I’ve read over ten million words on substack this year according to my stats and I am happy to say that all those words added to my knowledge base in a positive direction, this substack certainly included.
Well said, John, and so true. There’s so much information out there. It’s too bad that so many people spend so much time ingesting useless at best, and harmful at worst, bullshit.
PS- I used to love going to CPAC back in the 80’s and loved reading Robert Novak and watching him on TV.
Marketing is done at the subconscious psychological and emotional level.
Socrates explained influence technique to focus on the logos, ethos and pathos of the subject. I am mostly logos... have always been that way. My wine, my cigars, my cars, etc... are all purchased based on an analysis of value and fit for my needs. I forced my wife to purchase a luxury SUV after her 2015 Ford Edge blew a head gasket with 70k miles. But it was one with top-level reviews for reliability, performance and operation.
I believe that I am a contrarian with more self-awareness and more self-confidence than the average person. It sounds like bragging, but it just my sense as I have lived my life. I connect it to a combination of my God-given personality and talents... combined with my life-path. I see my psychological and emotional impulses and they become criteria in my choices and opinions. I know that I like being seen driving my wife's luxury car, but I pushed that down in my list of reasons I wanted to buy the car. She wanted a Subaru, but I am 6' 3" and the Outback is too small. Note too that I also like that I drive a 2015 Ford F150. I like it when I pick up my top sales employee at the airport. He drives a $160k Bently. But I recognize too that this "like" of mine is just another type of psychological/emotional crap in my head... that I am "better" because I don't need to signal how successful I am driving a $160k car. That self-awareness causes me to tamp that crap down. I drive the truck because it fits me, it is paid for, it is comfortable, quiet, powerful reliable (at this point). I really don't care what anyone else thinks about me driving that truck.
Rob Henderson has created the term "luxury beliefs" to define the tendency for the upper class to clutch certain ideas that are harmful to other, but not the upper class. I think there is a luxury virtue signaling pull that marketers are constantly tweaking. We are so effing brand-aware... "I like Pepsi and not Coke!" and much of the time or choice has nothing at all to do with the actual quality-price-value of the thing... but how we think everyone else will judge us as we own or consume the thing.
Erewhon grocery stores... give me an effing break. $20 smoothies. $12 granola bars.
I can afford it, but I shop at Trader Joes, Whole Foods and Safeway.
Likewise, because I am college educated, at my income level and the fact that I live in a liberal college town, I should hate Trump and should have voted for Kamala Harris. I would be better thought of by the town's elites.
We all need to fight back against this constant onslaught of influence for what to buy, what to believe and what/who to vote for. We all need to get analytical.
I spend time blocking content that comes through my Facebook feed... not just because I disagree with it, but because I can see that it is crap. We need to fight the algorithms. We need to cancel our reading, watching listening to fake news.
To hell with ethos and pathos... it is all logos for me baby! My liberal friends tell me that I am uncaring and have no feelings. They are wrong of course, but it is one of the best complements.
I’m moving away from the check out both sides of an argument. I go to the source, much of which I’m familiar with. I tend to believe and study the data as presented by my trusted sources and not even read or listen to the vast majority. I know what they will say before they say it. If they spread the BS before, I don’t think the argument is worth listening to. That even goes for many who I tend to agree with. I don’t need the constant reaffirmation of my own views, nor the constant repetition of the falsehoods of the opposition. Keep a cool head, baby and listen for the tells. Common sense will usually bring you to sanity. I could write the leftist narrative myself. I wouldn’t believe a word that I was writing but if I was morally bankrupt and wanted a bunch of clicks, who cares.
I do actually try to check out both sides politically, but mainly so I can better understand left-wing arguments in order to defeat them later. I kind of signed up for that by doing the kind of writing I do. Also, I do sometimes change my mind on political issues, like income inequality for example, but's more to do with books I've read about collapsing societies than any left-wing arguments I've run across.
I have been in the same place. I realized that I really don’t have a big issue with the way rich who build great companies that hire thousands and pay millions in taxes. My current target is all the politicians, financiers, Non profit grifters, union bosses, scammers and money wasting slugs who suck on the government teat and create nothing but trouble for the rest of us who don’t want it all but just to be left alone to make a living. We saw the guilty when a few fee cuts were made in government and NGO scams. That’s why we have inequality and corruption and why they are fighting to keep the status quo.
