Attack Ads! The Podcast

I didn't really know how much advertisers surveil us.  I started to look into it.  Then I stopped looking: how much we have all lost our privacy was just too scary.  I look back on 10 years of reading in this Episode 261: Ways We Are All Getting Torq'd. Find the Show Notes page at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2025/04/episode-261-ways-we-are-all-getting.html

Episode 260: Two Scientists. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2025/03/episode-260-two-scientists.html

Not only does a constant onslaught of information drown us, we must sift out not just business propaganda, but ideological propaganda as well.  The effort leaves us cynical.  We should blame those in the title of Episode 259: The Butchers of Certainty. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2025/02/episode-259-butchers-of-certainty.html

Putting the descriptor "foreign" on any term often gives it more gravitas, perhaps more of a threat, than simply uttering the term alone. I consider adversaries foreign and domestic in this Episode 258: Ticky Tacky Talkin'.  Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2025/02/episode-258-ticky-tacky-talkin.html

When we chronicle the efforts businesses have made to influence how the public feels about the government, into Propaganda's Hall of Fame must go the National Association of Manufacturers.  I'll share some of their efforts in this Episode 257: Here Today… Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2025/01/episode-257-here-today.html

When one ponders stuff, it's best if one knows the actual facts of whatever it is one ponders, as opposed to made-up crap stuffed into one's head by others.  Otherwise you might as well use a tarot deck and see the title of Episode 256: It's In The Cards. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/12/episode-256-its-in-cards.html

We humans are funny critters, with loves and hatreds and outright loathings that too often bear no real resemblance to any cogent rationality.  Yet it's all we've got.  I explore this in Episode 255: Reasoning & Irrationality. Find the Show Notes at: http://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/12/episode-255-reasoning-irrationality.html

Not since the late 1800s has America elected a president twice out of order.  Should we worry?  Or should we worry about the moneyed forces behind our former president?  I explore context everyone should know in this Episode 254: It Can't Happen Here. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/11/episode-254-it-cant-happen-here.html

While lots of opinion page ink has been spilled over ASOLs making our lives unpredictable, no one, it seems, has taken the time to think of a good reason why. I explore one both possible and likely reason in this Episode 253: SaaSsy Pirates Say ARR. Find the Show Notes page at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/10/episode-253-saassy-pirates-say-arr.html

When something is new, its very introduction can cause friction, even havoc.  People always wonder how good or bad things could get.  In this Episode 252, I offer a bit disjointed ranting on the business end of Large Language Models, or Stupid ASOLs. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/10/episode-252-stupid-asols.html

In looking into sources of private propaganda, I am constantly struck on how far back it goes.  Today I go back a hundred years to a time when the private electrical power industry was insisting on the title to this Episode 251: Let There Be Some Light. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/10/episode-251-let-there-be-some-light.html

In business, simply maintaining the same level of profitability every year is regarded as failing; one must grow to thrive. But what if the product design is clearly dangerous to use? I explore this reality in Episode 250: Addiction Through Engagement.  Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/09/episode-250-addiction-through-engagement.html

We see slim and slender people all the time, every day… even when none walk among us. This screws with our brains in ways most of us never consider for a second. The bottom line for this phenomenon is the title of Episode 249: Advertising Makes You Fat.  Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/09/episode-249-advertising-makes-you-fat.html  

All too often today the forces driving the changes that increase suffering are hidden, unavailable for us to adequately understand, let alone change.  Matt Stoller delivers yet another industry machination in this Episode 248: More Reasons For Real Worry. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/08/episode-248-more-reasons-for-real-worry.html

How communities deal with bad behavior should be an ongoing debate.  Private companies, though, today use "community standards" to steal both platforms and the cash they deliver.  Hence, Episode 247: Swinging the Hammer of Demonetization.  Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/07/episode-247-swinging-hammer-of.html

Most people today feel they have can choose from whichever experts best confirm their own deeply-seated beliefs.  Sadly, this is wrong, and to understand how wrong, I try to answer the question of Episode 246: Why The Rent Is Too Damned High. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/07/episode-246-why-rent-is-too-damned-high.html

Too many grapple today with common but un- or poorly-defined terms, especially "mainstream."  What is mainstream?  When it comes to mainstream news, I've got a simple suggestion, which I give you in this Episode 245: Don't Trust Mainstream Media. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/06/episode-245-dont-trust-mainstream-media.html

All political philosophy is propaganda, an attempt to describe both the way things are and proscribe the way things should be. Let me give you an example written over a quarter of a millennia ago in this Episode 244: Adam Smith's Invisible Handjob.  Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/06/pisode-244-adam-smiths-invisible-handjob.html

It's inevitable.  One day, you'll find a writer who doesn't agree with a topic you wholeheartedly embrace enough to snidely attack it and distort the facts.  There goes your remaining trust.  I cover this in an open letter called Episode 243: Dear George. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/05/episode-243-dear-george.html

Advertisers have been stealing good ideas for years and using them to crassly push their products.  It's only fair, then, that we mock those ads, perhaps enough to destroy their sales effectiveness.  Hence, Episode 242: The Art and Craft of Resublimation. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/04/episode-242-art-and-craft-of.html

In my last episode, I questioned use of the word "accidents," which take focus away from the hazards that cause them. Why? Because hazards can be fixed. I'll give you some real-world examples of good places to start in this Episode 241: TANA, ATU Edition.  Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/04/episode-241-tana-atu-edition.html

This is merely a brief calendrical announcement and celebration.  Enjoy. Find the Show Notes (for what they're worth) at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/03/ten-freakin-years.html

For too long, the question of what is "safe"—and who should take the blame when it isn't—has been muddled in the name of profits.  Maybe we should avoid the word "accident" itself.  I'll explore that question in this Episode 240: There Are No Accidents. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/03/episode-240-there-are-no-accidents.html

My show is reactive: things happen, and I react to them.  This happened recently when the number and tone of commercials in my podcast feed spiked.  I cover this and speculation on why it happened in this Episode 239: What I Do With The Mad That I Feel. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/03/episode-239-what-i-do-with-mad-that-i.html

Politics in America comes down to the DEMs vs. the GOPs, right?  One represents wealth, and the other claims the hearts of regular people, right? Well, it's more complicated.  I'll explore this not so much in this Episode 238: The Third Estate Rising. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/02/episode-238-third-estate-rising.html