Denialism Blog

Category: Denialists’ Deck of Cards

  • Denialists' Deck of Cards: The Jack of Clubs, "You're A Ninny"

    i-97ba06801a1a240ff3b91894cb907ad9-jc.jpeg It’s time to go on the offensive. Call your opponent a ninny!

    One of the best examples of this comes from–you guessed it–our friend Jack Abramoff. One of Jack Abramoff’s teammembers, Dennis Stephens, once proposed to attack Gary Ruskin of Commercial Alert because Ruskin’s group was criticizing “Channel One:”

    From: Dennis Stephens
    To: Chad Cowan
    Cc: Abramoff, Jack

    “Have you guys ever looked into Gary Ruskin, a Nader protege who runs Commercial Alert (which is attacking Channel One, our client)…The guy is a weasel…Someone should consider doing an in depth piece on Ruskin and his Nader front groups. We should have lunch and review the options.”

  • Denialists' Deck of Cards: The 10 of Spades, "Self-Regulation"

    i-42e7d215fca6d121d7e3a70f49d54798-10s.jpeg At this point, the denialist must propose “self regulation” to deal with the problem that doesn’t exist. Self-regulation is a set of rules that an industry generates to govern itself. The cool thing about self regulation is that it cannot be enforced, and once the non-existent problem blows over, the denialist can simply scrap the rules!

    For instance, in the runup to passage of bank privacy legislation in the late 1990s, data brokers created an organization called the “Individual Reference Services Group” that proposed rules for selling personal information. After the legislation passed, IRSG promptly disappeared. And it was those weak, unenforceable IRSG rules that made it possible for identity thieves to subscribe to data services and buy more personal information (even the FTC spotted that risk).

  • Denialists' Deck of Cards: The 10 of Diamonds, "Bureaucrats!"

    i-0b0664f6902a3202c5f2882e705c096a-10d.jpeg Okay, everyone, practice your sneer, because it’s time for the 10 of Diamonds: Bureaucrats! Everyone hates “bureaucrats,” whether they ever met one or not. So, the industry denialist often plays the bureaucrat card in order to denigrate proposals that would vest decisionmaking with those fat cats in Washington (Cato has over 3,000 hits for “bureaucrats”).

  • Denialists' Deck of Cards: The 10 of Hearts, "You Don't Understand Us"

    i-7276ef7d43976dd1fc5dd2fc3162217b-10h.jpeg An industry lobbyist can buy time by becoming petulant. After throwing a temper tantrum, the next step is to play the 10 of Hearts. Play this card by saying that your industry is misunderstood. It is a sophisticated, nuanced entity that needs more understanding before any proposals advance.

  • Denialists' Deck of Cards: The Fifth Hand, The False Expert and Growing Petulance

    i-77f9802772e4ea4fe5889657a5e7dc97-10c.jpg The denialist is in serious trouble at this point. Whatever problem that didn’t exist has continued to capture regulatory attention. It is time to devote serious resources to fighting the proposal being debated.

    The denalist should have a fake consumer group or academic group at this point. It will pay off with fake research and fake experts that provide a patina of legitimacy to the denialist’s points.

    One of my favorite examples of the bogus research group was presented by Harvard Law Professor Elizabeth Warren, on Georgetown University’s “Credit Research Center:” “I make only a simple empirical observation: As far as I can tell, the Credit Research Center, funded by the credit industry, has never produced a single piece of work at odds with a credit industry position on any subject, while it has produced multiple papers that support the industry’s call for more pro-creditor, anti-debtor legislation–always in the name of independent, academic research.”

  • Denialists' Deck of Cards: The Joker, "Temper Tantrum"

    i-eb5af7ffaebbb3c1568816c9550029e7-jb.jpg At this point, the consumer advocate has proceeded far along the path of moving some type of proposal. It’s time to sacrifice a high-value card–the joker. The denialist throws a temper tantrum. This may sound distasteful, but it actually works.

    There is a certain tone that an industry lobbyist can generate when truly pressed. It sounds porcine, and if you hear it, you’ll know that the Joker has been played.

  • Denialists' Deck of Cards: The 9 of Spades, "Exploit Others' Ignorance"

    i-61c10d3d18751eda938be7df21862623-9s.jpg The 9 of Spades is different than previous confusion tactics. Remember that most legislative staffers handle many different issues, and often are not expert in any one of them. This tactic leverages incomplete information to promote confusion.

    Here, the denialist simply does not offer information, or allows others to hold misconceptions if it benefits the denialist. In technology and consumer protection, this usually occurs where an industry can fix a problem, but does not want to, and so its advocates don’t mention their capabilities or practices.

  • Denialists' Deck of Cards: The 9 of Diamonds, "Poison the Well"

    i-ec1e058ca9d279d7ecc0a595fb9ed74b-9d.jpg You should all be familiar with this tactic–poisoning the well. You know the trick: provide derogatory information about your opponent to undermine her arguments.

    And here’s a great example: In defending Channel One, Jack Abramoff’s lobbyist Dennis Stephens proposed that Peter Ferrara pen an oped that “hammered the ‘anti-technology’ crowd:” “When I talked with Peter this morning, he was planning to draft a press release hammering the “anti technology” crowd per Jeff B’s request and will also be distributing Grovers nice piece on Channel One. A nice balance, a positive piece on the good guys and a hit piece on the bad guys. Sound good?”

    Find this and other illuminating documents on Jack Abramoff here: Senate Finance Committee Minority Report on Jack Abramoff (PDF) (2005).

  • Denialists' Deck of Cards: Nit Pick, and Muddy the Waters

    Two more tactics for those of you who want to be an industry lobbyist, or for those who want to recognize their two-bit tactics.

    i-963b322f26df7f5e113263f3a0f65b39-9c.jpg With nit picking, the denialist finds one problem with a fact asserted or the proposal for reform, and then harps on the problem incessantly.

    A variation on the 8 of Clubs (red herring) is “muddying the waters.” This is where the denialist brings forth any information, whether specious or not, to confuse the issues.

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  • Denialists' Deck of Cards: The 8 of Spades, "Duh!"

    “Duh!” is one of my favorite lobbyist tactics. I’ve seen it used many times.

    i-718334aad1cbe6244e3c870624c6a80d-8s.jpg With “Duh!,” the denalist deliberately misunderstands, misinterprets, or plays dumb when presented with others’ questions or proposals. One is sometimes amazed at how smart an industry lobbyist can be until they’re asked a question they don’t want to answer!

    In the Hewlett-Packard pretexting scandal, this exchange between Rep. Eshoo and Fred Adler, a company investigator, is an excellent “duh” moment:

    ESHOO: …If you say no, then I’ll accept your answer.

    ADLER: OK.

    ESHOO: You said no?

    ADLER: No in regard to what?

    ESHOO: Well, you know what, you have to be smart to play dumb. So I think I’ve been pretty direct about my questions. I asked you if rusing has been used. And you asked me to define it. I give it to you, and then…” House Hearing on the Hewlett-Packard Pretexting Scandal, CQ Transcriptions, Sept. 28, 2006.