Attack Ads! The Podcast

Ethics often interfere with profits.  When more profits are “required,” companies often face a hard choice…or an easy one.  Results vary.  I look into two compromises/profitable opportunities in this Episode 263: The Hits To Our Privates Just Keep Coming! Find the Show Notes at: http://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2025/05/episode-263-hits-to-our-privates-just.html

I'm reminded almost daily about how the current elevation of private enterprise has made our lives crap.  It's helpful to remember that this industrial fetish had an origin, and can be reversed, as I discuss in this Episode 262: The Shitcaca Sküll. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2025/04/episode-262-shitcaca-skull.html

I didn't really know how much advertisers surveil us.  I started to look into it.  Then I stopped looking: how much we have all lost our privacy was just too scary.  I look back on 10 years of reading in this Episode 261: Ways We Are All Getting Torq'd. Find the Show Notes page at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2025/04/episode-261-ways-we-are-all-getting.html

Episode 260: Two Scientists. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2025/03/episode-260-two-scientists.html

Not only does a constant onslaught of information drown us, we must sift out not just business propaganda, but ideological propaganda as well.  The effort leaves us cynical.  We should blame those in the title of Episode 259: The Butchers of Certainty. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2025/02/episode-259-butchers-of-certainty.html

Putting the descriptor "foreign" on any term often gives it more gravitas, perhaps more of a threat, than simply uttering the term alone. I consider adversaries foreign and domestic in this Episode 258: Ticky Tacky Talkin'.  Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2025/02/episode-258-ticky-tacky-talkin.html

When we chronicle the efforts businesses have made to influence how the public feels about the government, into Propaganda's Hall of Fame must go the National Association of Manufacturers.  I'll share some of their efforts in this Episode 257: Here Today… Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2025/01/episode-257-here-today.html

When one ponders stuff, it's best if one knows the actual facts of whatever it is one ponders, as opposed to made-up crap stuffed into one's head by others.  Otherwise you might as well use a tarot deck and see the title of Episode 256: It's In The Cards. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/12/episode-256-its-in-cards.html

We humans are funny critters, with loves and hatreds and outright loathings that too often bear no real resemblance to any cogent rationality.  Yet it's all we've got.  I explore this in Episode 255: Reasoning & Irrationality. Find the Show Notes at: http://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/12/episode-255-reasoning-irrationality.html

Not since the late 1800s has America elected a president twice out of order.  Should we worry?  Or should we worry about the moneyed forces behind our former president?  I explore context everyone should know in this Episode 254: It Can't Happen Here. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/11/episode-254-it-cant-happen-here.html

While lots of opinion page ink has been spilled over ASOLs making our lives unpredictable, no one, it seems, has taken the time to think of a good reason why. I explore one both possible and likely reason in this Episode 253: SaaSsy Pirates Say ARR. Find the Show Notes page at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/10/episode-253-saassy-pirates-say-arr.html

When something is new, its very introduction can cause friction, even havoc.  People always wonder how good or bad things could get.  In this Episode 252, I offer a bit disjointed ranting on the business end of Large Language Models, or Stupid ASOLs. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/10/episode-252-stupid-asols.html

In looking into sources of private propaganda, I am constantly struck on how far back it goes.  Today I go back a hundred years to a time when the private electrical power industry was insisting on the title to this Episode 251: Let There Be Some Light. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/10/episode-251-let-there-be-some-light.html

In business, simply maintaining the same level of profitability every year is regarded as failing; one must grow to thrive. But what if the product design is clearly dangerous to use? I explore this reality in Episode 250: Addiction Through Engagement.  Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/09/episode-250-addiction-through-engagement.html

We see slim and slender people all the time, every day… even when none walk among us. This screws with our brains in ways most of us never consider for a second. The bottom line for this phenomenon is the title of Episode 249: Advertising Makes You Fat.  Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/09/episode-249-advertising-makes-you-fat.html  

All too often today the forces driving the changes that increase suffering are hidden, unavailable for us to adequately understand, let alone change.  Matt Stoller delivers yet another industry machination in this Episode 248: More Reasons For Real Worry. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/08/episode-248-more-reasons-for-real-worry.html

How communities deal with bad behavior should be an ongoing debate.  Private companies, though, today use “community standards” to steal both platforms and the cash they deliver.  Hence, Episode 247: Swinging the Hammer of Demonetization.  Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/07/episode-247-swinging-hammer-of.html

