I was asked to defend an indefensible position for my ethics class. I'll let you know how it goes, but here's the summary: astroturf lobbying. Defend from the corporation's perspective. Yeah, good luck with that.
I had to look up "astroturfing" on Google -- but if it's what I think it is, than I have an idea for you... You start by pretending to represent a person, not a corporation, who knows that what he wants is bad for the earth/society but good for his family -- and who can argue with fighting to save one's family? -- a fisherman, let's say, who's being told he can't fish anymore because there's no more fish. Don't you feel sorry for that fisherman? He's going broke and it's not his fault. He's just a dude feeding his family... OK. Now it's not a fisherman. It's a multi-national conglomerate that owns a gigantic ship which catches billions of halibut a day. And the multinational starts up a campaign saying that poor fisherfolk are rioting because the damn environmentalists are taking food out of their mouths. Viola : )
I had to look up "astroturfing" on Google -- but if it's what I think it is, than I have an idea for you... You start by pretending to represent a person, not a corporation, who knows that what he wants is bad for the earth/society but good for his family -- and who can argue with fighting to save one's family? -- a fisherman, let's say, who's being told he can't fish anymore because there's no more fish. Don't you feel sorry for that fisherman? He's going broke and it's not his fault. He's just a dude feeding his family... OK. Now it's not a fisherman. It's a multi-national conglomerate that owns a gigantic ship which catches billions of halibut a day. And the multinational starts up a campaign saying that poor fisherfolk are rioting because the damn environmentalists are taking food out of their mouths. Viola : )
ReplyDeleteBrilliant!
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