The mercury barometer does appear to measure a summed force down, but, again, this is due to the fact that the reservoir is only open on the top. The mercury can't feel forces from other directions, because the containing walls are rigid and non-porous—the forces can't arrive from those directions. The summed force comes down from above, but it is not a downward vector. It is still pressure. It sums to the right number for pressure, due to the fact that the air collides with the inside walls of the reservoir, funneling all directions of pressure down. So the force is summed to the right value, achieving the same number as the aneroid barometer; but only the sum of the vector is down, and only due to the opening at the top. The barometer is measuring pressure, not weight. There is no real vector down.
All this is very clear, I think, so why have we been misdirected? We have been misdirected by top scientists—who do know what I have been telling you: they aren't ignorant of it—because the air column should have a weight, according to the current model of gravity. The standard model is correct in assuming that the column of air should have an appreciable weight, so they do some math and present us with a weight, hoping we forget to look at our scales. They cannot explain why the atmosphere fails to register on a scale, so they make up an absurd story to explain how a thing with weight can weigh nothing. They are missing a huge piece of the puzzle, and this piece prevents them from answering any questions sensibly. So they are forced to either dodge the question or to lie in a most unctuous fashion, like the Grinch with little Cindy Lou Who.
