Monday, May 18, 2026

Episode 283: Privilege Requires Usufruct!

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I completely realize that my insistence on correcting other people's mistakes is a complete mistake on my part. Still. I do it. For me, forget about capital, and concentrate on usufruct. It's something I do here in this Episode 283: Privilege Requires Usufruct!

In this episode, I read from: A Merriam-Webster online dictionary entry; my computer's quickie dictionary; excerpts from three writings by Karl Marx (which, trust me, are easily searched for); William Rosen's book, The Most Powerful Idea in the World: A Story of Steam, Industry, and Invention; a Wikipedia entry for Richard Trevithick; tiny bits from Tim Wu's book, The Age of Extraction: How Tech Platforms Conquered the Economy and Threaten Our Future Prosperity; Henry George's 1879 book, Progress & Poverty; and Upton Sinclair's 1934 book, I, Candidate for Governor, And How I Got Licked.

Musically, I play: a new intro with KMFDM backing Chris Ryan venting about how he really fucking hates ads. Julie & Rolf & The Campfire Gang sing us out with "Over the Rainbow."

Monday, May 4, 2026

Episode 282: Many Voices Make Lies Work

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Modern advertising and military propaganda efforts share quite a few common elements. How many they share should surprise and even shock us all. I explore this topic in this Episode 282: Many Voices Make Lies Work.

In this episode, I read from: two articles, the first published on The Daily Kos in 2012, the second on Salon in 2017; a tiny bit from Tim Wu's The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads; and a bit more from Annalee Newitz's Stories Are Weapons: Psychological Warfare and the American Mind. I also briefly synopsize the psychological phenomena of both Source Amnesia and the Repetition Effect, something I originally heard psychologist Ray Hyman outline in Episode 108 of Skepticality.

I play: Pee Wee Herman bemoaning everyone's big buts. Musically, I play: Mr. Ceglowski noting what advertisers are backed by KMFDM; and Julie & Rolf & The Campfire Gang close us out with "Over The Rainbow".

Oh, and if you're inclined to the help I mention in this episode, here's an eleven-year-old link to Episode 34.