After Tyrone Hayes said that a chemical was harmful, its maker pursued him
Wow. If there was <i>one</i> article you had to read to understand how large corporations systematically and unethically try to vilify their critics to shift focus from their own dangerous behaviours, this is it!<p>Just a few of the things Syngenta turned out to be doing:<p>1. paying for detailed sychological profiles of critics, including weaknesses (“grew up in world (S.C.) that wouldn’t accept him,” “needs adulation,” “doesn’t sleep,” was “scarred for life,” "investigate wife")<p>2. paying others to not just discredit Hayes' work, but to make him look "as foolish as possible"<p>3. putting together a team of over 100 people, including 25 professors, to act as "spokespeople on Hayes"<p>4. buying Google keywords for his name and variants to astroturf people searching for him. Searching Google for "Tyrone Hayes" brings up "Tyrone Hayes Not Credible"<p>5. getting paid scientists to write op-eds accusing Hayes of being a "junk scientist"<p>6. leaning on universities (Nicholas School of the Environment, at Duke) so they wouldn't hire Hayes<p>7. trying to get Hayes to bait himself (“set trap to entice him to sue,”)<p>8. sending sock puppets to Hayes' talks whose job was to only ask him the same embarrassing questions (“everywhere Tyrone went there was this guy asking questions that made a mockery of him. We called him the Axe Man.”)<p>There's so much more in the article that this could become either<p>(a) a primer for scientists and critics to understand how corporations target them, or<p>(b) a ready reckoner for corporations on what tactics to use to smear opponents.