The Most Effective Advertising Method: Hatred

I've recently gone back to read an old classic: Future Shock by Alvin Toffler. In it, Toffler discusses various aspects of Future Shock as an extension of the concept of culture shock. One experiences culture shock when one finds oneself suddenly in a different culture, but it can also happen if culture changes faster than one can adapt to the change. By the same token, future shock happens when changes in technology happen faster than one can adjust to the changes those technologies bring about. It was an important insight at the time, which was 1970.

Well, his predictions for the post-1970 future were interesting, but it's enlightening to see what he got spectacularly wrong. The one thing he got most obviously wrong (to me) was the prediction that companies would never be able to achieve lasting brand loyalty - because brands changed so rapidly. Noting that consumers regularly couldn't find their favorite brand on the store shelves anymore, Toffler concluded that brand loyalty was impossible in such a shifting environment.

This is laughable given what we know today, because we know that these brands disappeared from store shelves not due to consumers' choices but through corporate takeovers. Products were consolidated, and consolidated, and consolidated again until every variety of product was left with only two or three super-brands competing with each other. By the 1980's, there were almost no independent brands left. All one could find was Coke vs. Pepsi. McDonald's vs. Burger King. Nike vs. Reebok. And where there seemed to be some sub-brands beneath these behemoths, those sub-brands turned out to be mere subsidiaries of the larger corporations. There might be 30 different brands of soap, but they all boiled down either Procter & Gamble or Colgate Palmolive. Try to find something outside the giant corporations, and the options were all but nonexistent.

So a kind of brand loyalty was achieved at last - not by brands truly putting preferred products on the shelves, but by corporations eliminating the competition one by one, until finally, only one giant competitor remained - and anti-trust laws prevented them from eating that one as well.

But removal of choice was not the only way they achieved brand loyalty. For most, additional brand loyalty was achieved by appealing to the emotional center of the human brain - creating a sense of belonging to a "tribe" that was critical to one's identity. In this way, consumers which bought into the identity also bought the product. "We're the Pepsi Generation!" cried Pepsi in the 80's, while Coke marketed itself as "The Real Thing." Dr. Pepper was even more brazen in this tactic advertising, "I'm a Pepper! Wouldn't you like to be a Pepper too?" McDonald's achieved amazing success by recognizing that customers saw eating there as taking a break. Their resulting ad campaign, "You deserve a break today," caused millions to identify with McDonald's as their place to take a break, and sales soared. Wheaties marketed itself, thanks largely to Bruce Jenner (back when she was "Bruce"), as "The Brand of Champions," meaning if you wanted to be a winner (and who doesn't?), then logically that had to be your cereal. Sales responded accordingly.

There is, however, another way to appeal to the emotions of consumers, and it can't be done with most products. One can create fierce brand loyalty by demonizing the competition.

We see this in a limited way in sports. Chicago Bears fans refer to their team as "Grizzlies" and the Green Bay Packers as "fudge packers." Green Bay fans counter by calling their team "Packerderms" and the Chicago team as "teddy bears." There are innumerable similar examples: Philadelphia Eagles vs. New England Patriots, Boston Red Sox vs. New York Yankees... the rivalry list goes on and on, with fans utterly demonizing the competition, and lionizing their own team.

Of course, these fans haven't done a damned thing to help their team win, other than buy tickets and cheer. But they see "their" team as a sense of identity - and that's the point. Even though they haven't stepped one foot on the playing field, they refer to "their" team as "us" and "we." And if they win, they then get to say, "we won!" as if they lifted one finger.

Also, the NFL stops short of outright endorsing demonizations of the other team. After all, at the end of each game, fans must go home peacefully.

When it comes to store-bought products, if corporations try to demonize their competition, they quickly find themselves on the wrong end of an expensive lawsuit. The plaintiff can claim that the negative ad is libel, and unfairly damages their ability to do business. Such a plaintiff invariably wins these lawsuits, and so corporations have learned to compete fairly, or at least be subtle about their slander.

