These days, you can't turn on a television without hearing that you're probably fat, engaged in unhealthy behavior, failing to get sufficient exercise, destroying the environment through the use of practically every product that makes your life more convenient, and likely to fall victim to just about everything and everyone around you. But not only are the statistics that prove these points based on false information, much of our national dialogue is dictated by this patently bad science-encouraged solely by public and private organizations that leverage these demonstrably untrue facts to bolster their own philosophies and fatten their own pocketbooks. With mounds of solid evidence that contradicts common thought, Morris Chafetz shows the lies behind the facts about today's big issues (for instance, the "obesity epidemic" we hear so much about is the result not of a fatter population but instead a change in bookkeeping in a federal agency, and the evidence used now to frighten us about "global warming" was used a generation ago to frighten us about "global cooling") and encourages readers to look through the money-motivated façade of statistics and government controls and return to a strong attitude of personal responsibility.
Big Fat Liars
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Chafetz falls into his own trap,
By
This review is from: Big Fat Liars: How Politicians, Corporations, and the Media use Science and Statistics To Manipulate the Public (Hardcover)
Part of my (non) retirement life is taking time to read again. I'm trying to expand my reading and read points of view that are beyond my comfort zone - books that I believe will have a point of view which is different from mine.Big Fat Liars is one such book. Chafetz feels we need to question everything. I agree with this point of view. It's so important to ask questions when people in authority or people who are "experts" tell you the "truth." What is the basis for the statement? Who else is paying you? Unfortunately, Chafetz's need for questions doesn't extend to opinions that he supports. For example, on page 163 of the book it says "Some people, the experts say, are genetically predisposed to have 'addictive personalities'; others may have been conditioned to be that way by their upbringing or by advertising." Chafetz rightly questions who are the experts are that are making such statements? How did they arrive at their conclusions? These statements are current conventional wisdom, but are they correct? However, Chafetz falls into his own unsupported conclusions when he states further down on the page, "Yet it is well-established that many people with a family history of addiction, and an early environment shaped by it, do not become addicts...The 'environment' portion of the public health model as applied to addiction here falls entirely apart." One may ask, "Well-established by whom?" The next sentence says, "Moreover, many addicts quit, and most do so without expert help." Again, from where does this data come? There are many examples like this throughout the book. Morris Chafetz is the president of the Health Education Foundation and comes with a long list of credentials. The book is worth reading because there are excellent points. It's a book that must be read carefully, however, because Chafetz falls frequently into the same trap he condemns. I agree with Chafetz's basic premise. We must ask questions whenever someone tells us the "truth." We must also remember to listen carefully to the answer.
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Challenges Popular Ideas,
By
This review is from: Big Fat Liars: How Politicians, Corporations, and the Media use Science and Statistics To Manipulate the Public (Hardcover)
Some of the ideas in this book almost surely are mistaken - such as Dr. Chafetz' belief that AIDS is not caused by the HIV virus. Here he's following the lead of radical dissenter Duesberg. Since there have been a number of cogent refutations of this view, Chafetz loses some credibility early in his book. However, even on this score, he does proceed to raise a valid question. He says that in Africa, anyone showing any of the many symptoms associated with AIDS readily gets diagnosed with AIDS, even when there were no facilities to test for HIV. So it's possible that the AIDS epidemic in Africa may not be quite as horrific as broadcast. Many individuals diagnosed with it may actually be suffering from more readily treated ailments that produce some of the same initial symptoms as AIDS.Dr. Chafetz challenges the reader with a variety of other contrarian views that might be at least partially correct. So don't be put off by the patches of foolishness. Keep reading. Some of the popular ideas you will find being perhaps rightly challenged here, include: The idea that smoke will trigger many people's allergies. Chafetz says there are no proven antigens in smoke, therefore a person can't be literally "allergic" to it. He believes people should own up to their feelings and simply say they don't like smoke. They shouldn't hide behind trumped up medical conditions. The idea that second-hand smoke can kill wherever it is encountered. He challenges the establishment to make their indicting data on this issue readily available so that their failure to apply proper controls for other variables in their studies can be exposed. For example, children raised in large homes with smoking parents would by all logic be at less risk than children raised by smoking parents in cramped, unventilated quarters. But the studies don't make such distinctions. As the information gets published and filtered through the media, lawmakers are led to believe that anyone in any enclosure is equally likely to suffer damage if someone smokes in that area. The idea that we are facing imminent global warming. Chafetz reminds the reader that as recently as the mid-1980's - there was much scientific certitude that we were facing global cooling - that we were in fact facing another ice age, He believes the scientists are losing credibility by predicting such divergent disasters, one right upon the heals of the other, backing up each successive claim with temperature trend charts. It seems these charts, like sections of the Bible, can be interpreted in diametrically opposite ways. The idea that banning DDT was a uniformly good measure. Chafetz says that mosquitoes are proliferating as a result, spreading newer, more virulent strains of malaria. The idea that America is in the midst of an obesity epidemic. Chafetz says that the bar that qualified a person as being "obese" was lowered considerably in the U.S. in 1998, in order to bring us into conformity with other countries' standards. So thousands of people who weren't categorized as obese one day, fell under that heading the next day. All in all, I think you'll find this a worthwhile book, if only it challenges you to talk back to Dr. Chafetz, bolstering your side of the arguments with something more than the night's grabbing news headlines. At the very least, Dr. Chafetz will fill the roll of Arsenio Hall. He will make you go "Hummmmmm."
