Distinguishing Between Marketing Tricks and Reality

If you have been attempting to sell a product or sell a dream, who have been the buyers?

Which people have been paying the most attention, and are they really interested in what you have to offer or do they intend to exploit you?

How do you tell the difference between a real dream, the products of real dreams and the products of fake dreams?

How do you define a dream?

How do you define a product?

How do you define a trick?

Perhaps you are seeking to buy a trick, or to learn a trick.

Perhaps you are seeking to buy Trickery Today, or at least a subscription to it. 

If you have had a dream of improving the world, or even a dream of destroying it, what sort of person are you, really and truly, and what sort of world do you believe to exist?

Perhaps you are wondering whether Trickery Today is a product or a real dream or a fake dream or something else entirely.

What have been your experiences of news services, philosophical services, illusions, delusions and confusions?

If you mostly spend your time thinking up ways to entice people to buy stuff and/or pay for experiences they neither need nor can afford, what sort of person do you regard yourself to be, really and truly?

If you are actually only interested in making money, whether in a non-boring way or otherwise, what sort of person does that indicate you happen to be, really and truly?

If you actually only want to spend your time buying stuff, and you have enough money to do so, how do you define reality?

What do you already know about the intended purpose of Trickery Today?

Perhaps you are unaware of that purpose.

Perhaps you are not particularly skilled in assessing intentions at all.

How do you distinguish between a despicable practice and an empathic one?

Perhaps you believe there is no such experience as real empathy.

Perhaps you are not aware that Trickery Today is brought you with real empathy.

Perhaps you are employed by a political organisation or a lobbying firm or a public relations outfit or an advertising agency or a government department or a criminal gang or a multinational corporation or an unnecessary shop or a start up company or a religious group or a university.

Perhaps you already have advanced skills in the evil art of selfish persuasion.

Perhaps you use marketing tricks to win friendships, attract romantic partners and dupe family members into supporting your whims. 

If you want to learn those tricks here, ha ha ha.

Tricks only work on the gullible.

The gullible are vulnerable.

Distinguishing between marketing tricks and reality begins with the assessment of stated and unstated intentions.

Perhaps you are unaware that fake expressions of kindness are really expressions of contempt.

All tricksters are disreputable, in reality.

If you would actually enjoy using and abusing excessive power for a long time, and even exploiting the adulation of fame and/or wealth for predatory purposes, what sort of person does that indicate you happen to be, really and truly?

Perhaps you regard weakness as a sign of unworthiness.

Perhaps you regard cruelty as inevitable.

Perhaps you regard bullying as normal.

What is your acquaintance with misinterpretations?

What is your acquaintance with treachery, and from whose point of view?

Perhaps you are really and truly misanthropic.

Perhaps you never have regrets after deceiving strangers, or even gullible acquaintances.

Perhaps you regard humankind as mainly an unkind crowd.

Perhaps you regard humanity as irredeemably corrupt rather than simply ignorant.

You probably do not really know how to distinguish between real sympathy, fake sympathy, real empathy and fake empathy, and possibly do not even wish to do so.

What do you already know about tricks and other expressions of deception?

When have you deceived yourself about something or someone, and why? 

How often are you in denial about reality?

You probably do not know how to distinguish between the grandiosity of self-promoting donating, the coerced giving associated with psychological abuse and harassment, the transient sympathy of superficial charity and the perpetual empathy of authentic philanthropy.

What do you promote, and why?

Who do you attempt to persuade, and how, and why?

What do you prefer to impart, and for whose benefit?

What do you bestow with all your heart, and to whom?

There are no tricks associated with truly good intentions. 

Real benevolence is not associated with marketing and its tricks in any way whatsoever.

What do you already know about unethical marketing and sales techniques?

When, if ever, is marketing, and its tricks, not a despicable practice? 

Marketing is mostly about persuasion, including deceptive persuasion.

What do you prefer to confer in various situations, and why?

How, if at all, do you attempt to maintain high standards of conduct, in yourself and in other people?

How do you ascertain the standards of conduct to attain and maintain?

Perhaps you are too afraid to acknowledge the reality of your own vulnerability.

When, if ever, have you been treated as though you do not really matter to an organisation and/or its employees/representatives/members/shareholders? 

When have you failed to take a humanitarian approach towards yourself?

What do you believe it means to be generous, including towards yourself?

How do you express care, and towards whom?

When have you attempted to express care but then been prevented from doing so?

What have you discovered about bullies, charlatans, unjust social hierarchies and immoral ways to make money?

Unscrupulous political organisations and unscrupulous 'charitable' organisations abuse the vulnerable.  They targeted the powerless and gullible as potential donors, voters, volunteers, victims and/or 'beneficiaries'.

How do you tell the difference between a real beneficiary and a fake beneficiary?

How do you tell the difference between a real benefactor and a fake benefactor?

If you have been attempting to improve the world, how can you be sure you have been doing so realistically?

Perhaps you regard the gullible and otherwise vulnerable as contemptible.

Perhaps you regard philanthropy mainly in monetary terms, rather than in terms of morality.

Perhaps you feel ashamed of your (lack of) morals and/or your (lack of) money.

You are likely to be a vulnerable, gullible persons, even if you regard yourself as otherwise.

When have you behaved deceptively in order to make money?

How often have you faked a smile?

How often have you pretended to be more confident than you actually happened to be?

How often have you deceived people, including yourself, into believing you are happy?

What do you know about real happiness?

Real altruism is not tribal.  It is universal.

How, then, can it be reasonably expressed by anyone?

