Attack Ads! The Podcast

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

We all suspect our devices are increasingly using their microphones and cameras to snoop on us.  Over the years, I've explored that suspicion.  I'll go over some of that history, and finish with some news, in this Episode 237: Spare Me The EULAgee! Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/01/episode-237-spare-me-eulagee.html

I introduce a new word in this episode more to point out that it does not represent a new concept, but rather a very old one.  The problem of controlling this recent outbreak due to an old story is the topic of this Episode 236: Madison's Farcical Tragedy. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/01/episode-236-madisons-farcical-tragedy.html

Our homes are the greatest asset most Americans have.  This should therefore scare the living shit out of us: right now more renting a place to live than getting a chance to own at all.  What can be done?  On to Episode 235: A Winkling In The Making. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/12/episode-235-winkling-in-making.html

There's a new word out there, doing its part to describe an old type of theft.  Rentiers are once again attempting to rake in money, today using technology to make that job easier.  I describe this word and some of the acts associated with it in this Episode 234: Enshittification. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/12/episode-234-enshittification.html

Right now, there are a few under-reported legal attempts being made to rein in the tech giants that today, well, monopolistically reign.  Just like I did in my last, I'll cover yet another of these attempts in this Episode 233: Critical Massholes. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/11/episode-233-critical-massholes.html

Lawsuits are happening!  And so many concern advertising and the future of some really big companies!  It's time to get not just excited, but really excited, starting with this Episode 232: The Advertising Scorpion. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/11/episode-232-advertising-scorpion.html

In this final sharing of Will Storr's book, The Status Game, I give a glimpse into the tyranny of the cousins, people amongst us who seek to correct behavior in ways that should sound familiar.  Watch what you say in this Episode 231: The Status Goldfish. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/10/episode-231-ssg-status-goldfish.html

Have you ever read a very old book and wondered how the author could keep the argument flowing through the miles of print?  I know I have.  Today I explore the degradation of our modern attention span with this Episode 230: Erasing Typographic Man. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/10/episode-230-erasing-typographic-man.html

Status is important to all of us.  To maintain relative status for everyone, we need to keep those around us in check.  Sometimes we must bring out the biggest means of checking behavior and, like the title of this Episode 229, Sing a Song of Derision! Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/09/episode-229-sing-song-of-derision.html

My hatred of advertising brought about my study of it. What I could never anticipate was the shared hatred that every now and again in history flares up and prompts so very many to complain, if not to act against it. Here is one such collection of complaint and solution from over a century ago in this Bonus Episode: The Advertising Nuisance.  Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogsp...

We brag about living in a "free" country.   Private industry, however, has too often more freedom to suppress speech than we do to exercise it, at least on "their" platforms.  I vaguely allude to this in today's Episode 228: My Eight-Legged Monkey Dance. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/08/episode-228-my-eight-legged-monkey-dance.html

Yes, we humans are obsessed with playing games.  They're harmless fun, giving winners some bragging rights; in that way they resemble the most important game we play, the Status Game.  I discuss this Greatest Game in Episode 227: The Games of Our Lives. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/07/episode-227-games-of-our-lives.html

For almost a decade now, I've shared intrusive surveillance crap with you done in the name of advertising and marketing. Worse, today I need to revisit that crap to show that it's now a probable reality. Thus, Episode 226: Categorization & Confirmation.  Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/07/episode-226-categorization-confirmation.html

It really is possible to improve our lives by adopting less onerous practices.  Keeping us from this better life are obscene fortunes earned by those who provide more onerous practices.  I discuss some of this Episode 225: Why We Can't Have Nice Things. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/06/episode-225-why-we-cant-have-nice-things.html

I could do every episode sharing crud that attempts to score points against collective action… crud that spouts from mouths paid by people most likely to suffer should collective action occur.  I present two in this Episode 224: Categorically Errory. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/06/episode-224-categorically-errory.html

I've described before how ideas originated in academia have caught society's collective popular vision.  How much of that content, though, was intended to benefit only the wealthy?  I explore this in Episode 223: The Counterintelligentsia Strikes Back! Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/05/episode-223-counterintelligentsia.html

Too few realize that answering the cocktail party question "what's the best [something] ever?" requires taking into account how many on earth are affected by it.  I attempt to answer this question in this Episode 222: The Most Important Invention Ever.