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Worthwhile Demagoguery,
This review is from: Big Fat Liars: How Politicians, Corporations, and the Media use Science and Statistics To Manipulate the Public (Hardcover)
The title of this book immediately appealed to me. In the information age, we have access to a multitude of resources with which to form opinions and conduct our lives. However, through rigid message control and selective sourcing, nuances (and even incongruent facts) of many current issues are completely obscured. It is easy to understand how painting an issue or policy as black and white makes it much simpler to promote or enact without having to consider its subtler, inconvenient aspects. Even more disturbing is the outright misuse or manipulation of evidence to promote an agenda for profit and power.Science epitomizes rational thought and therefore is a very effective tool in appealing to a society that considers itself rational and intelligent. Many people who categorically disagree with a political position are at least willing to listen to scientific counter-arguments. And a strong scientific argument tends to hold a great deal of sway with those who have not yet formed an opinion on the subject. Dr. Chafetz, in his brilliant preface, links the "corruption and misapplication of science and medicine" to the appropriation of power through a growing "paternalism in politics." By enacting more and more laws with a father-knows-best attitude, we as citizens, are continually deprived of our rights and therefore responsibilities. With fewer responsibilities, we become intellectually lazy and easier to manipulate and control -- the dumbification of America. Moreover, "the people that are told that they lack the skills needed to exercise responsibility will find no reason even to attempt to live responsible lives." Unfortunately, with the exception of a few savvy insights, the next few hundred pages are little more than a drunken rant with passages that resemble a self-help book. Time after time, Dr. Chafetz uses isolated, and in some cases obscure, examples and follows them to erroneous conclusions. For example, he lost me completely in his chapter on "Global Warming". Chafetz claims that a few doomsday scientists, with misguided theories in the sixties on global cooling, have somehow co-opted national discourse on climate change in pursuit of headlines and grant money. Does the author truly believe that these isolated scientists, acting for personal gain, have trumped the likes of GM (who could suffer from restrictions on emissions and decline in sales of their most profitable lines), Wall Street (that has billions invested in long-term ROI coal-burning power plants) and national economic policy in general (our trade imbalance with China could worsen if we unilaterally imposed CO2 controls)? The actual science becomes irrelevant if this is the author's logical "follow the money" conclusion. Dr. Chafetz spends a great deal of time deriding the growing cabal of lawyers in this country. Certainly, frivolous lawsuits have done great harm to consumers in many ways: The quality of medical care has deteriorated from the need to cover the already exorbitant and rising cost of malpractice insurance. Manufacturers have been forced to pass legal and insurance costs onto consumers in the form of higher priced goods. In some cases, innovation has been stifled out of fears of potential misuse of new products and subsequent litigation. Furthermore, mercenary litigation represents a continued erosion of individual responsibility and self-respect. Unfortunately, again, Chafetz continues on a misguided rant likening the ABA to some insidious secret society. I don't find a trade organization that sets ethics standards and, yes, promotes the industry particularly conspiratorial. Nor do I find it discomforting that the legislative branches of government -- where laws are made -- are disproportionately represented by lawyers. We don't grimace that the halls of academia are lined with PhD's or the upper echelons of business with MBA's. It is, after all, one of the vocations of the degree. Finally, I was disappointed that the subtitle of the book, "How Politicians, Corporations, and the Media Use Science and Statistics to Manipulate the Public," turned out to be a complete misnomer. Even after reading the many pages dedicated to AIDS and addiction (not much science here), I don't understand how the public was manipulated or to what end politicians, corporations, or the media benefited. Moreover, unless the book jacket is referring to CBS or the New York Times, there is not one example of how corporations have used science to manipulate the public. In fact, Dr. Chafetz spends a chapter or two describing how corporations are victimized by aggressive lawyers without mention of science at all. Surely big business is not entirely saintly and devoid of research or statistics that would further its cause. The book admirably suggests that we should take more responsibility for our actions as a matter of self-respect and preservation of our rights. Also, we should examine the scientific and statistical justifications of policy and legislation much more skeptically. However, it often degenerates into an incoherent diatribe on the author's pet issues.
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