Tornado Alley (PROG)

[blackhawks]

Paraphrasing here.....

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary/ideology/beliefs/MAGA 'status' depend upon his not understanding it."

This aphorism was coined by Upton Sinclair, an American novelist and social reformer, in his 1934 book I, Candidate for Governor: And How I Got Licked.

Key Context & Usage

Origin: Sinclair wrote it to describe the challenges he faced while campaigning for governor of California, specifically how business interests and media outlets were incentivized to ignore or misinterpret his "End Poverty in California" (EPIC) plan.

Modern Reference: The quote gained renewed popularity after being featured in Al Gore’s 2006 documentary An Inconvenient Truth to explain why some industries resist climate change data.

The Concept: It highlights a form of motivated reasoning or incentivized blindness—where financial or professional survival creates a psychological barrier that prevents someone from acknowledging a truth that would threaten their livelihood.