Denialism.com

Monday, March 19, 2007

Denialists' Deck of Cards

[This is reproduced from an earlier post on my personal blog.]

My newest paper, The Denialists' Deck of Cards: An Illustrated Taxonomy of Rhetoric Used to Frustrate Consumer Protection Efforts, is now available on SSRN (HTML version).

Here's the abstract:

The Denalists' Deck of Cards is a humorous illustration of how libertarian policy groups use "denialism." In this context, denialism is the use of rhetorical techniques and predictable tactics to erect barriers to debate and consideration of any type of reform, regardless of the facts. Giveupblog.com has identified five general tactics used by denialists: "conspiracy, selectivity, the fake expert, impossible expectations, and metaphor."

The Denialists' Deck of Cards builds upon this description by providing specific examples of advocacy techniques. The point of listing denialists' arguments in this fashion is to show the rhetorical progression of groups that are not seeking a dialogue but rather an outcome. As such, this taxonomy is extremely cynical, but it is a reflection of and reaction to how poor the public policy debates in Washington have become.

The Deck is drawn upon my experience as a lawyer working on consumer protection in Washington, DC. Where possible, I have provided specific examples of denialism, but in many cases, these arguments are used only in closed negotiations. Some who read them find the examples humorous, while others find it troubling. But all who read the Washington Post will recognize these tactics; they are ubiquitous and quite effective.

This taxonomy provides a roadmap for consumer advocates to understand the resistance they will face with almost any form of consumer reform. I hope to expand it to include retorts to each argument in the future.

Labels: about, deck of cards

2 Comments:

chunkylimey said...

One objection. You are making a broad generalization about Libertarianism in your comments. Libertarianism is about diversity and individual freedom which by default means that it attracts weirdo's and dubious ideas, but also it has the freedom of opinion and the right to be different. Something that a good scientist for example should value. Not all Libertarians are right wing fundamentalist crazies. Just as every Socialist is not a dogmatic order following sheep (and they have them in equal measure to every crazy Libertarian).

If the Neo-Conservative movement was truly Libertarian leaning and not cherry-picking from the ideas they like they would not have gotten into this mess that we find ourselves in. We'd have different problems but at least we wouldn't have authoritarians posing as individualists.

March 23, 2007 4:51 PM,

Mark said...

If it seems like we're picking on libertarians it's because it's some of the libertarian groups that are whoring themselves out on global warming and various consumer protection regulation.

We understand the difference between civil libertarianism, economic libertarianism, and some of the crazy anarchical libertarianism you get, the there is the democratic libertarianism of Markos Moulitsas Zuniga. It just so happens the big "L" libertarians these days don't happen to recognize that for their credo to be true, individual citizens need to be protected from corporate/industry intrusions into their privacy and personal rights, as well as governmental intrusions.

March 26, 2007 11:36 AM,

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