And here's a link for anyone who hasn't quite seen the connection between my threads, or whose paranoia level is a little low.

https://antidotezine.com/2017/01/22/trump-knows-you/

You're welcome. :D

To be honest I should be thanking you since usually people consider any anti-capitalist rhetoric (even if it is mere questioning the ideology) as somewhere along the lines between conspiracy theory and communist propaganda and having someone willing to even consider that there could be rational reasons behind such arguments is kind of a relief.

Since you found the last links useful, I spent a few minutes looking up some related material such as the studies showing the rich behaving less ethically than the rest of us (which contradicts the idea that they can "watch themselves" without the need of check/balances, oversight from arbitrators, etc) and an book on the economy that more or less talks about the problem in general:



Economix
==========================================
(Economix more or less talks about the problems and biases in
our economy, some of how it can be fixed but why it isn't)

Economix: How Our Economy Works (and Doesn't Work),
Paperback – Sept 1, 2012 by Michael Goodwin
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0810988399/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Studies show why the rich are unethical
==========================================
Studies show why the rich are unethical
https://www.google.com/search?q=studies+show+why+the+rich+are+unethical

New Study: The Wealthy are more Unethical
http://www.economicpopulist.org/content/new-study-wealthy-are-more-unethical

Rich People More Likely to Lie, Cheat, Study Suggests
http://www.livescience.com/18683-rich-people-lie-cheat-study.html


Why the rich are unethical
==========================================
Why the rich are unethical
https://www.google.com/search?q=why+the+rich+are+unethical

Are Wealthy People Less Ethical?
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wealthy-people-ethical/story?id=23758468

Why the Rich Are Less Ethical: They See Greed as Good:
A new study suggests that being wealthy primes people to act like jerks.
http://healthland.time.com/2012/02/28/why-the-rich-are-less-ethical-they-see-greed-as-good/

Are rich people more unethical?
http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/27/health/rich-more-unethical/

STUDY: Rich People Are More Unethical Than Poor People
http://www.businessinsider.com/infographic-how-unethical-are-the-wealthy-2012-3


I hope you find some of them useful. :)

Anyways I think the realities of the problems outlined in Economix and studies showing that a lot of the super wealthy are playing a game of "Do as I say, not as I do" (ie. double standard) are about as close as someone can get to 'scientific proof' when it comes to problem of morality in society. Of course whether anyone cares is another matter.

I found the antidotezine article very informative and somewhat surprising. Thanks for linking it in here.

It didn't increase my level of paranoia.

It isn't the collectors, analyzers, and correlators of big data that worry me. Advertising companies have been working toward individual tailored ads for quite a few years. (Target Corporation can now tell within 60 days when a female Target card user has become pregnant based solely on purchases of certain products that do not have anything to do with pregnancy or child care.)

What worries me is big data's bad-actor customers -- people like Donald Trump, or the Brexit campaigners. Their clear-enough stated political goals are what is scary, not so much how they go about targeting ads.

I want the politician to be truthful about who they are, what he or she believes, what he or she has done in the past, what he or she plans to do, and how he or she plans to do it. That's what I'll vote on.

This is a good premise for a dystopian film, called: "It's the economy, stupid"

And here's a link for anyone who hasn't quite seen the connection between my threads, or whose paranoia level is a little low. — Un

And just as Kosinski had established that men who like MAC cosmetics are slightly more likely to be gay, the company discovered that a preference for cars made in the US was a great indication of a potential Trump voter — article

Men who like makeup likely gay, trump supporters more likely to prefer US-made cars. This is some sophisticated stuff. Amazing that they discovered these correlations.

Amazing that they discovered these correlations. — csalisbury

It's not the discovery that is significant, it's that messages can be targeted. If you're gay, you'll get messages about Islamic gay persecutions, if you like US cars you'll get messages about foreigners dumping cheap cars.

Yep. It's the "living in a bubble" effect - zeroing in on the particular human weakness of confirmation bias.

People will swallow your lies if they are crafted to match their expectations. The Enlightenment was all about fostering the social institutions of critical thinking. Now Facebook is ushering in the new Dark Ages. The world of checkable facts is turning into the echo chamber of your own opinion. :)

So yes. Targeted messaging is nothing new. And yet it makes a difference when the ability to target folk is increasing at an exponential rate.