What have you discovered about real philanthropists as genuine, well-informed, kind, egalitarian people with sensible approaches to the acquisition, use and distribution of information and other resources?

To feel vulnerable is to feel defenceless, and possibly even friendless.

To embarrass and/or deliberately confuse the vulnerable is wrong.  It is bullying.

How often have you unjustly or otherwise misguidedly attempted to convince people into believing they would be happier if they followed your advice?

How often have your physical and/or verbal expressions of affection actually been fake?

How often have people misinterpreted your true intentions?

What have been your experiences of the promotion and selling of products, services, experiences and ideas, both as a practitioner and as a recipient? 

Perhaps you believe it is normal to practice marketing tricks. 

Perhaps you enjoy taking advantage of people's curiosity, gullibility, admiration, affection and/or kindness for your own selfish purposes.

Many real philanthropists have very little power.  They are not aggressively selling anything.  They are simply attempting to uphold the truth.

The people most requiring admonishment feel no shame.  They are deluded and proud.  They are shameless.

That, unfortunately, is the reality.  They have no real compassion.

To hold the shameless to account for abusing the vulnerable is absolutely necessary. 

What is the most virtuous and effective strategy for doing so?

How do you know you are not shameless?

How do you know you are not obnoxious?

How do you know you are not cruel?

How do you know you are not evil?

Shameless people act either alone or in groups to express power and feel powerful.  They are despicable.

How do you know you do not have a horrible personality?

Perhaps you regard yourself as remarkably intelligent and frequently use your wits to convince people you are more knowledgeable than is actually the case.

Perhaps you do not really care about corrupt practices, as long as you are a beneficiary.

Perhaps you enjoy promoting a false image of yourself as knowledgeable, intelligent, caring, confident and trustworthy.

Perhaps you are unaware that the image is false.

Is any image real?

Is any claimed or perceived value real?

Perhaps you regard yourself as physically attractive and frequently use that belief in yourself to lure people into acting as you desire.

What is your acquaintance with magical thinking?

Perhaps you are unaware that much marketing is associated with magical thinking, not reasonable thoughtfulness.

Unscrupulous political campaigns have much in common with unscrupulous strategies for funding purported charities.

How do images, whether visual or entirely imaginary, convince you to think and feel and act in particular ways?

How have you been influenced by words and music? 

Marketing frequently tricks people, including marketing practitioners, into believing the unbelievable.  That is particularly the case when people believe the unbelievable as a matter of habit.

Tricksters aggressively persuade the gullible that aggression is not aggressive.

Good people peacefully inform everyone that aggression is evil.

What do you know for certain about political marketing tricks?

As corrupt politics has always been shaped by marketing tricks, in much the same way as corrupt religion and corrupt business, the only way to prevent corruption is by identifying those tricks, warning the gullible and hold the perpetrators to account.

But how is it possible to hold the perpetrators to account without the power to do so?

Who are you in terms of legal status, and how do you know?

What is the legal status of the groups and organisations with which you are directly and indirectly associated, and how do you know?

Perhaps you do not know much about legal matters.

Perhaps you are even unaware that all legislation is an expression of politics.

Perhaps you have never thought much about the fact that legislation is implemented or disregarded through the official and unofficial, political provision of public resources.

If you know for certain that governments and other organisations do not really care about you, where is your evidence?

You may have no intention of developing your interpersonal and philanthropic attributes as a leader.

You may have no desire to improve the political experiences of vulnerable people.

You may blame the weak for their own suffering.

You may admire the powerful and famous for the prestige they convey.

You may have no interest in learning how the powerful cause, exacerbate and perpetuate suffering.

You may have no interest in helping to control the excesses of the powerful.

You may have no interest in protecting the powerless from harm.

You may have no interest in the accuracy or inaccuracy of your own assumptions.

But why would anyone have no interest in such matters, except through feelings of powerlessness or superiority?

When people feel helpless, they are willing to believe help has arrived even when harm has arrived instead, or they have lost hope entirely.

There is much indifference to suffering within dysfunctional groups and organisations.

Perhaps you express indifference mainly as a form of self-preservation, at least from your own point of view.

Unfortunately, there is much cruelty in the world.  It is directly and indirectly encouraged by corrupt and incompetent government practices. 

If you are feeling depressed or anxious or both, you may have no interest in improving the quality of your metacognition.

Without a clear awareness of self-awareness, a clear understanding of reality is impossible.  This especially applies to social, political, psychological and economic reality.

Perhaps you are already aware that much marketing is disguised as entertainment, even in the form of news.

As a philanthropist has imparted vital knowledge for your benefit here, you may or may not feel under any obligation to reciprocate.

Perhaps you have nothing of adequate value to offer in return.

If you are seeking to feel empowered, welcome.

If you enjoy feeling superior, beware.  Good people understand reality.  They are likely to regard you as a trickster.

What have you discovered about the constitution solution?

If you have not yet discovered it, please do so as soon as possible, at least if you are a good person.

You have been granted a very brief chance to learn about the constitution solution, at no direct cost to you except in terms of time and effort.  You may wish to acknowledge this opportunity as a philanthropic gift.

If you are seeking to reciprocate in any way, please pay here.

There is much work to do and many resources required, with or without assistance from Hieronymus Bosch, Edvard Munch, Friedrich Nietzsche, Henrik Ibsen, Socrates or any other long departed persons.

Reality can only be improved through the harmonious interplay of beauty, understanding and magnificence.

Reality can only be understood by observing it accurately and expressing it ethically and imaginatively, through well-informed kindness.