Google Reads Someone's Mind

[elfs]

This morning, following a link in which one right-wing whacko makes the very whacko argument that conservatives are destined to win because liberals believe in abortion and are therefore deliberately thinning their own ranks, leaving the conservatives in the majority (an argument summarily torn apart by another conservative who points out that women seeking abortions are more likely than not to identify as "conservative", which is why the procedure needs to be outlawed-- I love watching infighting like that), my eyes wandered over to the right hand sidebar where Ads By Google sat.

Now, the Ads By Google theory is that Google has a good idea what kind of people would want to view this page and what they would want to buy and tries to put up advertisements accordingly. So, it's no suprise that the first three ads were RepublicanShop.com ("Annoy the Liberals"), RepublicanPeopleMeet.com ("1000's of Beautiful Republican Women"), and GregoireLost.com ("She's Not My Governor"-- amazing that they're beating on that on a national scale), came the pleasant surprise: SchoolUniforms.com ("Plaid Skirts & Jumpers in Stock School uniforms, Scouts & Team wear").

It's a legitimate site. Not porn at all, a plain old school uniform mass production company. I have all sorts of theories as to why Google would associate school uniforms with conservative writers, but most of them are fit only for the fiction page.

Comments

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

Actually, there are groups among the religious conservatives that advocate "outbreeding the heathen."

Statistically speaking, Christian fundamentalists have a higher birth rate than mainstream or non Christians.

[sierra-nevada.livejournal.com]

The question after sheer numbers is: how many of their offspring continue to believe the whacked things their parents believe, and how many escape into the blueness of cities?

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

Not a clue. Especially since I used to be one of that crew, but have since becoming a recovering fundamentalist.

I think a fair number will continue in the faith. The ones who fall away are the ones like me, who couldn't truly believe but tried really hard. They lost me in my teens, when I was told not only was I not saved, but God didn't even WANT to save people like me (GLBT). I tried for many years after that, but never believed as I had when I was a child.

OTOH, most of my classmates who were raised real Christian (as opposed to Country-club Christian--we go because it's good for our image) are still in the church and still believe.

[rapier.livejournal.com]

Hey-hey! Recovering fundamentalist here too. It's been, oh, nine years now since I broke it to my parents that It Just Wasn't For Me(tm).

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

Not quite an outbreak of helpless giggling here, but I'd wonder if the kids of Republicans are more likely to be at schools which require uniforms.

And I suspect the Google advert algorithms are a little simple-minded. You'd think they would have noticed the way the eBay adverts are always inviting you to buy X at eBay, where X is something you searched for.

Buy Death Stars at eBay.

So that's where DV went wrong, trying to build his own....

[halloranelder.livejournal.com]

I love the way your mind works, and have since I first discovered the Journal Entries in 92 (eek! Is it that long ago?).

I hope you don't mind but I've added you to my friends list.