And here's my major point: Such restrictions do not exist in politics. In fact, demonizing one's opponent while on the campaign trail is considered to be one of the most time-honored versions of free speech. So political demonization does not have the legal backlash that product demonization has. Oh, libel suits abound in politics, to be sure, especially if a slanderous claim has no basis whatsoever in fact. But on the whole, inciting hatred of the political opposition is not frowned upon in law. In fact, it is openly called for.

This would be just fine, except it has taken a sharp turn for the worse, because the NEWS has now been drafted into this war of words. There's always been bias in newspapers and media, but media networks have now been bought out by corporate consolidators who are experts in building brand loyalty, and they are not above using demonization to do it! On the contrary, they rely on it to drive up ratings! The op-ed page, once relegated to the back page of every newspaper, has now been made prime-time television on Fox News and its more right-wing cousins, OANN and NewsMax. Full-throated demonization has now been disguised as an official news broadcast - and millions buy into it! Democrats are demonized, 24-7, on millions of networks, everywhere. On the more liberal side, there is some bias to be sure, but news is still essentially news. The demonization is largely one-sided towards Democrats.

And this demonization is why millions are willing to attack the very Capitol itself rather than allow one little old fart of a Democrat to be sworn in.

They are literally generating Alvin Toffler's "Future Shock" on purpose.

The greatest need in our nation, right now, is for this ongoing travesty to stop!

We can't stop free speech - that's an absolute - but we can insist that news be news! You can lie and demonize anywhere else, but not there. No one must engage in KLONNING any more. No more featuring op ed without a countering voice on the other side. No more featuring op ed in a prime time slot! In fact, no more passing op ed off as news at all!

Lying on a news network IS shouting "Fire!" in a crowded theater. There is fundamentally no difference.

At long last, the shellac must be scraped off of the polished turd! The stink must permeate the nostrils of everyone who was wrongly convinced that Trump was even remotely an option!

We need this more than we need oxygen. At long last, let news be news and nothing else!

Eric

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Talking UFO's

Friends, let's talk about UFO's.

The recent 60 Minutes piece has lent credibility to the phenomenon of UFO's, or UAP (Unknown Aerial Phenomenon), as the new term is used.

The footage shown is compelling. The unknown objects, whatever they are, seem to move at fantastic speeds. They change direction suddenly, as if unconstrained by the strictures of physics. They disappear as suddenly as they appear. They are invisible, except in infrared.

What are they?

What amazes me most about the UFO/UAP craze is how quickly people jump to the unlikeliest of conclusions. There is a hierarchy of possibilities, and somewhere way, way down at the bottom of the likelihood pile is alien visitation. Yet that's the one people seem to want to pick first.

There's an old saying in the field of medicine. It applies to any mystery, whether diagnosing a disease, solving a murder, or looking at UFO footage. It goes like this:

"When you hear hoof-beats, think horses, not zebras."

In other words, go with the likeliest explanation before considering the more exotic ones.

Which, oddly, we never seem to do.

This goes for other scenarios as well, obviously. For example, do Democrats simply have a better message for city folk than country folk? Or are they winning elections by funneling money through a Satanic child pedophile ring?

If you need help with that, I have a horoscope I'd like to sell ya.

 

The hierarchy of likelihood regarding UFO's goes something like this:

1) Natural phenomena: lens-refraction, strange clouds, weather balloons, meteors, satellites, etc.

2) Deliberate hoax: faked footage or photograph, drone, CGI, etc.

3) New technology: experimental aircraft flown by the U.S. 

4) New spycraft: Flown by another nation (Russia, China).

5) Hallucination.

6) If none of the above apply, leave it an unsolved mystery.

7) Exotic explanations: alien visitation, time travelers, ancient gods, etc.

In this hierarchy, I would like to propose my own hypothesis, which wedges in nicely between #2 and #3. And then I would like to propose that it's the likeliest explanation for the footage seen on 60 Minutes last Sunday. Here it is:

These UFO's are caused by hackers.