Just to be clear, I don't think of inequality the same way liberals do, but I do think it's important that the poor and middle class always feel like they have a chance to make it. If our country gets to the point where we have trillionaires running around, while most people can't afford a house, a car and feel like they're being run into the ground by inflation, it's not a recipe for societal stability. I don't think the solution to that is tearing down the wealthy or government programs, I think it's things like, "no tax on tips," preventing corporations from buying up the market for single family homes, and structuring laws in ways that encourage more homes to be built.
I was quite involved in one of the government’s biggest equity projects, making home ownership available to all. The sub-prime mortgage collapse did more damage to the middle classes and small businesses than we can ever calculate, all in the name of creating a something for nothing mentality that turned into the naive desire of working people to jump on the perceived value of owning a home.
We know the outcome as millions lost the homes as the government/lender scheme collapsed, mortgage companies, and banks and a few Wall Street firms collapsed. That worldwide fiasco combined with insane regulatory policies, taxes and more government intervention opened the floodgates to the offshoring of American manufacturing.
Yet through all of this the stock market, the new Vegas, soared, creating the mega wealthy who sold stock in their successful companies, destroying the competition and creating the richest investment companies in history, Vanguard, Blackrock who are now scooping up the leftovers created by a government whose primary job is getting donations from those very same people who they regulate and create. Why is the richest place in America just outside of DC? Cause that’s where the money is.
Solutions, term limits, limits on the ability of our representatives to make laws that make them money while in office, including families, stop the revolving door between business and government. Audit every NGO and not for profit. Ditch the entire tax code and it’s lawyer driven nonsense. I could go on, as I have. Our system is broken. It will take Trump++ to fix it but that fight will never be won when the main culprit in the perpetuation of this scam is the media from which the majority of voters still get their information.
I’ve read over ten million words on substack this year according to my stats and I am happy to say that all those words added to my knowledge base in a positive direction, this substack certainly included.
Well said, John, and so true. There’s so much information out there. It’s too bad that so many people spend so much time ingesting useless at best, and harmful at worst, bullshit.
PS- I used to love going to CPAC back in the 80’s and loved reading Robert Novak and watching him on TV.
Good stuff.
Marketing is done at the subconscious psychological and emotional level.
Socrates explained influence technique to focus on the logos, ethos and pathos of the subject. I am mostly logos... have always been that way. My wine, my cigars, my cars, etc... are all purchased based on an analysis of value and fit for my needs. I forced my wife to purchase a luxury SUV after her 2015 Ford Edge blew a head gasket with 70k miles. But it was one with top-level reviews for reliability, performance and operation.
I believe that I am a contrarian with more self-awareness and more self-confidence than the average person. It sounds like bragging, but it just my sense as I have lived my life. I connect it to a combination of my God-given personality and talents... combined with my life-path. I see my psychological and emotional impulses and they become criteria in my choices and opinions. I know that I like being seen driving my wife's luxury car, but I pushed that down in my list of reasons I wanted to buy the car. She wanted a Subaru, but I am 6' 3" and the Outback is too small. Note too that I also like that I drive a 2015 Ford F150. I like it when I pick up my top sales employee at the airport. He drives a $160k Bently. But I recognize too that this "like" of mine is just another type of psychological/emotional crap in my head... that I am "better" because I don't need to signal how successful I am driving a $160k car. That self-awareness causes me to tamp that crap down. I drive the truck because it fits me, it is paid for, it is comfortable, quiet, powerful reliable (at this point). I really don't care what anyone else thinks about me driving that truck.
Rob Henderson has created the term "luxury beliefs" to define the tendency for the upper class to clutch certain ideas that are harmful to other, but not the upper class. I think there is a luxury virtue signaling pull that marketers are constantly tweaking. We are so effing brand-aware... "I like Pepsi and not Coke!" and much of the time or choice has nothing at all to do with the actual quality-price-value of the thing... but how we think everyone else will judge us as we own or consume the thing.
Erewhon grocery stores... give me an effing break. $20 smoothies. $12 granola bars.
