Denial, Skepticism, and Contrarianism

What I have learned this week has been largely related to the portrayal of information rather than the actual information itself.  I realized that certain people could misdirect the focus of something to make it appear to be completely opposite.  One example that really stuck out to me was in the film “Merchants of Doubt”.  The major cigarette companies got the people to believe that it was the furniture that were the problems with causing the fires, not the cigarettes themselves.  In a way this is the same argument climate deniers are using as well.  A response to climate change must be lifestyle change and place regulations on companies.  People, especially Americans, connect a need for a lifestyle change to their values and can feel personally harmed by the idea of losing some of their freedom to have regulations in place.  When an argument works on one’s emotions it has much greater significance than cold hard facts.  I found it very interesting that fears from the past can play a role in today’s policy especially on the topic of climate change.  Two scientists in the movie were climate deniers and were against anything that appeared to be socialist.  The regulations associated with climate change were seen to them as an infringement on freedom, and a step towards communism.  Another tactic that climate deniers used that appeared really absurd to me was to attack scientists.  I could see the reasoning behind attacking the people who were simply gathering the data for the public.  Scientists are not known to be the best public speakers or media representatives and therefore have a more troubling time conveying their message to the public.  The deniers used this to their advantage. Scientists rarely say they are one hundred percent certain about something; deniers capitalize on this as well and create doubt in the public.  I realized, sadly that the facts might not cut it and that we need to appeal to peoples emotions to make a real difference.