Deflect. Deny. Discount.

There’s a list of D-words they teach in corporate seminars to describe tactics for dealing with opposition without actually having to deal with anybody.

Every time a TMT spokesman or supporter says their big telescope project is being unfairly targeted as a symbol of Native Hawaiian anger, it sounds like they’ve been studying that list.

The tactics — which also include things like discredit, divide and demoralize — chart out a strategy to dismiss opposition to a business’s plan of action without ever having to acknowledge, admit or concede anything.

The recent quote from TMT Vice President for External Relations Gordon Squires in Sunday’s piece by Honolulu Star-Advertiser Capitol Bureau Chief Kevin Dayton is a classic example of all those D’s:

“As many of the protesters have said, this is not about TMT or science. … TMT has become a platform for larger issues within the Hawaiian community such as Hawaiian sovereignty and past injustices. … We respect those who express oppositions and understand the pain they feel. However, TMT is a bystander in that larger conversation that has been going on for many years. We’re concerned that those who oppose TMT are now combining the issues into one. Fortunately, there are other conversations about these larger issues that are taking place with the mayor and others, and we support that.”

In this there is the denial that TMT itself is the focus of the protests when, in fact, the thousands on that mountain are there specifically to stop the telescope project from being built.

There is distancing in the phrase “TMT is a bystander” when it absolutely is not. It is the heart of the matter.

There is the attempt to discredit the “protectors” in the line “Fortunately, there are other conversations,” as though to say that those other conversations are the rational ones.

There is the deflection in saying that TMT “understands the pain,” and diminishing of clear-headed, academic, historically based arguments as coming from a place of misplaced emotion rather than intellect, reason and wisdom. “Combining those issues into one” is a dismissal of every argument as a muddled mess. It’s what you say to your hysterical ex when they’re ranting about stuff that doesn’t even make sense. The intent is to demoralize.

State government is deep in the D’s as well, with the governor distancing himself from a problem he cannot handle and DLNR delaying the start date for construction in what can be interpreted as an attempt to discourage the people committed to keep watch on the mountain.

Making it sound like the Mauna Kea protests are about everything except the telescope is wrong, reductive and a tactic meant to discredit the kiai. Of course, TMT is a symbol for all the wrong that was done in the past, but it’s not separate from that; it’s just the most recent example.

“Protect Mauna Kea” is going to be written into history books authored by the very professors and students and leaders who have been keeping vigil at the base of the mauna. All those D’s will be so obvious in hindsight. All those D’s are pretty obvious now.

Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.