the truth.
If you want to make a difference, learn your ecological footprint and watch Merchants of Doubt.
— darren.bingham@aggiemail.usu.edu