We forget sometimes that our defense systems are getting more and more computerized every day. And those computerized systems are vulnerable to hackers in ways we might not yet have been able to fathom. Hackers in Russia and China might want to experiment with hacking our defense systems in ways that don't necessarily alert the military to the fact that someone's been tampering with our code. So, to test the waters as it were, they put small hacks in which make what appear to be strange objects in the sky.

In reality, these are no more than internally generated, CGI blips. But because they come from inside the defense system's computer, they appear to do amazing things. They will speed up and slow down at rates and speeds which are impossible by our currently known standards. They will appear suddenly, and then disappear just as suddenly again. They will be able to change direction at perfectly right angles without seeming to slow down. They will be invisible to the naked eye, yet visible on the infrared scopes.

All this makes sense, because the objects aren't really there. They exist solely inside the computer, and as a projection on a screen.

On some level, the Pentagon might even realize that this sort of thing is the result of a hack, which explains part of why they don't want to let the public know about it. After all, it would be embarrassing enough if Russia or China had better experimental spying aircraft. But Russian hackers making our defense systems see targets which aren't there? That's the sort of thing you bury, and bury deep! One hopes that they've secretly developed countermeasures, or else the next major conflict may see our planes firing on targets which aren't there, and hitting our own forces or civilians!

No, I don't have proof. But my hypothesis makes more sense than anything else out there currently, and perhaps it will persuade some of you out there to not bother so much with the "space alien" hypothesis, which, on the hierarchy of likelihood, is the least likely of all.

No, this doesn't explain all of the phenomena. But it explains much of it. For those it doesn't explain, possibilities 1 through 5 above are adequate. The fact that so very much UFO footage is explainable by my "Russian hacker" hypothesis should be deeply disturbing to everyone concerned.

Now, what I'd really like to know is why I'm the one offering this hypothesis, and not 60 Minutes.

Eric

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The Worst Is Yet To Come

 

It is not over.

Derek Chauvin has been convicted. Yes, that's a turning point in the history of Minnesota, and in the nation. Yes, that's a positive development. But it is not over.

Because while Chauvin was being convicted, Tucker Carlson was pretending with Candace Owens that Chauvin was somehow innocent. Fox News in general was insisting that Chauvin was getting shafted.

The worst of them were even saying that Chauvin deserved a promotion, not a conviction.

It is not over.

Chauvin's own police captain and co-officers testified against them. I wonder how the pundits on Fox News think they know Chauvin's actions better than his own colleagues do.

On the very day Chauvin was being convicted, what was the House of Representatives doing? Censuring Chauvin? Passing legislation making it safer for citizens' being arrested? Maybe even making things safer for cops?

No, it spent the day censuring Maxine Waters for threatening the riots we all knew would happen if Chauvin got off.

That's right. No censure for the Right Wing Media Cult. No censure for Tucker Carlson. No censure for Sean Hannity.

Yes, Biden is in the White House. But 40% of the nation is still convinced by The Big Lie that he somehow didn't actually win.

Yes, things are getting done, yet not ONE Republican is willing to break ranks and support Biden for anything. It is a repeat of how they treated Obama all over again.

The very worst elements of the Right Wing Media Cult are getting stronger and more virulent, without Trump in power. Without Trump having money. Because Trump still has the Right Wing Media Cult on his side, and so long as they back him, he will forever be on the game board.

Make no mistake: The Right Wing Media Cult will make another attempt at thwarting democracy in 2024! Only this time, they'll be more blatant, better prepared, better planned, and better armed!

You have been warned.

Eric

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The Native Advertising Goes On...

 

Native Advertising is a commercial which mimics the platform its on. We see this when we scroll through a news app and find an ad which is disguised to look like another news story. We see it as a sponsored post on Facebook or Twitter. We might even see it as an embedded news story, as I once did when I saw David Muir do a "news" segment on CBS about a new heart medication.

