Grant: Why do we live in a nanny state and what role plays the disinformation of corporations that sell us sugar, cars and fossil energies?

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german newsletter at steady.. My second book „Raus aus der
AUTOkratie – rein in die Mobilität von morgen!“ can now be
pre-ordered. I'm happy if you do this, because it helps niche
non-fiction books like mine to get noticed. You know: capitalism -
carpitalism - and then paradise for all. Conservative to radical
right-wing parties always warn against regulation, as otherwise we
will end up in a nanny state in which individual responsibility and
freedom will be lost. Grant, however, explains that we have been
living in a nanny state for decades. With a nanny state that is in
thrall to industries from sugar to cars. A nanny who is
deliberately killing us as a population because the status quo of
the industries is more important than the health of the voters.
Even worse: World governments make citizens pay billions to destroy
their own health. Grant points out: Industries are focussing on
profits, not killing people. But their highest turnover products
ARE killing us, because our politicians are too weak to regulate
them for a better future for all. Grant lifts the lid on the nine
devious frames contained within the cross-industry corporate
disinformation playbook: through denialism, normalization,
victim-blaming, multifactorialism, and a variety of other
tried-and-tested tactics, corporations divert citizens’ attention
away from the real causes of global problems, leading them into
counter-productive blind-alley “solutions” like ethical consumerism
and divestment. Regarding my main topic, Grant explains, how
regulations and policies establish the increase of distances
between destinations of e. g. work and home, which lead to more
car-dependancy and -fatalaties. We came from 15 minutes cities
(which are now seen with conspiracy murmur) to a car default sprawl
system. The low densitiy tripled car crash deaths and doubled the
costs of government. The sprawl lobby from concrete to building
houses is a powerful as the rifle lobby in the US. Even cities lost
their density. "Funfact": 1 % rising up of gas prices means 0,4 %
less fatal road accidents. We talked about some of the nine devious
frames of misinfomration, Grant is showing in his book. Fraom
(denialism - speed does not kill), post-denialism (wide roads &
more roads are safe), normalization of road death as "accidents"
instead of crashes up to pseudo solutions that are preserving the
status quo e. g. more safety IN cars up to the magic (autonomous
cars), treatment trap (ambulances instad of prevention) and victim
blaming of jay walking. But the best of all this is: Knowing is
changing. Cutting the curtain down and dismantling the lies helps
out to increase the pressure on our politicians - from local
politics to that of our countries. We need to take to the streets
together, not least because the three industries singled out by
Grant - sugar, cars and fossil fuels - are so intertwined and
similar. We need to strengthen our democracies by seeing ourselves
as grassroots politics and rebelling. “Dark PR is an enjoyable
read. Importantly, it brings together a strong analytical view on
many of the mechanisms critical to understanding transport and road
injury.” Dr. Marco te Brömmelstroet, Professor, University of
Amsterdam, Author of Movement: How to take back our streets and
transform our lives