Corporate bullsh*t Exposing the lies and half-truths that protect profit, power, and wealth in America

Able dissection of the lies corporations and their reputation handlers tell to "defend the indefensible." We hear it all the time: Raise the minimum wage, and jobs will disappear. The free market regulates itself more effectively than the government can. Raise taxes on wealthy people and--yes, jobs will disappear. Hanauer, Walsh, and Cohen calls these specimens of "concern-trolling" part of a spurious "protection racket for the superrich," always with a hidden threat that if you don't give them what they want, the plutocrats will pick up their toys and go home. By the authors' account, the arguments the superrich and their vassals make hinge on six major tenets, ranging from the overarching thought that any attempt at reform will only make matters worse to the familiar canard that efforts at economic justice are socialism in action. As the narrative proceeds, they pepper it with supporting quotations from oligarch-adjacent organizations such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which once held--in the face of any number of workplace violations--that "employers do not deliberately allow work conditions to exist which cause injury or illness." Just so, a former Reagan-era secretary of the interior insisted that climate change in the form of a disappearing ozone layer affected only people who stood out in the sun, as if a sizable portion of the workforce didn't labor outdoors. As the authors note, it has always been this way. When Grover Cleveland first called for an income tax on "the top 1 percent at the time…howls of complaint ensued." Today those factories of disinformation persist in the form of think tanks, ad agencies, PACs, and--well, politicians of a certain party, all of whom the authors urge be combatted by asking hard questions: "Who's telling the story, and how do they stand to benefit from the status quo?" A welcome user's guide to maneuvering the thicket of lies that constitutes so much discourse today. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.