Honest question: are these things actually surprising to people? All of the things admitted to seem pretty standard for lobbyists of large companies with less than stellar ethics. That applies to tech companies, too.
I've written critiques on the "why are people surprised?" fallacy multiple times, so this time I'll just summarize: Outrage != surprise.
It's unsurprising to me in the same way that the Snowden leaks were unsurprising, but having something concrete to point to to back up my expectations is useful.
I was surprised to learn about "shadow groups": I thought all lobbyists were required to be registered, but turns out that's actually not the case in the US.
They are, but "lobbying" in the Lobbying Disclosure Act is pretty narrowly defined. A fly-by-night Facebook ad operation, or whatever it was that the shadow groups he was talking about were doing, doesn't constitute lobbying under the LDA. Also, if you give money to a nonprofit, and that nonprofit spends its money on lobbyists, it's the nonprofit's identity that's disclosed, not yours, and depending on the kind of nonprofit entity, it might not have to disclose who its funders are.
We're in the "feigning shock" stage of the climate disaster. Its where billions of people who've been being told about climate change for decades all pretend they had no idea. Exxon lobbiests are a useful distraction so no one has to think "well I was told this would happen when I was a kid and now I'm 50 and have voted against fixing it, it's happening".
The "feigning shock" is whenever any of these climate alarmists are told the majority of the population doesn't see a crisis and simply doesn't care a whole lot. That is what is revealed in this interview and is always met by feigned shock. Study after study reveals that most people don't care a whole lot, and yet always shock must be feigned whenever someone points out that they don't see a crisis.
You see apples, I see oranges, but we both agree no preventative action is going to be taken on climate change and that the (vast) majority are happy with that.
Fair?
Recently I watched the film "thank you for smoking" and there's a sign I saw hanging in the background of a scene and it said "be thankful for your government, it's the best that money can buy" and I just thought that was absolutely perfect
Strange question, but no, I'm not surprised. Why do you ask? I don't usually read the news in order to be surprised.