Slow violence’s deferred consequences give polluters profitable cover for inaction
Evidence
We thus need to recognize that slow violence involves more than a perceptual problem created by the gap between destructive policies or practices and their deferred, invisible consequences. For in addition, slow violence provides prevaricative cover for the forces that have the most to profit from inaction: under cover of deferred consequences, these energetic new bewilderers literally buy time. For the new bewilderers, led by Big Oil and Big Coal, doubt is more than a state of mind—it’s a bankable product. — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 109
Categorization
- XREF: This is the causal payoff of the slow-violence thesis: deferred harm is not only a perception problem but an economic shield, extending the chapter-1 argument on corporate euphemism. — connects to: Climate-driven inundation exemplifies slow violence because it lacks breaking-news speed — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 803; Major polluter inaction gives others moral cover for inaction — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 2931; Immediate rewards override distant slowly accumulating environmental harms — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 2546 (+6 more)
Broader Connections
- Immediate rewards override distant slowly accumulating environmental harms
#corroborates(0.85) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2546 - Short-term profit incentives override distant and slowly accumulating environmental harms
#corroborates(0.85) - Climate-driven inundation exemplifies slow violence because it lacks breaking-news speed
#expands(0.80) — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 803 - Major polluter inaction gives others moral cover for inaction
#expands(0.80) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2931 - Slow, distributed environmental harms escape moral accountability because causation is invisible
#expands(0.80) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2707 - Power works by temporalizing violence into avoidable future events rather than present force
#expands(0.75) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 24 - Persistent pollutants postpone their harm to future generations.
#corroborates(0.70) — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 85