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How To Use Stress To Persuade This is the most brilliant video by Amazing Polly I have seen to date. The oldest advertising trick in the book is to find a psychological pain point in the target that the seller's product addresses, stomp on that pain point with stories and case studies, then twist the knife saying it's even worse that anyone thought and providing even more stories and case studies, then offer the product as a solution. I never thought of this as inducing stress until Polly's video above, but that's exactly what it is. And, just to make sure there's science behind it, she hammers home studies that show people buy more when they are stressed. Another advertising point that is taught everywhere is how to frame a "call to action" (which generally means inducing the target to buy something, but can mean other actions). The element most often used is a ticking clock, which is called scarcity. But time is not the only scarcity. After scaring the piss out of people about their problem, saying it's even worse than they imagined, then saying there is hope (a magic product that makes it all go away) and painting that picture, you tell them that there are limited supplies of the product, there is on a certain amount of time to get it, the window of opportunity is evaporating, and so on. Also go after the price that way. In other words, if you want to manipulate people like an evil genius, scare them then provide hope and whet their appetites (these two turn off their rational thinking), then induce massive stress with scarcity. Social media giants are using more sophisticated techniques like gaslighting and the Alice in Wonderland effect to induce a psychological state called "reactance," which induces stress. See the video for what these things mean if you are not familiar with them. Also, note that the outrage culture is all about stress. Once people are stressed enough, you can get them to do what you want by properly framing offers and calls to action. Do you want them to buy something? Join a movement? Call their congressman? Petition to have a person lose his or her job? Etc. No problem. Stress is your friend if you learn how to induce it... Tech giants like to advertise a lot around stress. And when soda pop or hand cream or breakfast food companies balk at having their ads shown near huge social stressors like acute bigotry and so on, the tech giants censor their users and don't provide anyone with clear rules, causing even more stress, thus serving even more ads. It's good work if you can get it. Let's not forget Google's mission slogan for most of its existence: Don't be evil. Google has formally stopped using it. Money and power works better for them now. It's less stressful--for them. Michael

I'm new to this forum (and forums in general) so If I'm posting in the wrong place, just let me know. This area seemed like a good general starting point. My question is fairly broad, and is this: What are the best techniques which Objectivists (or any reasonable people) use to not be overwhelmed by the general insanity one comes across on a daily basis in the news? For instance, today I read that a former jailed banker is going to paid $104 million by the IRS for informing on his former employer, a Swiss bank. I find this sort of thing very discouraging, as I (and millions like me) make great efforts to make an honest living through constructive work - and usually an not rewarded for it. In a broader sense, the question is, on a day to day basis, beyond reading a great novel like Fountainhead or Atlas, how do good people continue to find the motivation to do good work in a society where good is ignored and evil (or frivolous or whatever) is so richly rewarded? Thanks for your thoughts on this.

Alex Jones has a bunch of people helping him do the Alex Jones show. So it's not always Alex Jones doing the Alex Jones show. Alex Jones admitted that sometimes they do a better job than he does. I selected this video because: * It's not AJ doing the show. Someone disliked AJ's voice. And often AJ gets sidetracked by rants. * It's only 6 minutes. Some people dislike long videos. * This AJC video packs more information per minute than most. It starts with a very direct statement. video 5:58