Episode 794: Amy Westervelt: How Corporations Shape What We Believe | Brought to You By

The recycling thing is really tough because it depends on what it is you're recycling and where you're recycling and all of that stuff.

And there again, it's a whole system that's been corrupted.

by the industries that also create the problem of excess waste.

Actually, there was just a lawsuit filed, I want to say last month.

California tried to pass a law that says you can't use the little recycle arrows on something that you know isn't recyclable.

Seems like it should be uncontroversial, and it is now facing a First Amendment lawsuit by the companies that are like, we should be able to put this symbol On anything we want, that's free speech.

Which is, I think it's, this comes up in my book too, but I think it's a thing that we're going to see a lot of in the next few years.

This debate about whether lying is protected speech.

For someone reading your book, it's the problem with confusion because I'm just, if I look down, I'm just taking notes.

You talk about GMOs, recycling, organic, boxes that are green,

sustainability,

and we buy all of it.

There's a

point where information pollution and propaganda and greed all morph into one sticky ball that could be a bar baby.

And so I see sustainable, my first response is, okay, that seems good.

I

know.

It's very, this, to me, this is the biggest problem.

And this is the information pollution thing.

It's just like, it's made it so that The public almost can't trust anything that they hear and you don't want.

A society can't function that way.

I think this is what we're seeing right now is everybody has a sense that they're being lied to right and left.

This is a bipartisan thing and they're right.

They are being lied to.

So what do you do with that? And then this is where I feel like the conversations around free speech are really interesting and important too, is that like, There is a component to free speech that has to include the public's right to information as well.