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- Apr 22, 2019
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There are two candidates. One has a well-funded ad campaign which is mostly negative attack ads against the other candidate, and a few praising the first candidate. People see them over and over and over and over but don't hear much from the other candidate.
That is a tried and true formula for money buying an election. People tend to know little about candidates, and can be very affected and 'sold' by the billions of dollars political advertising industry.
That industry knows how to move opinions. To say things to make people dislike or like a candidate. And the advertising costs money to create and air. And it works.
And to the little bit that 'media' tries to inform or debunk, over a third of the voters - and over half in some states - are now in 'information bubbles' not consuming 'mainstream media'. It's not as if they see a message they agree with dozens of times and then when one media source says otherwise they change their opinion - instead, in the unlikely event they see the message, they seem more likely to say 'once again media sucks'.
This is how you get situations where people say, 'that candidate supports policies most disagree with, they're corrupt, how can they get votes?', while that candidate gets 'big money' buying the advertising that 'whitewashes' them in the public opinion.
What the scenario above SHOULD get as a reaction is people saying, 'wow what a big, polished campaign for that person - where is the money coming from for that?' But that's rarely what happens. Instead, money buys people's opinions. And it's both a long-term massive propaganda operation to promote Republicans and attack Democrats every day, as well as specific campaign advertising.
We've all heard that 'name recognition is key'. How many voters simply vote because they 'know the name'. It's not unlike how businesses invest big bucks into building 'brands', knowing that people will buy products because they have heard of and 'trust' the brand to be the best. They'll pay more for the same quality or a worse product, that has the right brand.
In the case of brands, it's usually just a higher price that's the cost. The 'name brands' usually aren't bad, and might even be better; there's just a price premium. In the case of politicians, it's a corrupt candidate who serves the donors against the voters that's the cost. This is pretty core to American politics. Money, money, money buying voters through media.
And if you ever expect to hear any 'exposes' of this on the media - the media love the big bucks, the billions, it brings them to air all the advertising. You can expect to see the media owners prohibit any airing of criticism of the issue.
That is a tried and true formula for money buying an election. People tend to know little about candidates, and can be very affected and 'sold' by the billions of dollars political advertising industry.
That industry knows how to move opinions. To say things to make people dislike or like a candidate. And the advertising costs money to create and air. And it works.
And to the little bit that 'media' tries to inform or debunk, over a third of the voters - and over half in some states - are now in 'information bubbles' not consuming 'mainstream media'. It's not as if they see a message they agree with dozens of times and then when one media source says otherwise they change their opinion - instead, in the unlikely event they see the message, they seem more likely to say 'once again media sucks'.
This is how you get situations where people say, 'that candidate supports policies most disagree with, they're corrupt, how can they get votes?', while that candidate gets 'big money' buying the advertising that 'whitewashes' them in the public opinion.
What the scenario above SHOULD get as a reaction is people saying, 'wow what a big, polished campaign for that person - where is the money coming from for that?' But that's rarely what happens. Instead, money buys people's opinions. And it's both a long-term massive propaganda operation to promote Republicans and attack Democrats every day, as well as specific campaign advertising.
We've all heard that 'name recognition is key'. How many voters simply vote because they 'know the name'. It's not unlike how businesses invest big bucks into building 'brands', knowing that people will buy products because they have heard of and 'trust' the brand to be the best. They'll pay more for the same quality or a worse product, that has the right brand.
In the case of brands, it's usually just a higher price that's the cost. The 'name brands' usually aren't bad, and might even be better; there's just a price premium. In the case of politicians, it's a corrupt candidate who serves the donors against the voters that's the cost. This is pretty core to American politics. Money, money, money buying voters through media.
And if you ever expect to hear any 'exposes' of this on the media - the media love the big bucks, the billions, it brings them to air all the advertising. You can expect to see the media owners prohibit any airing of criticism of the issue.