View Full Version : We Are Losing The Battle.
They have super computers and paid professionals that mine data. They have every channel available in the world to use against us: print, media, park benches, even our cultural way of life has been infilitrated by them.
You are being assalted daily. Targeted every second.
What are you doing to counter act this?
Have you thought about it? Have you caught on to what they are doing to you?
Share your secrets.
How are you safe guarding your money from them?
How are you making sure you are putting life energy and money in to your life's purpose?
DO NOT LET THEM DEFINE YOUR LIFE PURPOSE EITHER!
Hint: Your life purpose is most likely nothing that you can find anywhere except in you. It will not come in boxes marketed with the same color or design. It will probably not even have a name on it yet other than your own first name.
I make much stuff at home, pay cash only for a number of items, make things last for years and years, never sign up for reviews or prizes, stay off Facebook et al and monitor my internet use to get the most benefit with least risk.
My neighbours know my patterns and activities as I know theirs so it is rare to be completely free of scrutiny.
They have super computers and paid professionals that mine data. They have every channel available in the world to use against us: print, media, park benches, even our cultural way of life has been infilitrated by them.
You are being assalted daily. Targeted every second.
What are you doing to counter act this?
Have you thought about it? Have you caught on to what they are doing to you?
Share your secrets.
How are you safe guarding your money from them?
How are you making sure you are putting life energy and money in to your life's purpose?
DO NOT LET THEM DEFINE YOUR LIFE PURPOSE EITHER!
Hint: Your life purpose is most likely nothing that you can find anywhere except in you. It will not come in boxes marketed with the same color or design. It will probably not even have a name on it yet other than your own first name.
I remind myself that if I want to do all the cool and fun things they show people doing in TV ads, especially SUV ads, then I can do them best if I am not tied to the work place 8 plus hours a day, 5 days a week so I can pay for that expensive SUV to do them in! My old truck works just as well as a new one with a hefty payment. Same with pretty much everything else that is advertized. I don't need the shiney new product you are advertizing to do the things I want to do. As a matter of fact, it was the SUV ads that enticed me to quit work early so I CAN go out and play (those Nissan X-Terra ads with Lenny Kravits Song "I want to Fly Away" blasting in the ads was the cincer for me to quit work!). Meaning I am far less likely to buy your products then if I was working. Reverse advertizing at it's finest!
ETA: My avatar pict is a photo of me in my very old "Fly Away" jeep I got a few years after I retired and moved to the mountains. "Crusin' with the top pulled down and my wayfarers on baby!" (Don Henley's "Boys of Summer"). Who needs new, fancy stuff to have fun. The SUV life without the SUV payment!
What are you doing to counter act this?
I just ignore "them" for the most part. "They" only have power over you if you let them, or if they use force against you.
iris lily
11-15-12, 10:51pm
Agree with bae, I'm not much concerned about what "they" do and as I've been saying for years now: PLEASE target me specifically for ads! the stupid crap that they show me know is SOOOOOOO elementary. By the time the online world truly develops ability to target the real things I ;m interested in, I will be dead.
SteveinMN
11-15-12, 11:44pm
I just ignore "them" for the most part. "They" only have power over you if you let them, or if they use force against you.
Very well said.
try2bfrugal
11-16-12, 12:22am
The main things I try to buy lately are products that will save more money than they cost over the long run, like rechargeable batteries, a solar battery charger, drying racks for clothes, and motion sensor LED lights. Otherwise I just don't have much reason to buy a lot of stuff. They can advertise away. I would rather have more free time than have to work more to buy extra consumer goods.
As far as money, I like buying I bonds and TIPS at auction to cut out any middlemen and service fees. Our mortgage is at a credit union. When we do have to buy mutual funds, like with some of our leftover 401Ks, we try to buy low cost index funds.
Wildflower
11-16-12, 12:26am
I've never bought or done things advertised to me. I buy and do things that I need to. That's it. They have no hold on me. I think I learned this from my parents....
