Those commercials, they work.
It’s frustrating to watch TV in the run-up to the election. How can people miss so many obvious things? What is the deal with these nonsensical political advertisements?
My mistake has been assuming that voters are basically intelligent, when in fact they are emotional. Something like half of them are below average (it’s true!), and many of the rest are too lazy or stoned (willfully stupid) to bother thinking. And it’s more fun to get angry or upset than to think.
They’re also bigoted. We’re all bigoted by nature, but some of us work to overcome it. The rest of us are just pretending. And it’s so easy to play on that bigotry. A few subtle cues and you know…it’s not just race, it’s men, it’s liberals, elitists, people with more money than I have, people that smile too much. What do you hate? What triggers deep-set resentment? Don’t bother to tell us, we already know, and we’re using it to control you.
And there’s advertising. We’re drenched in advertising, which changes how we perceive incoming information. People are used to believing whatever they see on television–we’re predisposed to believe what people tell us, it’s how society works. We have laws against outright lies in advertising because of this. They couldn’t say it if it wasn’t true, right? Unless it’s in a political ad.
Put all of this together, and it’s clear that, as var as politics is concerned, we’re screwed.
Those commercials that insult your intelligence? Those commercials that are so slanderous and illogical that you can’t imagine how they could possibly influence anyone? They’re based on sound market research. They work for the majority of voters. They work.
That’s right. Most people actually believe that crap. Accept it. Embrace it.
Once you give up your idealism and accept that most people are ignorant, too lazy to do the simplest fact checking, and (on the average) of quite average intelligence, it becomes easier to understand. The only logical attitude is one of contempt. Let that show for a second, and the uneducated, lazy imbeciles will call you arrogant.
And rightly so. I live in a democratic society where logic is weakness, where the primary deciding factors in the election are laziness and bigotry. Maybe it’s time to lose my fear of appearing arrogant. Maybe I am actually better than average, both morally and in terms of intelligence. Instead of being disgusted at the stupidity of the masses, I should pity them.
Thank goodness it’s almost over, and we can go back to letting the corporations with the most money run the country.
