Robert Kenner's Merchants of Doubt exposes the intricate political practices involved in Marketing spin. The film chronicles the early days of political spin, most notably in the Tobacco industry, where "scientists" were paid extrodinary amounts of money by the tobacco industry to manipulate research and cast doubt around the hard science that showed cigarettes were addictive and harmful. This of course was only the beginning of the lobbyst and spin doctor problems in American Captialist soceity, with the Tobacco industries success in deception becoming the blueprint for deceiving the American public by casting doubt on highly regarded scientists research. Merchants of Doubt's is an infuriating experience that single-handily exposes the highly secretive group of charismatic pundits-for-hire who deceive the american public and the media by championing themselves as scientific experts. These men simply are slaves to the all-mighty dollar, getting in bed with the large conglomerate companies who spend countless amounts of money in Washington D.C. to make legislation go their way. While Merchants of Doubt covers a host of issues where these tactics of confusion and doubt have succesfully manipulated what was very conclusive science into being perceived as debateable by the general public, the Global Warming issue is by far the primary focus of this doc. Global Warming is widely considered to be a major problem in the scientific community yet thanks to data manipulation, being done by lawyers not scientists who are being paid lucrative amounts of money by fossil fuel-based companies, a large percentage of the American public still believes it's a debateable issue. This is a film that exposes the greater truth and problem with our two party political system in showcasing how people believe what they want to believe and that the major issues like Global Warming become more so about politics than the science that is conclusive. This two-party system creates a group think mentality among the red state individuals who simply view the threat of Global Warming as some political attempt to grow big government, a short sighted and incredibly naive mentality that is deeply problematic considering the threats. Considering the subject matter, Merchants of Doubt is satirical and quite funny, almost presenting its point in a way that says, this whole situation is so absurd that all you can do is laugh.
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June 2023
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