Category: Denialists’ Deck of Cards

Okay industry lobbyists in training, you’ve started just making up arguments to confuse everyone. That’s a method of confusing issues. Now you should start confusing individuals’ roles in the policy process. It’s time to start playing government officials off each other. If you don’t like what the federal government is doing, say that it is…

Now, the debate starts to get fun. This group of Denialists’ cards are all about spreading confusion. The more that one muddies the waters, the harder it is for anyone to do anything. And so, the place to start is with the Red Herring. The “red herring” argument is a frequently-employed and efficacious tool to…

This pair should sound familiar. Industry lobbyists love the idea of individual responsibility. And so they will argue that individuals should be responsible for addressing a problem (paired with the 4 of Clubs or the 6 of Clubs). But in other contexts, accountability goes out the window. They need total immunity from lawsuits.

The trick to using the “Jobs” card is to totally over inflate the size of your industry and the number of employees it has. It’s quite a compelling argument, and sometimes it’s true. But I’ve seen many cases where a regulation creates new jobs and economic development. A great recent example of the 7 of…

Many cards in the Denialists’ Deck allow one to make a bogus argument no matter the situation. So, with the Six of Spades and the Seven of Clubs, you use one card if your industry is highly regulated, and the other if it isn’t.

Competition is magic. But this argument must be amplified! How? Easy, appeal to “innovation.” The denalist will argue that the intervention will stifle innovation. Typical 6 of Hearts arguments include “this is just a tool,” and “you’re banning technology.” Next is the 6 of Diamonds, a somewhat contradictory but still widely-used argument–that technology “can’t be…

A denialist does not soft pedal competition. It is a religious term. It is frequently employed, because any market can be described as competitive, regardless of the facts or the myriad factors that practically limit choice. Competition solves all problems. Period. If competition doesn’t solve the problem at issue, then it isn’t a problem, or…

Allow me to jump ahead in the Denialists’ Deck of Cards, in light of Verizon’s claim that giving customer records to the National Security Agency is protected by the First Amendment: “Communicating facts to the government is protected petitioning activity,” says the response, even when the communication of those facts would normally be illegal or…

Delay always benefits the denalist. At this point, any number of delay tactics can be employed to wait and see whether consumer education will solve the problem that doesn’t exist.

The spectacle manifests itself as an enormous positivity, out of reach and beyond dispute. All it says is: “Everything that appears is good; whatever is good will appear.” – Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle You’ve argued that consumer education can set individuals free. Now argue that because something exists, people must want it.…