<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 10px; font-size: 1em; line-height: 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><em>Here's a hypothesis: denial is largely a product of the way normal people think. Most denialists are simply ordinary people doing what they believe is right. If this seems discouraging, take heart. There are good reasons for thinking that denialism can be tackled by condemning it a little less and understanding it a little more.</em></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 10px; font-size: 1em; line-height: 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><em>Whatever they are denying, denial movements have much in common with one another, not least the use of similar tactics. All set themselves up as courageous underdogs fighting a corrupt elite engaged in a conspiracy to suppress the truth or foist a malicious lie on ordinary people. This conspiracy is usually claimed to be promoting a sinister agenda: the nanny state, takeover of the world economy, government power over individuals, financial gain, atheism.</em></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 10px; font-size: 1em; line-height: 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><em>...Many denialist movements originate as cynical efforts by corporations to cast doubt on findings that threaten their bottom line. Big Tobacco started it in the 1970s, recruiting scientists willing to produce favourable data and bankrolling ostensibly independent think tanks and bogus grass-roots movements... </em></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 10px; font-size: 1em; line-height: 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Full article at <a href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20627606.100-living-in-denial-why-sensible-people-reject-the-truth.html" target="_blank">New Scientist</a></p>