Political fundraising text messages I might not block
Haven't they ever heard of playing hard to get?
I thought I had election season figured out. I’ve mastered the art of ignoring pleading emails from politicians—I can do it without reading a single word besides UNSUBSCRIBE. It took years and many deleted appeals from the Office of Adam Schiff, but I was able to figure out how to get through elections with a clean inbox.
But now they’ve gone and changed tactics on me! This year, I’ve been overwhelmed by text messages asking for my dollar and my support (in that order). Campaign fundraising texts are not new, but it feels like 2024 is the year they’ve overtaken email in pervasiveness.
It sucks.
Through years of training, most of our brains believe that text messages require immediate attention. The sound of a text alert forces a Pavlovian reaction. We simply must see whatever personal drama, hilarious meme, or pharmacy update has come across our phone. This is pretty convenient for the political-industrial complex, which suddenly realized it has all of our phone numbers and an unlimited data plan.
Even worse: politicians are really bad at texting! They’re super long-winded. For some reason, they include random photos of themselves with every message. And if you block them, they’ll just text you from a different number. I imagine this is what it would be like to date Andrew Tate.
Here are the kinds of texts they ought to be sending if they really want my attention.
Take my money, politics!