I have no idea whom or what you're talking about. :)
ToomuchStuff
11-16-12, 11:15am
Agree with BAE. Other things I do:
Pay with cash (less tracking and targeting marketing when they don't know who you are)
Do NOT give out your phone number, email address, etc.
Set up at least one junk mail address for stuff (I use one for deals and only check it when I am looking for something, and another for ordering)
Don't watch tv. When you eliminate it, you will be shocked by how much has gone away, and by how much you paid to be advertised to.
The newspapers do a give away, in which they try to get you to subscribe. All the while they are adding those trial numbers to their papers sold numbers, so they can charge advertisers more, so they get paid from both sides to advertise to you.
Eliminate other subscriptions you don't regularly read/use (cancel magazines, etc).
Eliminate the radio. Listen to your music you have ripped from disc. This eliminates ads, seasonal/christmas music, etc.
Stay out of stores, unless you need something. Take your LIST when you do go.
Have a trash can inside the door closest to the mail box. It is for direct deposit of all third class mail.
Watch "hanging out with buddies".
catherine
11-16-12, 11:54am
Because I'm embedded with "the enemy" in some ways as a market researcher, I used to feel the same way--that we are the victims and all our troubles are because corporations spend billions brainwashing all of us. And frankly, that's true--they do spend billions to brainwash us. And it has worked to a decent extent.
It used to frustrate me so much--I signed up with organizations like ACME (Action Coalition for Media Education) and Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood.
But I get hopeful when I see people acting in spite of the onslaught. In fact there's a reverse groundswell happening by people simply choosing to "be the change." So that's where I am right now. Making mindful purchases and "staying out of the bars"--i.e. cutting my exposure to the consumer seduction.
pinkytoe
11-16-12, 12:37pm
Sometimes I think being fearful has become like a disease. And especially ironic since it is the media that tells us constantly to be afraid - of what we eat, how we diagnose ad treat diseases, how we are tracked, etc. Stop listening to it and use common sense. Go outside, garden, do your hobbies, make things yourself, volunteer but mostly just blow off the noise.
Tussiemussies
11-16-12, 1:02pm
Sometimes I think being fearful has become like a disease. And especially ironic since it is the media that tells us constantly to be afraid - of what we eat, how we diagnose ad treat diseases, how we are tracked, etc. Stop listening to it and use common sense. Go outside, garden, do your hobbies, make things yourself, volunteer but mostly just blow off the noise.
So true pinkie...
rosarugosa
11-16-12, 9:47pm
HeyDude, You have to read this post if you haven't already. The infographic is great (click to enlarge):
http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/11/09/grim-comedy-from-mr-money-mustaches-junkmail/
simplelife4me
11-17-12, 6:52pm
Paranoid delusional..lol
I listen only to NPR and our local commercial free radio station. I watch no TV since the Gov't decided that everybody had to buy a new one a few years ago (digital) Prior to that we could get 1 1/2 stations and both were PBS. Now we don't have a TV but we do watch movies on DVD from the library and from our own DVD stash. I read only the regional free newspaper, ignoring the ads (sometimes I can't even figure out what they are selling or what the products do!) I visit few overly commercial websites but am pretty good at ignoring the ads. (please will somebody tell Yahoo! that the world doesn't need more testosterone! I think the world's suffering from an overdose of the stuff already!) My town isn't overburdened with billboards.
I don't eat prepackaged crap, garden, can, cook from scratch and have pretty much everything I need that I could buy with my own money (unfortunately I can't buy world peace or universal health care or potable water and clean energy for every person on the planet...those are the things I/we really need.) So that's my way of avoiding Madison Ave.
morris_rl
11-20-12, 11:18pm
Cash is both fungible and anonymous.
flowerseverywhere
11-21-12, 12:10am
funny, I don't care if the grocery store knows how many cans of beans I buy. I don't give out my phone or e-mail so have few problems there. I do have a dummy e-mail for when I need to but don't give that to friends.
Not watching TV and reading for several hours a day instead is an amazing antidote and much more private, unless Big Brother checks my library card, and what in the world would they do with that information?