It is a good sign that the story of Cambridge Analytics has been picked up and exposed in this fashion. I've just started getting the Vice channel and have been very impressed by its Gen Y journalism.

So long as freedom of speech is allowed to exist, at least there can be a reaction to match the action.

It's not the discovery that is significant, it's that messages can be targeted. If you're gay, you'll get messages about Islamic gay persecutions, if you like US cars you'll get messages about foreigners dumping cheap cars.

But how does this cash out concretely? You get some extra, tailored political ads on your facebook if your data points show you undecided? It just doesn't seem that scary to me.

Especially since cambridge analytica, running Cruz's digital campaign, lost handily to Trump. And, as the article informs us, Trump, at that time, had essentially no digital campaign. So if, in the primaries, he beat cambrdige analytica without much Big Data at all, then I'm skeptical about how big their effect really was on the general election.

Well, that's because politics is still not an online thing. Us, or rather, me "kids" like to joke around and play around with those fun meme's and such. The internet is primarily a form of escapism from reality, or at the very least tends to distort it, warp, and modify it to make us feel good.

I suppose where your mind is "changed" is when you view the TV or talk at the workplace. Even though reality is thoroughly distorted on TV, as Chomsky would say, you still find the majority of voters making up their minds through manufactured consent. Why this didn't win this time according to Hillary's wishes is still being researched and debated.

Since times have changed so much like how you mentioned with the post industrial robotic and 3D printing. The education system hasn't been keeping up with the times. They're still stuck in the industrial period but, no one seems to mention that.

The misdirection is the politics that suggest that 'we' can get our country back and revive those declining industries by separating ourselves from those other desperate powerless people, the foreigners. That what we need is strong government - which means rich men and dictators. Which sets us up for civil wars border disputes and so on. Misdirection blames the greens and liberals for all those pesky environmental regulations and the terrible cost of looking after the old the young and the infirm, and all that employment protection that stifles growth. — unenlightened

Yep.

They're still stuck in the industrial period but, no one seems to mention that. — Ariel

On the contrary, that phrase is hackneyed.

@Banno

Then who mentions it?

That may be but, no one is doing anything about it.

education is stuck in the industrial period - Google Search

So why is everyone just writing articles and not protesting in front of schools? Why are schools not being boycotted until they stop with the ignorant way of teaching as if we're still living in a time that's passed? Everyone protested against Trump but, the education system has been there for decades after the industrial revolution. People write an article here and there but, no one protests???

Me, for one.

Yep. And how long is it since you protested in front of a school? And do you think that would make a difference? Try going inside, instead, and listen to the teachers talking about how they are not able to teach because of the bullshit dumped on them by well-meaning, incompetent critics, and lack of resources.

You want to make a difference, let teachers teach.

What are you doing about it?

Also that's why I come to these forums to encourage people to take action. I'm only one person if I only did it then it would look ridiculous but, if I had 20 to 30 people in my local community doing it I'm sure it would get the attention it deserves.

I'm quite sure that what your local school really needs is someone like your good self telling them what to do - after all, doubtless you went to school and so know all about learning. And absolutely no one else is telling them what to do.

I went to school and graduated with honors?? Then went into a job market and I had no idea what to do. So what's your point exactly? I'm sorry but, I feel a bit of assholiness coming out of you?

Again, you want to make a difference, let teachers teach.

Since this thread is about the implacable forces of the economy, the relevant question is what sort of education is required for an economy that has no use for the masses , either as consumers or as producers.

And the answer is that they need to be taught ignorance and hatred, so they will be happy to wipe each other out. This is best done by starving schools of funds and stressing teachers to the max, while spreading the notion that the education system is broken, out of date etc. As long as people of good will are turning on each other, protesting that something should be done, parents against teachers, liberals against conservatives, geniuses against idiots, the job is being done. Keep up the good work chaps.

I went to school and graduated with honors?? Then went into a job market and I had no idea what to do. So what's your point exactly? I'm sorry but, I feel a bit of assholiness coming out of you? — Ariel

"Assholiness". Is that a word you learned in your honours studies?