A skeptical eye can discern the difference between a genuine news post and a fake one. But skepticism is in short supply these days. This is one large reason why the plague of our time, misinformation, is so rampant, even in the so-called "Information Age."

What I've come to realize lately is that the entire "infotainment" industry is essentially native advertising. It is political advertisement disguised as news commentary. And what's really disgusting, is that this sort of crap is done as commercial television. So if you're watching, say, Sean Hannity, or Jeannine Pirro, or Tucker Carlson, and the show breaks away for commercials, you've actually seen your larger commercial interrupted for a smaller one. The entire hour is non-stop commercial!

I said after January 6 that such programming cannot, CANNOT, simply be allowed to go back to work as though nothing happened. But, of course, it was, and now we're in a situation where Republicans are acting like nothing happened at all. And that's because they're watching political ads disguised as opinion news programs. Back, to back, to back non-stop native advertising pushing the most extreme anti-liberal hatred.

I have no desire to spend the next two years warning people about the most severe threat to human freedom and yet see nothing done about it. But I fear that may be the case. True, it's only March. There's a long stretch yet in front of us to make changes. But so far, there has been ZERO accountability brought upon Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingram, and their ilk. Meanwhile, their faithful listening audience who sacked the Capital on their orders, and Trump's, are facing jail time and/or huge fines. Why aren't these suckers banding together and filing their own lawsuit? 

I imagined that by now, a flurry of lawsuits against everything involving Trumpism would be underway. And I know, Merrick Garland was only confirmed a week ago. But damn it, the wheels of justice are turning way too slowly!

I see no point in waiting for the Dominion lawsuit to take Fox News out of the cable TV lineup. The pundits will just go over to Newsmax or OANN and continue there. And nothing will be done about the vast number of AM radio stations lying to the white working class every working hour of every working day. The announcement by Westwood One that Dan Bongino would take over in Rush Limbaugh's radio slot is all the proof we need of this.

No, I won't spend two years pleading for people to get off their asses and deal some real-world consequences to the right-wing-pundit destroyers of America. I don't know what I'll do if we get to 1.5 years in, and still nothing is done, but I'll do something beyond words, that's for sure. 

Just please, someone at least hinder the non-stop commercials for the Right Wing Media Cult? Please?

Eric

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So Long, El Rushbo

 

The good news is that one of the worst right-wing lying hacks has been taken off the air forever.

The bad news is that it took death from cancer to accomplish it.

I never take glee from the demise of a despised enemy. A life spent building something which must be completely torn down if humanity is to survive is a life truly wasted. Such needless retrograde. And it deserves to be truly mourned. For that reason, I am deeply sorrowful at the death of Rush Limbaugh.

I mean, he could have at least lived long enough for Biden to rescind his Medal of Freedom. Dick.

I would very much have preferred it if Limbaugh were removed from the air by a responsible right-wing media establishment which recognized that the lies he continuously told were doing harm to conservatism, and the Republican brand. I would have preferred it if Limbaugh were forced off the air by advertisers refusing to do business with any network which aired him. It would be nice if that were the sort of responsible media we had in this country.

Instead, the Powers That Be had to do their job for all of them.

And I do not have any delusions about the absence of Rush Limbaugh somehow making the Right Wing Media Cult quieter, any more than the absence of one fan at a playoff game makes the crowd noise less. There are thousands of dittohead Limbaugh clones out there who are ready to take his place, many of them being guest-hosts on the Rush Limbaugh show during his illness beforehand.

It is the cult which must die, not Rush.

So long as the Right Wing Media Cult receives legitimacy from established news networks, the lies will seem to be institutionalized. Listeners and viewers will rationally conclude that there must be some element of truth to the lies, or they wouldn't be on the air in the first place.

Institutionalized lies seem like truth.

We must de-legitimize Hannity, Ingram, Levin and the others immediately! If not sooner! Yet I see ZERO evidence that anybody is taking this action, even though it must be our #1 priority.

Fucking why?

