PROMPT: A Break

Daily writing prompt
Do you need a break? From what?

Yes. The manipulation. Attention merchants selling space in our heads to AI-powered rage bait creators for a magical misdirect on a scale never before seen. While people are pointing fingers of outrage, the last thin dime is being pried out of their pockets to fuel wildly depraved existences, and the robbed are left to wonder how the people they were pointing at — who they had their eyes on the entire time — managed to pull off a pickpocket.

#bamboozledbybillionaires

PROMPT: Word Over Use [i.e. Weasel Words]

What is a word you feel that too many people use?

“Pre-owned” or any other weasel word used to: a.) make people feel better about a decision they shouldn’t feel bad about in the first place. b.) squeeze more money out of the pockets of dimwitted sheeple. Especially when the people developing / using the term were the ones who (re: item “a”) established the psychological taint in the first place, and (re: item “b”) used said taint to manipulate more money out of purchasers of the competing product. [And – having maximized that manipulation – decided to back over the original victims to shake out some more dimes.]

As far as I’m concerned, users of “pre-owned” and similar weasel words should be treated, legally, in the same way as con men who bilk special needs kids or simpletons out of their life savings (because as far as I can see, that’s all they’re doing.)