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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBig Tobacco, Koch Brothers Planned Tea Parties a Decade Before They Hit American Politics
Far from a genuine grassroots uprising, this astroturf effort was curated by wealthy industrialists years in advance.
A new academic study confirms that front groups with longstanding ties to the tobacco industry and the billionaire Koch brothers planned the formation of the Tea Party movement more than a decade before it exploded onto the U.S. political scene.
Far from a genuine grassroots uprising, this astroturf effort was curated by wealthy industrialists years in advance. Many of the anti-science operatives who defended cigarettes are currently deploying their tobacco-inspired playbook internationally to evade accountability for the fossil fuel industry's role in driving climate disruption.
The study, funded by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institute of Health, traces the roots of the Tea Party's anti-tax movement back to the early 1980s when tobacco companies began to invest in third party groups to fight excise taxes on cigarettes, as well as health studies finding a link between cancer and secondhand cigarette smoke.
A new academic study confirms that front groups with longstanding ties to the tobacco industry and the billionaire Koch brothers planned the formation of the Tea Party movement more than a decade before it exploded onto the U.S. political scene.
Far from a genuine grassroots uprising, this astroturf effort was curated by wealthy industrialists years in advance. Many of the anti-science operatives who defended cigarettes are currently deploying their tobacco-inspired playbook internationally to evade accountability for the fossil fuel industry's role in driving climate disruption.
The study, funded by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institute of Health, traces the roots of the Tea Party's anti-tax movement back to the early 1980s when tobacco companies began to invest in third party groups to fight excise taxes on cigarettes, as well as health studies finding a link between cancer and secondhand cigarette smoke.
MORE...
http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/big-tobacco-koch-brothers-planned-tea-parties-decade-they-hit-american-politics
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Big Tobacco, Koch Brothers Planned Tea Parties a Decade Before They Hit American Politics (Original Post)
ProfessionalLeftist
Feb 2013
OP
virgogal
(10,178 posts)1. The study was funded by two anti-smoking groups. I'll take
their conclusions with a grain of salt.
ProfessionalLeftist
(4,982 posts)2. You need to read 'Deadly Spin' to learn why this is significant
it doesn't have only to do with anti-smoking factions. It does have to do with a propaganda machinery borne by big tobacco when it was learned what a dangerous substance it was - to keep it on the market - and those same propaganda techniques have been finely developed to such a degree that Josef Goebbels would be astonished - and used against the public by Kochs et al about every issue: climate change, health care, social security, taxes, etc.
It's a much bigger issue than that.
virgogal
(10,178 posts)4. Thanks for the book reference.
onehandle
(51,122 posts)3. Since when are health advocacy associations automatically suspect? nt
virgogal
(10,178 posts)6. For me,it's studies in general. I'm elderly and I cannot even begin to
count all the studies that have been disproved in my lifetime.
Cynical,I suppose,but it's the way I feel.
I ignore all studies.
Response to virgogal (Reply #1)
devilgrrl This message was self-deleted by its author.