Comments on: Trump’s campaign manager attempts suicide https://habitablezone.com/2020/09/28/trumps-campaign-manager-attempts-suicide/ Sun, 05 Apr 2026 21:05:37 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Vitruvius https://habitablezone.com/2020/09/28/trumps-campaign-manager-attempts-suicide/#comment-45525 Vitruvius Fri, 02 Oct 2020 09:22:41 +0000 https://www.habitablezone.com/?p=84337#comment-45525 <img src="https://i.imgflip.com/4h2195.jpg" alt=""Interesting"" />

]]> By: podrock https://habitablezone.com/2020/09/28/trumps-campaign-manager-attempts-suicide/#comment-45492 podrock Tue, 29 Sep 2020 02:51:59 +0000 https://www.habitablezone.com/?p=84337#comment-45492 Originally, it was "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Property." Originally, it was “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Property.”

]]> By: ER https://habitablezone.com/2020/09/28/trumps-campaign-manager-attempts-suicide/#comment-45491 ER Tue, 29 Sep 2020 01:08:53 +0000 https://www.habitablezone.com/?p=84337#comment-45491 But what I'm getting at is the ethos that dictates anything is fair as long as it allows you to market your product more effectively. That is what is fucked up, not that we can automate and target more precisely, but that your right to sell trumps everyone elses right to privacy and dignity. It is a society that values property rights over human rights, and that is just wrong, even if you're back in the stone age, trading sandals for baskets. But what I’m getting at is the ethos that dictates anything is fair as long as it allows you to market your product more effectively.

That is what is fucked up, not that we can automate and target more precisely, but that your right to sell trumps everyone elses right to privacy and dignity. It is a society that values property rights over human rights, and that is just wrong, even if you’re back in the stone age, trading sandals for baskets.

]]> By: podrock https://habitablezone.com/2020/09/28/trumps-campaign-manager-attempts-suicide/#comment-45490 podrock Mon, 28 Sep 2020 23:07:39 +0000 https://www.habitablezone.com/?p=84337#comment-45490 How did they create the database? We know that Cambridge Analytica stole/acquired Facebook user data. Remember that CA claimed to have thousands of data points for most citizens of the US. There's still the mystery of the Trump server talking to Alpha Bank and Spectrum Health (and only them.) Health records contain lots of info that is supposed to be private. Where does all the info hacked from companies (Target, Wells-Fargo, South Carolina Department of Revenue...) end up? Those are crimes. I understand your point that advertising has always been targeted, but this is a new evolution. It is targeted to individuals based on their profile, not just putting beer commercials on sporting events or medicine ads on re-runs of Matlock. This message is for you, personally. It is a natural evolution of the art and science of advertising; and, it is creepy as hell. Data is the ammunition of information warfare. It's what I have been saying about pseudoscience. If the "Marketer" knows you are into Homeopathy, they know they can lead you to something else, to widen the cracks, feed you other ideas, slowly getting you to believe in Democrats eating babies. They provoke a dopamine rush of rage and the smugness of fake esoteric knowledge. It this case it is also propaganda, which is even creepier. How will this play out in the near future of expanding authoritarianism? I don't think it will stop. It will grow even more insidious. Awareness helps. Yet, as you know, we Americans are a really aware society. ~sarcasm~ I'm halfway through the first episode of this PBS series: https://www.pbs.org/show/hacking-your-mind/ How did they create the database? We know that Cambridge Analytica stole/acquired Facebook user data. Remember that CA claimed to have thousands of data points for most citizens of the US. There’s still the mystery of the Trump server talking to Alpha Bank and Spectrum Health (and only them.) Health records contain lots of info that is supposed to be private. Where does all the info hacked from companies (Target, Wells-Fargo, South Carolina Department of Revenue…) end up? Those are crimes.

I understand your point that advertising has always been targeted, but this is a new evolution. It is targeted to individuals based on their profile, not just putting beer commercials on sporting events or medicine ads on re-runs of Matlock. This message is for you, personally. It is a natural evolution of the art and science of advertising; and, it is creepy as hell. Data is the ammunition of information warfare.

It’s what I have been saying about pseudoscience. If the “Marketer” knows you are into Homeopathy, they know they can lead you to something else, to widen the cracks, feed you other ideas, slowly getting you to believe in Democrats eating babies. They provoke a dopamine rush of rage and the smugness of fake esoteric knowledge.

It this case it is also propaganda, which is even creepier. How will this play out in the near future of expanding authoritarianism?

