(H/T: Noah at Danger Room)
Alden didn't intend to re-start Whiskey Tango Farley like this... but come ON, that video is just awesome. The original idea for today's post was to raise awareness of a dangerous and very annoying trend that has gained considerable popularity in recent times: Astroturfing.
Alden learned of this practice during Prof. Visser's Political Psychology class in the autumn of 2004. "Astroturfing" is the creation of a fake grassroots movement that attempts to legitimize the agenda of a political or corporate interest by making it seem way more popular than it might actually be. It is a facet of a public relations campaign that can often (brilliantly) influence and persuade voters, consumers, or policy maker in supporting the cause or product being sold by the Astroturfing entity.
But for Alden, the fear of someone attempting to Astroturf him (attempting to manipulate his views and values through covert means) just makes him ignore the various NGO-looking things that advertise on TV or in the magazines that he reads. Alden already hates commercials, and he usually mutes them or ignores them unless they are selling beer or cars.
So with the recent political (and rather astroturfing-looking) campaigns, such as one.org or wecansolveit.org, Alden chooses Rational Ignorance: don't care about it because doing so is a waste of time because the knowledge will not benefit him at all, probably.
So in this political season, Alden politely asks you all to be especially wary of advertisements. Who knows who is backing them? A political or corporate entity? A well-meaning group of politically minded citizens? Or does it even matter? Perhaps these boundaries are so blurred that we should just ignore everything politically oriented and try and find out how much Alden can get for one of his kidneys, and is it enough for a dolphin boat?
You stay classy, San Diego.
PS: The Onion also had a great little piece on the Astroturfing plague.
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