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Just came across this article about the use of behavioral psychology in politics. I was immediately reminded of the Hidden Persuaders, a 1950s book by Vance Packard on the earliest days of psychological advertising. Looking back, Packard comes off a little paranoid (in fact, that was his specialty) especially when he swallows ideas like women’s menstrual states affecting their likelihood to buy a product and the belief that housewives fall into a catatonic state in supermarkets. Despite that, it’s still interesting and shows how scary the world of the 1950s could seem.

Just came across this article about the use of behavioral psychology in politics. I was immediately reminded of the Hidden Persuaders, a 1950s book by Vance Packard on the earliest days of psychological advertising. Looking back, Packard comes off a little paranoid (in fact, that was his specialty) especially when he swallows ideas like women’s menstrual states affecting their likelihood to buy a product and the belief that housewives fall into a catatonic state in supermarkets. Despite that, it’s still interesting and shows how scary the world of the 1950s could seem.

Now as we all know, just moving things to the recycle bin doesn’t get rid of them completely. I would advise going to control panel, add/remove programs and selecting ‘regime’ and clicking ‘uninstall’. [More at the Guardian]

Now as we all know, just moving things to the recycle bin doesn’t get rid of them completely. I would advise going to control panel, add/remove programs and selecting ‘regime’ and clicking ‘uninstall’.

[More at the Guardian]

“It would amount to making a statement that the constitution was designed not to adapt but to preserve a vision of America rooted in the distant past, when the proverbial yeoman farmer could hardly imagine the existence of super-antibiotics or the MRI machine—to say nothing of the huge sums of money patients and insurers would pay for the use of them.”
— Jonathan Cohn on the Supreme Court striking down the healthcare act. Conservatives often act as though they understand history, but I don’t think they do. [TNR]

Here’s that China ad in full. It’s going to be running in Times Square and on CNN, but curiously not on YouTube as far as I can tell.

My favorite part is Chinese space travel, as if to warn puny Americans that no where is safe.

If US states were countries...

The Economist created a map showing which countries US state’s economies are equivalent to.

For example: California’s is as big as Italy, New York as Australia and West Virginia as Iraq…

“I want you to know you have my support. But please look into protection for your family. An attempt on you could bring the republic down.”
— Hyperbole of the day: Glenn Beck to Sarah Palin on violent language in US politics.
“He would defend people down on their luck, or people he felt were wrongly accused, prostitutes and showgirls. He often took no money or accepted barter.”
— From Esquire’s profile of Harry Reid. An unfortunate pairing of sentences.

If politics was like this more often, a lot more people would watch C-Span (oh and hopefully be interested in what was going on in Congress or [insert your legislature {if you’re fortunate enough to have one} here]).

thedailywhat:

Excoriation of the Day: Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) lashes out at Republicans (namely Rep. Peter King) responsible for unscrupulously voting down a bill that would have secured $7.4 billion dollars for the medical expenses of 9/11 emergency responders who became ill in the line of duty.

[h/t: pk.]

The second most awkward video you’ll see this week: David Cameron and Mark Zuckerberg have a chat about using Facebook to save public money. Because, yeah, that’ll work.

David Cameron: Hey guys lets slash loads of budgets! [90 likes]

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