Peter Dorman returns to Silkwood, the 1983 film about worker-activist Karen Silkwood, to ask why people sometimes defend conditions that endanger them. At the nuclear-processing plant, evidence of radiation hazards draws some workers toward their union and others toward the boss. Economic dependence helps explain that split.
- Conflicting beliefs hurt: cognitive dissonance is the discomfort of holding incompatible ideas. A worker may need a job while learning that the job threatens their health.
- Information has two effects: frightening evidence creates distress, but it can also help people protect themselves. Dorman argues that its practical value depends on whether action feels possible.
- Union power changes the calculation: Silkwood takes safety more seriously as she identifies with the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers union. Hidden information becomes leverage against the company.
- The threat of closure is real: coworkers fear losing scarce jobs in an economically depressed part of Oklahoma. In the film, the union survives a decertification vote by 80–60, leaving a substantial minority opposed.
- Discouragement can reproduce itself: Dorman extends the argument to climate politics. Repeated defeat encourages people to tune out, weakening the collective action that might interrupt the cycle.
Dorman treats denial as a response shaped by vulnerability, rather than simply a failure to absorb facts. Explaining that response leaves the dangers intact; it shows why better information alone can fall short.
The film gives his political argument a concrete setting: people become more willing to face threatening knowledge when they can act together. Building that capacity protects workers and makes solidarity easier to sustain.