Show Notes

Links to Grant’s Book:

Dark PR: How Corporate Disinformation Undermines Our Health and the Environment

https://www.amazon.com/DARK-PR-Corporate-Disinformation-Environment/dp/1990263488

https://darajapress.com/publication/dark-pr-how-corporate-disinformation-harms-our-health-and-the-environment

In this episode, I am joined by Grant Ennis, a scholar and author of the book Dark PR: How Corporate Misinformation Undermines Our Health and the Environment. Grant shares the playbook of "Dark PR" used by corporations to create and protect profitable "catastrophes by design," such as unhealthy food environments, rising road fatalities, and global warming.

Grant breaks down the nine devious frames corporations use to manipulate public perception and policy, shifting blame away from systemic issues and onto individuals. He argues that concepts like the "carbon footprint,"are tools of "victim blaming" that dilute support for meaningful political action, such as ending the $7 trillion in annual fossil fuel subsidies. The conversation explores why individual actions are often ineffective and how a focus on personal responsibility can undermine the collective organizing necessary for real change.

Here are the articles Grant referenced:

"The Tyranny of Structurelessness" by Jo Freeman

https://www.jofreeman.com/joreen/tyranny.htm

"If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution" by Vincent Bevins

https://vincentbevins.com/book2/

“Fuck Nuance” by Kieran Healy

https://kieranhealy.org/files/papers/fuck-nuance.pdf

Overview of the episode:

What is "Dark PR"? Grant defines Dark PR as malicious public relations efforts that obscure the truth and undermine public well-being.

Catastrophes by Design: Grant explains how government policies, like subsidies for sugar, driving, and fossil fuels, intentionally create societal crises like obesity, car crash fatalities, and global warming.

The Nine Devious Frames: Grant outlines the corporate playbook for maintaining these profitable catastrophes:

Denialism: There’s no problem

Post-Denialism: Claiming something bad is actually good for you (e.g., "Guinness is good for you").

Normalization: Making a crisis seem normal (e.g., calling global warming "climate change" to reduce public urgency).

Silver Boomerang: Promoting solutions that can backfire (e.g., telling people to exercise more to combat obesity, which can increase overeating)

Magic: Proposing unrealistic technological fixes (e.g., carbon capture storage).

Treatment Trap: Focusing on treating problems instead of preventing them (e.g., providing more insulin rather than fixing the unhealthy food environment).

Victim Blaming: Shifting responsibility from political structures to individuals (e.g., the carbon footprint).

Knotted Web: Arguing that a problem is too complex for simple solutions, which discourages clear-cut action.

Multifactorial: Claiming a problem has too many causes to single one out, a tactic used by the tobacco industry to downplay the role of smoking in lung cancer.

He continued with a discussion about Citizen Activism

Aggregate vs. Collective Action: Grant distinguishes between the ineffectiveness of aggregated individual actions and the power of organized, collective action that demands systemic change.

The Enemies of Collective Action:

Electoralism: The belief that democracy is only about voting, which leads to mobilization only around elections and demobilization afterward.

Mobilizationism: The misconception that simply showing up to protests is enough, rather than engaging in sustained, strategic organizing in smaller groups.

The Tyranny of Structurelessness: Grant discusses how social movements that reject formal hierarchies often become ineffective and unable to challenge highly organized industries.

Embracing Incongruence: Grant argues against purity tests for activists, stating that people should be encouraged to organize against harmful systems even if they work within them.

This is an interview with Belgian war correspondent and documentary maker Rudi Vranckx. Together with Hunter, he discusses the intersection of war, history, and journalism.

Show Notes

The Importance of Remembering History

An historian by training, Vranckx asserts that history is the root of the present. He expresses concern that a new generation of politicians, lacking a living memory of major wars, is dangerously dismantling the post-WWII structures of international cooperation. This fear motivated his documentary work, particularly a series on Belgian involvement in past conflicts like the Korean War. The goal was to capture the oral histories of aging veterans before their stories vanish, framing these events in their broader historical context. "To understand the war of now, you have to go back to the origins and where it started," he states.

The Journalist's Role and Moral Compass

Vranckx sees his role as holding a mirror to society, highlighting the scars of conflict. While he believes facts are paramount, he stresses that context is crucial. Using the example of Gaza, he notes that the conflict has deep roots that long predate the events of October 7th. In the fog of war and widespread disinformation, Vranckx maintains that human rights serve as his absolute "moral compass."

On Fatigue, Activism, and Power

Vranckx acknowledges the reality of "conflict fatigue" but insists on the journalistic duty to find new ways to engage the public's hearts and minds. He argues that upholding international justice is fundamental to maintaining justice on a national and individual level. According to Vranckx, true change comes from the bottom up, with civil society and grassroots movements acting as the only effective counterweight to corrupt power. He criticizes institutions that remain silent on critical issues for fear of losing funding, paraphrasing Martin Niemöller's warning about inaction: "And then at the end there is nobody to speak out when they come for me."

Global Security and the Power of Ideas

In his documentary "The New Iron Curtain," Vranckx observes that war has "come home" to Europe. He warns against a narrow, militarized view of security that focuses solely on an arms race. True security, he argues, also involves defending a society's values. "The biggest fear for Putin and Trump is not that the other one has a bigger gun, it's the ideas that the other one has." He laments the neglect of "soft power"—the influence of ideas, culture, and values—suggesting it can be more effective than military spending. He urges individuals to build resilience by investing in credible information and supporting fact-checking. "The facts are holy. The facts are the facts. There is no alternative facts like some lunatics try to say."

Human Stories and a Call to Action

Vranckx highlights the critical, yet often overlooked, role of women in conflict, calling women who fight for change at the grassroots level "true heroes." To make complex geopolitical situations understandable, he advocates for telling stories on a human level.

With a recent poll showing 60% of Belgians fear war is coming, Vranckx urges people not to be paralyzed by fear of a future apocalypse but to "deal with the war that is going on" now—the war of disinformation and the erosion of societal values. He calls for rebuilding the "fabric of society" through community. When asked what we can learn from people in conflict zones, his simple answer is: "Humanity."

He concludes that there is no "magic solution." The pursuit of truth and justice is not a quick victory but a "slow war of attrition." His final advice: "Be prepared."