I can afford it, but I shop at Trader Joes, Whole Foods and Safeway.
Likewise, because I am college educated, at my income level and the fact that I live in a liberal college town, I should hate Trump and should have voted for Kamala Harris. I would be better thought of by the town's elites.
We all need to fight back against this constant onslaught of influence for what to buy, what to believe and what/who to vote for. We all need to get analytical.
I spend time blocking content that comes through my Facebook feed... not just because I disagree with it, but because I can see that it is crap. We need to fight the algorithms. We need to cancel our reading, watching listening to fake news.
To hell with ethos and pathos... it is all logos for me baby! My liberal friends tell me that I am uncaring and have no feelings. They are wrong of course, but it is one of the best complements.
Did Rob Henderson create that term? I have heard a lot of people reference that over the years. Is he actually the originator?
I think so. "Luxury Beliefs" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxury_belief
Thanks John, good ideas.
I’m moving away from the check out both sides of an argument. I go to the source, much of which I’m familiar with. I tend to believe and study the data as presented by my trusted sources and not even read or listen to the vast majority. I know what they will say before they say it. If they spread the BS before, I don’t think the argument is worth listening to. That even goes for many who I tend to agree with. I don’t need the constant reaffirmation of my own views, nor the constant repetition of the falsehoods of the opposition. Keep a cool head, baby and listen for the tells. Common sense will usually bring you to sanity. I could write the leftist narrative myself. I wouldn’t believe a word that I was writing but if I was morally bankrupt and wanted a bunch of clicks, who cares.
I do actually try to check out both sides politically, but mainly so I can better understand left-wing arguments in order to defeat them later. I kind of signed up for that by doing the kind of writing I do. Also, I do sometimes change my mind on political issues, like income inequality for example, but's more to do with books I've read about collapsing societies than any left-wing arguments I've run across.
I have been in the same place. I realized that I really don’t have a big issue with the way rich who build great companies that hire thousands and pay millions in taxes. My current target is all the politicians, financiers, Non profit grifters, union bosses, scammers and money wasting slugs who suck on the government teat and create nothing but trouble for the rest of us who don’t want it all but just to be left alone to make a living. We saw the guilty when a few fee cuts were made in government and NGO scams. That’s why we have inequality and corruption and why they are fighting to keep the status quo.
Just to be clear, I don't think of inequality the same way liberals do, but I do think it's important that the poor and middle class always feel like they have a chance to make it. If our country gets to the point where we have trillionaires running around, while most people can't afford a house, a car and feel like they're being run into the ground by inflation, it's not a recipe for societal stability. I don't think the solution to that is tearing down the wealthy or government programs, I think it's things like, "no tax on tips," preventing corporations from buying up the market for single family homes, and structuring laws in ways that encourage more homes to be built.
I was quite involved in one of the government’s biggest equity projects, making home ownership available to all. The sub-prime mortgage collapse did more damage to the middle classes and small businesses than we can ever calculate, all in the name of creating a something for nothing mentality that turned into the naive desire of working people to jump on the perceived value of owning a home.
We know the outcome as millions lost the homes as the government/lender scheme collapsed, mortgage companies, and banks and a few Wall Street firms collapsed. That worldwide fiasco combined with insane regulatory policies, taxes and more government intervention opened the floodgates to the offshoring of American manufacturing.
Yet through all of this the stock market, the new Vegas, soared, creating the mega wealthy who sold stock in their successful companies, destroying the competition and creating the richest investment companies in history, Vanguard, Blackrock who are now scooping up the leftovers created by a government whose primary job is getting donations from those very same people who they regulate and create. Why is the richest place in America just outside of DC? Cause that’s where the money is.
Solutions, term limits, limits on the ability of our representatives to make laws that make them money while in office, including families, stop the revolving door between business and government. Audit every NGO and not for profit. Ditch the entire tax code and it’s lawyer driven nonsense. I could go on, as I have. Our system is broken. It will take Trump++ to fix it but that fight will never be won when the main culprit in the perpetuation of this scam is the media from which the majority of voters still get their information.
Great reminder that garbage in, garbage out and remember to rest your mind in Holy Words and music.