Caution: Paying attention will raise your blood pressure
Yesterday's New York Times served up a heapin' helpin' of alarm and outrage.
Level yellow: The IRS has been adding political messages about the glories of the Bush administration tax policies onto its official notices to taxpayers. Four April 9 news releases from the tax collection agency included this little tidbit:
America has a choice: It can continue to grow the economy and create new jobs as the president's policies are doing, or it can raise taxes on American families and small businesses, hurting economic recovery and future job creation.Trust me, readers, I know something about this -- this is the worst politicization of the IRS since Nixon sicced the agency's auditors on his political enemies 30 years ago. The tax system is already teetering on the brink of a major disaster, and this administration picks now as the time to turn official IRS notices into a free medium of political campaigning. Very, very dangerous stuff. This behavior is stupid and reckless. It's got to stop immediately.
Level red: Political "scientists" are now putting human guinea pigs through MRI experiments to see what parts of their brains light up when political television ads are played before them. You talk about a distortion of the democratic principles on which this country is based -- this takes the cake. We're starting to make Orwell look like Pollyanna. Special shame goes out to the sick and desperate humans who are actually subjecting their brains to gratuitous radiation in the "cause" of perfecting the TV campaign ad. What losers.
| Posted at 1:21 AM | Permalink |
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Comments (4)
You don't think there's any legitimate interest in seeing where the brain is stimulated by political ads? I thought it was probably at least as interesting as checking out what happens to people when they see violent or sexual images.
Posted by J | April 21, 2004 9:52 AM
The people who are signing up to be guinea pigs should not be the target of your contempt. The majority of the participants probably people who are barely getting by - or not at all - and desperately need extra cash. I doubt most are willing cogs in the Orwellian machine.
Would you or I in our present life situations subject ourselves to one hour MRI? No. Would you or I if we had to make rent or buy food that week? Possibly.
Your target should be the "neuromarketers" and the researchers "who [have] studied brain responses to soft-drink advertising." While I understand your outrage at peering into people's minds to perfect political advertisements, the idea of subjecting people to hour-long MRIs to increase soft-drink sales, although less disturbing, is even more disgusting.
Posted by blake | April 21, 2004 11:54 AM
Next up- subliminal political brainwashing through television. Thank God I don't watch tv!
Posted by jinx | April 21, 2004 3:15 PM
"IRS adding political messages".
OH MY G-D.
Oh, my, G-d.
From 0 to boil in .67 seconds
Posted by pdxkona | April 23, 2004 1:06 AM