Most people today feel they have can choose from whichever experts best confirm their own deeply-seated beliefs.  Sadly, this is wrong, and to understand how wrong, I try to answer the question of Episode 246: Why The Rent Is Too Damned High. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/07/episode-246-why-rent-is-too-damned-high.html

Too many grapple today with common but un- or poorly-defined terms, especially "mainstream."  What is mainstream?  When it comes to mainstream news, I've got a simple suggestion, which I give you in this Episode 245: Don't Trust Mainstream Media. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/06/episode-245-dont-trust-mainstream-media.html

All political philosophy is propaganda, an attempt to describe both the way things are and proscribe the way things should be. Let me give you an example written over a quarter of a millennia ago in this Episode 244: Adam Smith's Invisible Handjob.  Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/06/pisode-244-adam-smiths-invisible-handjob.html

It's inevitable.  One day, you'll find a writer who doesn't agree with a topic you wholeheartedly embrace enough to snidely attack it and distort the facts.  There goes your remaining trust.  I cover this in an open letter called Episode 243: Dear George. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/05/episode-243-dear-george.html

Advertisers have been stealing good ideas for years and using them to crassly push their products.  It's only fair, then, that we mock those ads, perhaps enough to destroy their sales effectiveness.  Hence, Episode 242: The Art and Craft of Resublimation. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/04/episode-242-art-and-craft-of.html

In my last episode, I questioned use of the word "accidents," which take focus away from the hazards that cause them. Why? Because hazards can be fixed. I'll give you some real-world examples of good places to start in this Episode 241: TANA, ATU Edition.  Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/04/episode-241-tana-atu-edition.html

This is merely a brief calendrical announcement and celebration.  Enjoy. Find the Show Notes (for what they're worth) at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/03/ten-freakin-years.html

For too long, the question of what is “safe”—and who should take the blame when it isn't—has been muddled in the name of profits.  Maybe we should avoid the word “accident” itself.  I'll explore that question in this Episode 240: There Are No Accidents. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/03/episode-240-there-are-no-accidents.html

My show is reactive: things happen, and I react to them.  This happened recently when the number and tone of commercials in my podcast feed spiked.  I cover this and speculation on why it happened in this Episode 239: What I Do With The Mad That I Feel. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/03/episode-239-what-i-do-with-mad-that-i.html

Politics in America comes down to the DEMs vs. the GOPs, right?  One represents wealth, and the other claims the hearts of regular people, right? Well, it's more complicated.  I'll explore this not so much in this Episode 238: The Third Estate Rising. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/02/episode-238-third-estate-rising.html

We all suspect our devices are increasingly using their microphones and cameras to snoop on us.  Over the years, I've explored that suspicion.  I'll go over some of that history, and finish with some news, in this Episode 237: Spare Me The EULAgee! Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/01/episode-237-spare-me-eulagee.html

I introduce a new word in this episode more to point out that it does not represent a new concept, but rather a very old one.  The problem of controlling this recent outbreak due to an old story is the topic of this Episode 236: Madison's Farcical Tragedy. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2024/01/episode-236-madisons-farcical-tragedy.html

Our homes are the greatest asset most Americans have.  This should therefore scare the living shit out of us: right now more renting a place to live than getting a chance to own at all.  What can be done?  On to Episode 235: A Winkling In The Making. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/12/episode-235-winkling-in-making.html

There's a new word out there, doing its part to describe an old type of theft.  Rentiers are once again attempting to rake in money, today using technology to make that job easier.  I describe this word and some of the acts associated with it in this Episode 234: Enshittification. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/12/episode-234-enshittification.html

Right now, there are a few under-reported legal attempts being made to rein in the tech giants that today, well, monopolistically reign.  Just like I did in my last, I'll cover yet another of these attempts in this Episode 233: Critical Massholes. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/11/episode-233-critical-massholes.html

Lawsuits are happening!  And so many concern advertising and the future of some really big companies!  It's time to get not just excited, but really excited, starting with this Episode 232: The Advertising Scorpion. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/11/episode-232-advertising-scorpion.html

In this final sharing of Will Storr's book, The Status Game, I give a glimpse into the tyranny of the cousins, people amongst us who seek to correct behavior in ways that should sound familiar.  Watch what you say in this Episode 231: The Status Goldfish. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/10/episode-231-ssg-status-goldfish.html

