Attention US politicians and their advertisers: SHUT THE FUCK UP. Don’t even bother advertising; you’re just wasting your money.
It’s political season in the US of A, and we’re barraged by political advertisements. After being merely disdainful of them for many years, this time I have a firm rule: I’M NOT LISTENING. AT ALL. Doesn’t matter if it’s TV, radio, direct mail, or whatever. Can’t you spend your money on something else? Or don’t spend it at all; campaign spening has been obscene for ages, and is only getting worse.
It’s truly sad that political discourse has sunk this low. Dunno why, except that the Unwashed Masses have become such sheep that these ads work.
Let’s briefly consider ‘positive ads’. Politicos have become so risk-averse lest they alienate someone that their positive messages amount to, “I’m a patriotic American; I believe in motherhood and hug babies. I like puppies and kittens.” Ugh; big fucking deal. The political consultants say that positive ads don’t work; no wonder, they’re content-free.
Next, negative ads. These, the Unwashed Masses apparently remember. But they usually don’t have any basis in fact or provide any useable information. They’re required to be literally true, but, unfortunately, literally true doesn’t have any meaning in the context of political ads. Quoting something out of context is fair game. It’s still true, right? One of my favorites (from a prior year, since I’m purposely ignoring this year’s ads) was a mailing from someone that had a quote from a newspaper, (paraphrased,) “He’s a good guy”. Actually, the newspaper was endorsing the other candidate, and the newspaper actually said (paraphrased again,) “He’s a good guy, but we wouldn’t even consider voting for him if he was the last candidate on earth.”
And there’s the gambit of straw men, or implying that an opponent said something, then attacking them for the implication. Sorry; get a fucking life; I’m NOT buying it.
Incumbents always have the option of voting both ways - knowing that something won’t pass, they’ll vote yes on a meaningless prelinary vote, and no on the main measure. Or they’ll vote the opposite way on the main vote, again, with the foreknowlege that the vote will go the other way - all in the hope of securing a favorable rating from some interest group.
This sucks.
In order to vote intelligently, I have to have followed many media outlets for a long time. I use ‘independent’ media and, to some extent, 'nterest groups to help tell me who I should vote for, knowing full well that the independent media still has an agenda, and the interest groups definitely have an agenda. The political ads are less than worthless.
Ultimately, I blame the Unwashed Masses, I guess. If you weren’t so clueless and manipulable, we wouldn’t have this problem.
So, fuck the masses and fuck the politicos too. Die. Now.