I followed up on a suggestion in this forum months ago: I signed up with Ghostery to keep from being followed as I move from internet site to site.
I just posted a new thread asking for information about alternatives to remaining a customer of Capital One, a vulture mega-bank that just purchased the American branch of ING.
Capital One created its own privacy settings for existing ING account holders, which customers have to actively change in order to insure their information isn't automatically sold to "affiliate" marketers. But there is some sharing one cannot avoid and remain an account holder.
In general, I find people have fewer concerns about privacy than I do. I believe this a peak achievement for marketers: convincing people that privacy has no intrinsic value.
I followed up on a suggestion in this forum months ago: I signed up with Ghostery to keep from being followed as I move from internet site to site.
I just posted a new thread asking for information about alternatives to remaining a customer of Capital One, a vulture mega-bank that just purchased the American branch of ING.
Capital One created its own privacy settings for existing ING account holders, which customers have to actively change in order to insure their information isn't automatically sold to "affiliate" marketers. But there is some sharing one cannot avoid and remain an account holder.
In general, I find people have fewer concerns about privacy than I do. I believe this a peak achievement for marketers: convincing people that privacy has no intrinsic value.
If privacy is more important to you than return on investment, I would recommend that you put your money in a local credit union (or just precious metals) and use cash for all transactions. You will be under most marketer's radar that way.
If privacy is more important to you than return on investment, I would recommend that you put your money in a local credit union (or just precious metals) and use cash for all transactions. You will be under most marketer's radar that way.
Good ideas, Fawn. We're already in a credit union, but had a savings account with ING as well. We were happy with their rates until the financial crash. Now the rates aren't that much better than the credit union's.
We've been thinking about using cash more since our credit union debit card was hacked for the second time. In almost every situation - except maybe at gas stations - it's just as simple to use cash.
ToomuchStuff
11-24-12, 12:06pm
Good ideas, Fawn. We're already in a credit union, but had a savings account with ING as well. We were happy with their rates until the financial crash. Now the rates aren't that much better than the credit union's.
We've been thinking about using cash more since our credit union debit card was hacked for the second time. In almost every situation - except maybe at gas stations - it's just as simple to use cash.
Why is it not simple to use in a gas station?
iris lily
11-24-12, 1:17pm
Why is it not simple to use in a gas station?
She probably means that in order to use cash, you've got to go into the station and pay, have them put money on the pump, then go back out and pump the gas. When you use a credit card you don't have to go into the store.
I know that the lines of people buying cigarettes and beer and snacks are long here, and I'd rather not interact with that crowd.
She probably means that in order to use cash, you've got to go into the station and pay, have them put money on the pump, then go back out and pump the gas. When you use a credit card you don't have to go into the store.
I know that the lines of people buying cigarettes and beer and snacks are long here, and I'd rather not interact with that crowd.
Exactly what I meant. Scratch off cards, Lotto, etc., also slow the line down.
ToomuchStuff
11-26-12, 2:31am
Exactly what I meant. Scratch off cards, Lotto, etc., also slow the line down.
Some stores have gone to what they call a cash card. You put it in and it allows you to activate the pump from the outside, then go in and pay.
ApatheticNoMore
11-26-12, 3:17am
I always pay cash and have seldom encountered long or slow lines (really it's not even something I think about, since it's such a non-issue).
GO CAR LACK! ONCE YOU GO CAR LACK, YOU AIN'T NEVER GO BACK!
She probably means that in order to use cash, you've got to go into the station and pay, have them put money on the pump, then go back out and pump the gas. When you use a credit card you don't have to go into the store.
I know that the lines of people buying cigarettes and beer and snacks are long here, and I'd rather not interact with that crowd.
I use Arco gas stations because they have a machine at the pumps that take cash (but if you get a refund you need to go inside to get that). They are also about .10 - .20 cents/gal cheaper then paying with a CC. And here in Hellifornia, where gas is still over $3.60/gal (down from almost $5/gal a month ago), .10 or .20/gal in savings can be big. Enough to stand in line to buy a slurpee and lotto tickets :-)!
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