I don’t think it will stop. It will grow even more insidious. Awareness helps. Yet, as you know, we Americans are a really aware society. ~sarcasm~

I’m halfway through the first episode of this PBS series:

https://www.pbs.org/show/hacking-your-mind/

]]> By: ER https://habitablezone.com/2020/09/28/trumps-campaign-manager-attempts-suicide/#comment-45489 ER Mon, 28 Sep 2020 20:44:35 +0000 https://www.habitablezone.com/?p=84337#comment-45489 This is just "marketing". Its targeted advertising. We've been using it to sell cars and beer and cigarettes for decades. We teach courses in how to organize these campaigns in our business schools, where it is touted as one of the "glories" of Capitalism. Its the intersection of Madison Avenue, Harvard Business School and Silicon Valley. Did you really think it was all about persuading the consumer your product was superior to your competitor's? It's all about the practical application of psychological techniques, mass communications and digital data analysis to control human behavior for economic and political gain. Actually, there really is no difference, is there? We talk a lot of sanctimonious bullshit about "free" markets and "free" enterprise but we expect a good businessman to be able to subvert and degrade that system as much as possible. And we reward him mightily when he does. And it costs money, too. We've built a mighty industry and a host of scientific disciplines to carry it out, and the Supreme Court has declared that donating anonymously to its operation is "free" speech. This is how we sell expensive and dangerous toys, unhealthy breakfast cereal and vaping to kids. And if we use it to peddle poison to our own children, how can we be surprised if it is applied to installing a toxic grotesque buffoon in the White House? Trump is not an anomaly. This is how our system works. This is what it was designed to do. This is just “marketing”. Its targeted advertising. We’ve been using it to sell cars and beer and cigarettes for decades. We teach courses in how to organize these campaigns in our business schools, where it is touted as one of the “glories” of Capitalism. Its the intersection of Madison Avenue, Harvard Business School and Silicon Valley. Did you really think it was all about persuading the consumer your product was superior to your competitor’s? It’s all about the practical application of psychological techniques, mass communications and digital data analysis to control human behavior for economic and political gain. Actually, there really is no difference, is there?

We talk a lot of sanctimonious bullshit about “free” markets and “free” enterprise but we expect a good businessman to be able to subvert and degrade that system as much as possible. And we reward him mightily when he does. And it costs money, too. We’ve built a mighty industry and a host of scientific disciplines to carry it out, and the Supreme Court has declared that donating anonymously to its operation is “free” speech.

This is how we sell expensive and dangerous toys, unhealthy breakfast cereal and vaping to kids. And if we use it to peddle poison to our own children, how can we be surprised if it is applied to installing a toxic grotesque buffoon in the White House?

Trump is not an anomaly. This is how our system works. This is what it was designed to do.

]]> By: RL https://habitablezone.com/2020/09/28/trumps-campaign-manager-attempts-suicide/#comment-45488 RL Mon, 28 Sep 2020 18:58:47 +0000 https://www.habitablezone.com/?p=84337#comment-45488 That tells you a lot about the GOP and it's legitimacy as a political party. They are more akin to a criminal organization, or a terrorist group than a political party. That tells you a lot about the GOP and it’s legitimacy as a political party.

They are more akin to a criminal organization, or a terrorist group than a political party.

]]> By: podrock https://habitablezone.com/2020/09/28/trumps-campaign-manager-attempts-suicide/#comment-45487 podrock Mon, 28 Sep 2020 18:26:38 +0000 https://www.habitablezone.com/?p=84337#comment-45487 embedded: <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KIf5ELaOjOk" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> embedded:

]]> By: RL https://habitablezone.com/2020/09/28/trumps-campaign-manager-attempts-suicide/#comment-45486 RL Mon, 28 Sep 2020 17:55:32 +0000 https://www.habitablezone.com/?p=84337#comment-45486 It airs in a few minutes It airs in a few minutes

]]> By: podrock https://habitablezone.com/2020/09/28/trumps-campaign-manager-attempts-suicide/#comment-45485 podrock Mon, 28 Sep 2020 17:02:05 +0000 https://www.habitablezone.com/?p=84337#comment-45485 This? <blockquote> EXCLUSIVE: Channel 4 News investigation reveals a huge Trump campaign data leak, exposing how 3.5 million Black Americans were listed as ‘Deterrence’ - to try to stop them voting in 2016. <a href="https://twitter.com/Channel4News/status/1310584937356103686" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/Channel4News/status/1310584937356103686</a> </blockquote> Channel 4 is in the UK. Piece airs later today. <a href="https://www.channel4.com/news/" rel="nofollow">https://www.channel4.com/news/</a> This?

EXCLUSIVE: Channel 4 News investigation reveals a huge Trump campaign data leak, exposing how 3.5 million Black Americans were listed as ‘Deterrence’ – to try to stop them voting in 2016.

https://twitter.com/Channel4News/status/1310584937356103686

Channel 4 is in the UK. Piece airs later today. https://www.channel4.com/news/

]]> By: podrock https://habitablezone.com/2020/09/28/trumps-campaign-manager-attempts-suicide/#comment-45484 podrock Mon, 28 Sep 2020 16:13:06 +0000 https://www.habitablezone.com/?p=84337#comment-45484 The timing is ...interesting. The timing is …interesting.

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