Submitted on
A persistent theme in my topics lately has been the hypocrisy and rank dishonesty of corporations and their spokesman, such as when they insist on the standard of personal responsibility, but refuse to take the same responsibility for their own actions.
On my way to another installment of that, I really want to ask: Why aren’t more people — most people! — offended when they are lied to and manipulated? Most people are, when they realize it, but somehow, when corporations do it ... all the time, it’s just business as normal.
The example of duplicity perpetrated by Big Food came to me while I was reading the Wall Street Journal’s recent debate on government’s role in curbing obesity. Speakers were food-policy doyen Marion Nestle, brilliant Cornell researcher Brian Wansink, and Michael Tanner, senior fellow at the Cato Institute. It’s a decent discussion.
Anyway, when corporations and their mouthpieces argue for personal responsibility as the standard for conduct, almost always they are arguing against government intervention.
And yet, refined sugar is probably the most government-funded products in America, between sugar-cane price protections and subsidies for corn that becomes high fructose corn syrup.
They’re against government involvement, except when they’re for it.
Why does this not piss off every eater in America?
- Michael's blog
- Log in to post comments
Comments
Jeremy Marin replied on Permalink
Hypocrisy is as hypocrisy does
This is the same, I believe, as the rampant hypocrisy in American politics today, isn't it?
A large segment of America is mad, MAD I TELL YOU, about government intervention and waste, yet are perfectly happy to see taxpayer dollars go to millionaires. They despise government subsidies of corporations but will loudly support monies to some businesses (eg, oil companies.)
It has, if recent articles are correct, spread into what people accept as fact. Recent articles have said that people no longer care what various fact-checking groups say, attributing the whole issue to the typical, political tit-for-tat.
Maybe the observation that the public has the same nonchalant attitude toward corporate lies and political lies is to be expected, given that corporations are people too, my friend.
Shannon replied on Permalink
It made me laugh...
... because I AM A FANATIC WHEN IT COMES TO CORPORATIONS!! My family is so sick of hearing me! I try to tone it down when I'm with other people so that they don't run in terror. But I watch or read everything about corporate malfeasance I can get my hands on and YES THEY PISS ME OFF BIG TIME.
My conclusion: we no longer have a government as we grew up understanding that term; we have puppets who are controlled by corporations.
And what is a corporation? In many cases t's a shield, that sociopaths hide behind. Is this true in all cases? Not necessarily. But in many of them, yes. Big Pharma and Monsanto are the worst offenders. Want some icky reading? Look at how IBM was more than happy to get Hitler up and running. And then read up on IG Farben, which invented Zyklon-B, and had a handy-dandy agreement with John D. Rockefeller to boot.
How else can you describe such inhuman behavior? One of my favorite examples-- which affected my family personally: the Dalkon shield. And those mfs dumped devices which they knew caused serious injury and death in third world countries after they could no longer sell them in the US. Can't let 'em go to waste! That is sociopathic behavior.
There is a fantastic (and free!) documentary called The Corporation which gives an introduction to what corporations are really about. I'd make it required watching if I could. Few people realize how we give our energy unwittingly to the very entities which will enslave us if we don't wake up.
Snakes in Suits was written by a psychologist who has studied sociopaths in the workplace for decades. "The rapid pace of today's corporate environment provides the perfect breeding ground for these employees,"
What does an organization look like when the people who run it have no conscience?
It's estimated sociopaths make up 1-4% of the population. The US has 350 million. That's at least 3.5 million in our country alone.
Well, sorry for venting, but I really wanted to answer your question, isn't anyone else pissed off. The answer is YES