- In 2006 a U.S. district judge ruled that U.S. cigarette makers had knowingly lied about the dangers of smoking for decades.
- The tobacco companies were forced to publish statements saying that they had deceived the American public about the dangers of smoking and disclosing that smoking “kills more people than murder, AIDS, suicide, drugs, car crashes, and alcohol combined, and that ‘secondhand smoke kills over 38,000 Americans a year.’”
- By the time they were forced to come forward with the truth, we all knew they were liars anyway, and it was too late for the millions killed, sickened, or deformed by tobacco smoke.
- Their policy of lies is indescribably wicked, forfeiting lives in favor of profits.
E.g.; Similarly, Wall Street's 'too big to fail' behemoths lied and manipulated governments for regulatory change which they exploited for trillions at the expense of everyone else in the world, literally.- They have provided no benefit and brought both risk and harm to the world, as was pointed out by the UK finance minister. More than a million died as a result of the Great Recession alone. Compensation for players was magnificent, billions extracted from the marketplace where trillions were lost by everyone else.
- Their policy of lies is indescribably wicked, deliberately extracting wealth from individuals and nations for the financial benefit of a few.
E.g.; In similar fashion, the fossil fuel industry has been concealing information about their products since the 1970s.
It's interesting to note that the supreme court has given such corporations the right to campaign, to influence policy, and to change the course of the nation. The most unethical entities among us wield the most power. Is that troublesome?
- Exxon has recently acknowledged that climate change has begun, due in large part to the burning of fossil fuels. They attempted to hide that truth for decades, a deliberate misrepresentation detailed in a Harvard study of internal corporate correspondence. Inside Climate News explains further how Exxon’s own research confirmed the role of fossil fuel in climate change decades ago (1977).
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| They saw clearly and chose unethically. |
- Exxon (and others) conducted cutting-edge climate research and then, without revealing what it had learned, worked at the forefront of climate denial, manufacturing doubt about the scientific consensus that its own scientists had confirmed more than thirty years earlier. Documents from company archives and interviews with research participants have unveiled the corporate decision to misrepresent the facts. (All the companies knew. Members of an American Petroleum Institute task force on CO2 included scientists from nearly every major oil company, including Exxon, Texaco and Shell.)
- By the time we discovered their scheme, we all knew they had been obscuring the truth anyway, and much damage was done. It is too late to fully stem the environmental and ecological damage. The result, it will detrimentally affect every future generation.
- For the companies, their policy of lies is indescribably wicked, forfeiting future quality of life in favor of current profits.
It's interesting to note that the supreme court has given such corporations the right to campaign, to influence policy, and to change the course of the nation. The most unethical entities among us wield the most power. Is that troublesome?
What if R.J. Reynolds had told the truth?
What if Wall Street and the Federal Reserve had told the truth?
What if Wall Street and the Federal Reserve had told the truth?
What if Exxon and Texaco and Shell had told the truth?
As a nation and a people, we will indeed fight our way through. It's perhaps worth identifying our proven adversaries along the way (the murderous ones like these).
A government of, by, and actually for the people will be a bit of a change.
(Understatement of the year!)