2016/01/01 by Jen Schneider, Steve Schwarze, Peter K. Bsumek +1 · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · Environmental Science · #Rhetoric and Communication Studies #Climate Change Communication and Perception #Atmospheric and Environmental Gas Dynamics
paper · doi:10.1057/978-1-137-53315-9_5
openalex publication_date 2016/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
“Hypocrite’s Trap” examines the coal industry’s response to the fossil fuel divestment movement. Using a realist style of rhetoric, the coal industry and its allies in the oil and gas industry, conservative think tanks, and conservative media set a rhetorical trap for divestment advocates, the “Hypocrite’s Trap.” Three moves set the trap: establishing ignorance, exposing complicity, and naming hypocrisy. Industry advocacy characterizes the divestment movement as idealistic and unrealistic, elitist and dangerous, and hypocritical and immoral. In so doing, the hypocrite’s trap thus reinscribes divestment activists as individual consumers, rather than members of a collective movement. It also positions itself as a heroic provider of energy for the poor. This strategy positions the advocates of divestment as hypocrites but also reasserts the neoliberal reality, reasonableness, and virtue of the market. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.