- Obesity reaching epidemic proportions in America
- AIDS ravaging Africa and major cities around the world.
- "Disease" of alcoholism sweeping the land.
- Tobacco may be most addictive drug.
These are headlines in major news sources. They are the claims being made in the halls of Congress. They are charges being made in courtrooms. They represent the conventional wisdom of the day.
But are they true?
In "Big Fat Liars: How Politicians, Corporations, and the Media use Science and Statistics to Manipulate the Public," author Dr. Morris E. Chafetz, demonstrates how the conventional wisdom actually gets it wrong more often than not.
On everything from sex and drugs to global warming and the environment, the conventional wisdom is the corrupted product of an unholy alliance made up of the media, politicians, trial lawyers, bureaucrats and even some of the nation’s leading scientists, he charges. Too often, this has profound effects on our laws and our lives.
A medical doctor and public policy expert, Chafetz lambastes the use of phony statistics and perverted scientific analysis that too often is used as the basis for laws, regulations, court decisions and marketing campaigns. "Big Fat Liars" condemns the prostitution of science and statistics by those who would limit our personal liberties in a bid to tell all of us how to live. And it urges us to take back control of our lives from our fears and from those who would manipulate those fears with faulty and misleading information.
For instance, the "obesity epidemic" we hear so much about is the result not of a fatter population but of a change in bookkeeping in a federal agency. With the stroke of a pen, more than 35 million Americans suddenly became overweight – without gaining an ounce.
From drinking to nuclear power to the use of the pesticide DDT to combating terrorism – Chavetz shows there are disastrous consequences for trying to impose rigid conformist groupthink with disinformation and misinformation.
"Big Fat Liars" reveals:
- Why the tobacco settlement that was designed to curb smoking and protect public health will fail;
- Up Next: Caffeine and Fast Food?trial lawyers have chosen their next targets;
- Why there is no such thing as an “addictive substance”;
- Why you should run for the hills when you hear a group that claims its mission is to “increase public awareness”;
- Why doctors are less likely to get the big picture right than we thought;
- How the death of runner Jim Fixx and the survival of Tour de France champ Lance Armstrong proved the conventional wisdom wrong.