Have you ever read a very old book and wondered how the author could keep the argument flowing through the miles of print?  I know I have.  Today I explore the degradation of our modern attention span with this Episode 230: Erasing Typographic Man. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/10/episode-230-erasing-typographic-man.html

Status is important to all of us.  To maintain relative status for everyone, we need to keep those around us in check.  Sometimes we must bring out the biggest means of checking behavior and, like the title of this Episode 229, Sing a Song of Derision! Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/09/episode-229-sing-song-of-derision.html

My hatred of advertising brought about my study of it. What I could never anticipate was the shared hatred that every now and again in history flares up and prompts so very many to complain, if not to act against it. Here is one such collection of complaint and solution from over a century ago in this Bonus Episode: The Advertising Nuisance.  Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/08/bonus-episode-advertising-nuisance.html

We brag about living in a "free" country.   Private industry, however, has too often more freedom to suppress speech than we do to exercise it, at least on "their" platforms.  I vaguely allude to this in today's Episode 228: My Eight-Legged Monkey Dance. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/08/episode-228-my-eight-legged-monkey-dance.html

Yes, we humans are obsessed with playing games.  They're harmless fun, giving winners some bragging rights; in that way they resemble the most important game we play, the Status Game.  I discuss this Greatest Game in Episode 227: The Games of Our Lives. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/07/episode-227-games-of-our-lives.html

For almost a decade now, I've shared intrusive surveillance crap with you done in the name of advertising and marketing. Worse, today I need to revisit that crap to show that it's now a probable reality. Thus, Episode 226: Categorization & Confirmation.  Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/07/episode-226-categorization-confirmation.html

It really is possible to improve our lives by adopting less onerous practices.  Keeping us from this better life are obscene fortunes earned by those who provide more onerous practices.  I discuss some of this Episode 225: Why We Can't Have Nice Things. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/06/episode-225-why-we-cant-have-nice-things.html

I could do every episode sharing crud that attempts to score points against collective action… crud that spouts from mouths paid by people most likely to suffer should collective action occur.  I present two in this Episode 224: Categorically Errory. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/06/episode-224-categorically-errory.html

I've described before how ideas originated in academia have caught society's collective popular vision.  How much of that content, though, was intended to benefit only the wealthy?  I explore this in Episode 223: The Counterintelligentsia Strikes Back! Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/05/episode-223-counterintelligentsia.html

Too few realize that answering the cocktail party question “what's the best [something] ever?” requires taking into account how many on earth are affected by it.  I attempt to answer this question in this Episode 222: The Most Important Invention Ever.

Most of us can relate: if we do something too often, specific memories of doing that thing are often lost until something triggers us to remember. Well, I read a lot. Here are some titles I forgot to mention in this Episode 221: Books I've Quietly Read.  Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/04/episode-221-books-ive-quietly-read.html

Once we learn about all the intrusive technologies foisted upon us just to stuff ads in our earholes and eyeballs, paranoia comes naturally.  How much is enough?  When does our paranoia match reality?  I muse that in this Episode 220: Snitches Get Riches. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/04/episode-220-snitches-get-riches.html

We are taught from childhood to save, because a penny saved can lead to a penny earned.  What happens, though, when others have investments that take every penny we have?  I explore this in Episode 219: "Not Totally Without Historical Significance." Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/03/episode-219-not-totally-without.html

Who can we trust in the “sciences”?  In this episode, I offer academic research—later discounted by evidence—for years considered sacrosanct simply because it protects a hidden agenda of political economy.  Hence, today's Episode 218: Why (r > g) Matters. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/03/episode-218-why-r-g-matters.html

I have to say, it's exciting to witness a change in political winds almost the moment it happens…especially when it concerns legality in the world of online advertising! I share this change in the weather in this Episode 217: Chopping At The Golem. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/02/episode-217-chopping-at-golem.html

We all like to eat. There are, sadly, very profitable reasons to keep the various processes dictating how the food we buy is created well hidden. Today I point out just some of the lowlights you find alongside Episode 216: The Dirt Road To Serfdom.  Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/02/episode-216-dirt-road-to-serfdom.html

Everybody likes to suggest changes that will fix problems found in everyday life. What we don't often have, though, is a clear idea of whether those utopian changes will—or won't—work. I present one example in this Epiosde 215: The Libertarian Delusion. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2023/01/epiosde-215-libertarian-delusion.html