Noticing official lies radicalized EJ activists into government skepticism

Evidence

Part of this radicalization comes from the fact that the struggle has made many participants skeptical of their government. For some, the process was slow and triggered by small events—noticing a lie by a government official, for example. Eduardo Montoya first realized that government officials were lying to the people of Buttonwillow when, in a meeting of the LAC, a State environmental official claimed to have never heard of a notorious toxic waste dump at Casmalia in nearby Santa Barbara County that had been closed down by the State because it was leaking and causing serious health consequences to the community. “It was impossible for a high-ranking EPA official not to know where Casmalia was,” says Montoya. This realization, compounded by other, similar events, made Montoya a skeptic. “More than anything, I was disillusioned. Because I really believed that the United States government was different than the Mexican government,” says Montoya. “The only difference is that, in Mexico they do what they do outside of the law. And in the U.S. they want to make the laws legitimate what they do. In other words, they want to make things appear legal.” — Luke W. Cole and Sheila R. Foster, From the Ground Up, 482 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

When people simply shrugged and said that there was no way to know the truth, since the government lies, they were not always saying it as a criticism of government secrecy. Sometimes, they were simply stating a fact, as Betsy did when discussing her housemate’s annoying fretting over the Persian Gulf war. Some, like Fred and Brian, said this as a way of simultaneously displaying superior knowledge to protesters (”the protesters think they know what’s happening, but they’re wrong”). But instead of blaming himself for his ignorance or blaming protesters for their ignorance, George blamed the government’s active effort to keep us ignorant. — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 1018 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

Much recent social theory and newspaper editorial space condemns ”the cynical society,” saying cynicism makes earnest commitment impossible (Goldfarb 1991; Miller 1988, for example). The problem with that kind of analysis is that it cannot distinguish between the cynics and the activists, who, as I describe later, also often expressed opinions of political disgust, mistrust, and cynicism. The difference between the activists and the cynics was not just a difference in beliefs, but in implicit ideas of what interaction was for in the contexts where they met. — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 1152 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Officials’ dismissive responses convert residents’ fear into sustained oppositional anger.; Perceived official lies radicalized residents into distrusting their government. — Luke W. Cole and Sheila R. Foster, From the Ground Up: Environmental…, 482; Skepticism toward government lies can convert into apathy rather than critique. — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics: how Americans…, 1018 (+1 more)

Related

• Perceived official lies radicalized residents into distrusting their government. (similarity 0.91)
• Officials’ dismissive responses convert residents’ fear into sustained oppositional anger. (similarity 0.88)
• Skepticism toward government lies can convert into apathy rather than critique. (similarity 0.84)

Broader Connections

• Perceived official lies radicalized residents into distrusting their government. #corroborates (0.95) — Luke W. Cole and Sheila R. Foster, From the Ground Up, 482
• Skepticism toward government lies can convert into apathy rather than critique. #qualifies (0.78) — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 1018
• Shared cynical beliefs sharply distinguish activists from disengaged cynics #expands (0.72) — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 1152