I said after the attack on January 6th that the talking heads of the Right Wing Media Cult could simply NOT be allowed to just go back to work as though nothing happened! But they were!

And we saw the result in Trump's acquittal. Sorry - jury nullification. The sequel.

We need these hate-porn generators, like the late Limbaugh, moved to the non-news side of media.

The op-ed section must go back to the back-page of the newspaper - where it belongs!

We need this more than action on climate change.

We need this more than Covid vaccines.

We need this more than a Texan needs a working space-heater!

We can't simply wait around for the rest of the cult leaders to die, too.

Because by then, it will be too late.

Eric

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Save The Republicans!

You read me right. Save the Republicans!

We can't stop the fount of disinformation in the Right Wing Media Cult. Not yet, anyway. But we can influence Republicans to impeach Trump.

Here's how it can work:

Look at the two votes recently cast regarding Liz Cheney and Marjorie Taylor Greene. In both votes, the right thing was done. Liz Cheney was retained in her leadership role, and Marjorie Taylor Greene was removed from her committee appointments. Yet the Republicans cast two VERY different votes! Now, Greene may be "laughing" about the spare time she's been granted, and what she plans to do with it, but the ones who should be laughing are ourselves - at the composition of the House of Representatives.

The two votes could not be more different. Liz Cheney was overwhelmingly supported by Republicans, by a vote of 145 in favor to 61 against removing her from her committees. That vote was done by anonymous ballot, where the names of those voting were not revealed. Yet in Greene's case, her vote was public. Representatives had to vote on the record regarding her. Only 11 Republicans voted to remove her, and Greene was given a standing ovation earlier. That can only mean....

There are at least 134 Republicans in the House who are just plain ol' 'frady cats!

They want to hold Donald Trump accountable. They want to rid their party of him. And they were vocal about impeaching Trump - at first. They were scared straight by the January 6 attack on the Capitol. But then they were scared back crooked again! By what? Trump is powerless and penniless! What could he have to scare people with?!

The answer is the hordes of dittoheads who still follow the Right Wing Media Cult! They're all still with him, and the inertia behind their falsehoods hasn't died down yet.

The 134 Republicans on the House who supported Liz Cheney anonymously, but who were too scared to censure Greene, did this about-face out of fear. They know that Trumpism simply must die. But they're scared of what the Trump mob will do to them! Their wives and kids are receiving death threats! They vote in favor of Greene, and even applaud her, not because they approve of her, but because they don't want a bottle thrown at their wife's head when she goes to the supermarket!

What about the Senate? Are there similar 'frady cats in the Republican minority on the senate floor?

I argue yes! We know of the few that stand by their convictions: Romney, Murkowski, Collins... even Mitch McConnell is standing up to the bullshit somewhat! Ten Republicans were seen in broad daylight talking to Joe Biden about Covid relief efforts - a huge step! But are there more than ten? Remember, we need 17!

Yes! We know Lindsey Graham is one of them, fickle bitch that he is, and there are undoubtedly more.

And here's  how we get them to vote in favor of impeachment! We let them know that WE WILL PROTECT THEM!

Now is the time to write your Senators and let them know - if you vote against Trump, we WILL fight to guard YOU! To guard your FAMILY! To protect you from the hordes of Trumpers who dared to attack the very heart of our nation!

HERE is where you get to fight to REALLY make a difference. If you marched for BLM, if you protested police violence, if you were bound and determined to do SOMETHING this past summer, let me tell you...

ALL THAT WAS A WARM UP FOR WHAT YOU MUST DO NOW!

Tell your Republican Senators that if they vote to impeach, we've got their back! Tell them we'll protect their family at the store! Tell them that we will get in between any Trumpanzee and them!

Let them know: WE'VE GOT THEIR BACK!

And MEAN it! I don't know about you, but any Republican who votes against Trump (and keep in mind, in my case that means Ron Johnson - which is huge!) will be a person I'll FIGHT to PROTECT, PROTECT, PROTECT if anyone dares threaten him afterward!

