Agnotology

Today I learned the word agnotology, which would be a millennial if it were a human being.

The definition is the "study of deliberate, culturally cultivated ignorance or doubt, typically to sell a product, influence opinion, or win favor, particularly through the publication of inaccurate or misleading scientific data."

Hard to believe there wasn't a word for that kind of thing before 1992, but I guess no one realized we needed a word for it much before then. Campaigns by the tobacco and fossil fuel industries are examples of agnotology subjects. The book Merchants of Doubt is mentioned on the word's Wikipedia page.

These days, it has even wider application, unfortunately, and not enough experts studying it.