Episode 264: Oregon Matters & The Truth Behind Marketing Deceptions

Hello folks, thanks for joining me on this journey. In this episode, we're going to discuss a few things that have been bothering me lately.

The Deceptive Marketing Behind Anti-Germ Wipes

Did you know that those germ-killing wipes at grocery stores aren't primarily for hygiene? Shocking, right? Their main purpose is marketing. Observing human behavior at supermarkets has taught me a lot about our habits. While many frantically clean their cart handles, they often forget about the countless hands that have touched the produce or the loaf of bread they pick up. The real reason stores offer these wipes? To show they care about your health. But in reality, it's all a marketing ploy.

The Bizarre Trend of "Hunkering Down"

Have you heard about the "hunkering down" trend? It's this belief that if you squat behind a door and declare you're "hunkered down", authorities can't enter your property for at least 24 hours. Sounds absurd, right? Yet, I've overheard this advice multiple times in public. Is this just a Salem thing or is it more widespread?

Remember, it's not about the words we use, but the actions we take. Until next time, this is Earnest, signing off.

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00:10 hello folks and thanks for tuning in this is episode number 264 Oregon matters marketing deception and hunkering down your ass to the law there are a couple of things that have been on my mind as late so naturally what better way to get something off my mind and quite possibly off my chest than to share it with you my good friends and neighbors here in my beloved Salem Oregon a place that certainly should know what I'm talking about and maybe even be just a bit stupefied as I know I am now I don't want to give you the wrong

00:59 impression about personal hygiene and if you're listening to what I'm saying right now you have demonstrated good judgment clearly demonstrating that by the simple Act of listening to my show your mind is more or less firing on all cylinders and you are probably above average in intelligence as for the rest of you well let's just say this might be a really good time to listen carefully before other people begin to refer to you as words that begin with the letter i or the letter m when you're doing something it's

01:43 important to know the real reason why you're doing it now I know that may sound so straightforward and simplistic you might be wondering why the hell I'm saying such a thing I'm saying that because I'm going to demonstrate to you how people do things which actually contradict their intentions all the time and they don't even know it a lot of people assume that the common practice of using those germ killing wipes that are offered at grocery stores to wipe the main handle of the shopping cart with really took

02:29 off when we were dealing with covid two or three years ago but actually they were around long before that but the thing is what most people don't know is that their real purpose is not so much to kill germs the real purpose is marketing one of the things that I have done for several years is watch human behavior and interaction very closely especially in public and one of the best places to do research is the supermarket it is not only one of the best places to sharpen your financial wits concerning the food con game that supermarkets play

03:18 but human behavior as well and if you are a keen Observer you would be amazed at everything you can find out about a person simply by watching them shop for groceries one of the things that I find not only annoying but extremely actually pretty depressing is when a current or nascent germaphobe usually a woman or somebody that thinks they are grabs a shopping cart and frantically some might even argue obscenely begin cleaning the cart's handle sometimes even using more than one of those little towels to do the job now I

04:07 don't have a problem with that per se it's what's done after they do that that is the problem you see if you follow that woman typically one of the first things you come to is the produce section and she does what is completely natural starts checking out and Pauling over the produce the same produce that has been pauled over by dozens of hands just within the last hour alone and she's not even giving it a second thought the same thing applies to just about all the other main food items in the store when

04:52 you pass the dessert or bread aisle on the way out you would be really surprised to know how many times that loaf of bread was picked up only to be put back down and the same thing of course applies to a greater or lesser degree to hundreds of other items in the store hopefully you can now clearly see the silly futility of frantically wiping down those card handles with the anti-germ cloths the only reason that remains then is why why do they even bother to offer them because like I said earlier it's marketing

05:38 the primary reason for offering you those little anti-germ towels is to say we care we care about your health and your family's health when in reality as they already clearly demonstrated it essentially does nothing what happened was that 20 or more years ago some marketing genius and uh I've always considered marketing to be a nice non-threatening benign term for scheming manipulations started doing it and the next thing you know every damn body is doing it so now you know what that is really all about

06:29 want to shop safely in a supermarket go get yourself a hermetically sealed astronaut suit otherwise you're just wasting your time and millions upon millions of those little germantowns going into the landfill so now let's talk about the next boatload of diluted batshit crazy I would like to point out however this is something I personally experienced hearing over and over again I'm not entirely certain people actually believe this or if some people really just have gotten to the point where they will believe just about

07:18 anything of course I'm talking about what apparently has become the totally common and accepted advice of hunkering down I have no idea where this hunkering down started of course there is the natural inclination that people have that when something becomes often repeated and very popular they naturally assume it comes from their own town they are City their state or at least their country but despite my best efforts I have not been able to find out where the hell this comes from so at this point perhaps it might be

08:07 helpful if I described what hunkering down is or at least as best as I can understand it hungering down is the belief that you somehow have the god-given right to not surrender yourself or your property to the police and or apparently any other authority if you have chosen to assume a squatted position behind a door or any other kind of structure that authorities may want to enter you can prevent them from doing so by assuming a hunkered down position and loudly stating to whatever authorities may be attempting to enter the domicile

09:00 or again whatever structure they may be attempting to enter that you are hunkered down and the authorities apparently have no other choice but to leave the premises and may not return again for a minimum of 24 hours in addition if the person that was hunkered down was frightened to the point that they defecated due to being so frightened having to tell such authorities that they were hunkered down and that they had to leave then those authorities may not return to the same domicile for at least 72 hours after which

09:49 any authorities May return to the premises but are subject to the same rule as before so if the person or persons have in fact hunkered down and told whatever authorities that they are hunkered down said authorities are once again obliged to leave the premises supposedly there is no limit on the number of times a person or persons can declare this act of hunkering down much to the great anger and dismay of police and other Civil Authorities just so you know one of the very first times I heard about this was from a man blurting out

10:39 the instructions over his cell phone to another man while I was briefly using the men's room at a Walmart in all honesty I thought it was one of the dumbest things I had ever heard and I thought that the man who was in the bathroom's stall was joking with whoever he was talking to but that was about to change just a few days later I was standing in line at Freddy's when there were two men behind me in line and basically I heard what I just told you about uh from them directly behind me one man was explaining to the other that

11:25 he was worried about ending up on the street because he hadn't paid his rent and the other man very emphatically and enthusiastically told him not to worry all he had to do was hunker down long story short I have heard this story in public at least about 10 times in the last couple of months and on top of that several people that I know have brought the subject up to me telling me that they too have heard different people having this same conversation amongst themselves honestly I have no idea is this just a

12:13 Salem thing or what you tell me you know I really wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't yet another one of those laws more or less created for the People's Republic of Portland because believe me there's a whole hell of a lot of people there who routinely hunker down until next time this is Ernest reminding you that there are no bad words just bad actions take care