This is not only HOW we fight, this is WHEN we fight! If you wanted to fight before, you should fight now! If you DID fight before, you MUST fight now! This is the winning shot!

PROTECT THE REPUBLICANS!

HERD THOSE 'FRADY CATS!

We need this. Now. RIGHT now!

 

 

Right now!

Eric

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"Klonning" - The Hate Crime Of The Century

What is "klonning?"

To answer that, I must lament the state of our media, and our country, because the one follows the other.

There's no words I can write which can express the utter and complete despair I feel when looking at what's going on in current events right now. Sure, Biden won, and he's finally been safely sworn in, but only eight days later it is abundantly clear that the underlying sickness cannot not be cured simply by Trump no longer being president.

As I said on this blog, in no uncertain terms, the right-wing pundits, who are the root cause of the seditious attack we endured on January 6th, could simply not be allowed to go back to work. Well, they were allowed to go back to work. They got back on the air, found every stupid excuse they could find for themselves and for Trump, and now we're seeing the consequences.

Only ten Republicans voted to impeach Trump in the House. Ten! On a vote which should have been unanimous! And now they, not the Republicans who voted against impeachment, are facing a huge backlash! Their constituency is actually saying to them, "How dare you vote that sedition and fascism are unacceptable!"

In the Senate, 45 Republicans sided with Rand Paul's silly claim that impeaching a president after his term of office ends is unconstitutional. Only five Republicans voted yes. Five! Out of a vote which should also have been unanimous! And they, too, are facing a backlash.

What's a little blatant treason among friends?

Nikki Haley, the sometimes oh-so-rational Nikki Haley, actually said on the Laura Ingram show Monday, "I don't even think there's a basis for impeachment."

Fucking what?!

Yeah, who cares about sedition anyway? The truth is dying. And nobody gives a fuck.

People make a serious mistake if they assume that a Biden presidency will fix it all. The underlying riptides of lying are there. Some serious urgency is needed to fix this situation right now, and all I see are people breathing sighs of relief.

As if this weren't the beginning of the battle, rather than the denouement.

What right-wing media is doing is so heinous, so criminal, that our language needs a new word for the crime. Merely saying "lying" doesn't cut it. People are too inured to the word "lying." And "treason" does not work, either. People dismiss "treason" as mere hyperbole, even when it is accurate.

What new word could possibly express how truly unacceptable their behavior is?

Here's my answer: KLON (pronounced like TRON).

It stands for Knowingly Lying On the News. K.L.O.N. Or "KLON." A person who knowingly lies on the news is a klon. What he's doing is called "klonning."

Example: If someone on the news says that Joe Biden stole the election, we know empirically that this is false. That person, assuming he or she isn't a mere guest on the show, is a "klon."

One is a klon if one knowingly disseminates false information on any form of news outlet, whether it be a news program, a news station, a news channel, or a newspaper. If it bills itself as "news," it must meet a  certain standard under the law.

The word fits. It sounds a little bit like "clown," which is both fitting and accurate. It also sounds a bit like "Klan," and for the same reason. Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity are proud members of the Ku Klux KLON.

QAnon commits KLON. It even rhymes.

Klonning is not freedom of speech! It is a betrayal of the public trust! It is deliberately misleading people in a way which produces real, physical, tangible harm, both mentally and sometimes physically.

Klonning is a hate crime.

There is a loophole. Klonning might be done legally, provided the media outlet is rendered as tabloid, rather than "news." "Tabloid news" is an oxymoron.

Klonning is acceptable in the National Enquirer.

There are liars, cheats, scoundrels, and klons, in descending order.

About two years ago, I invented another word that didn't really catch on, although I see it pop up every once in a long while. That word was "YARP." It's the word "pray" spelled backwards, and I invented it so that non-believers would have something to say to someone in distress besides, "I'll pray for you." Instead, one could say, "I'll yarp for you," meaning that I'm sending well wishes and good vibrations your way.

Well, I can only yarp that klon will catch on.

Eric

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