Stop Calling!

One of the more unfortunate features from the world takeover of AI (in my opinion) is the near impossibility of privatizing one’s phone number.

It doesn’t matter how many DO-NOT-CALL-DO-NOT-TEXT-LEAVE-ME-ALONE-FUCK-OFF lists you’re on, sooner or later they become technologically obsolete.

Here’s what genuinely puzzles me: why do they persist? I understand that this is a somewhat illogical question, given that marketing texts are sent by bots now - see paragraph 1 above - but someone has to program the programs, no? 

What is the strategy here? For example, does it not ever occur to a political campaign manager that this egregious outreach flooding will, at some point, piss your supporters off? 

I live in California which, let’s face it, is pretty much a blue state. I feel fairly certain that Kamala Harris will win California this year, given the political inclination of this state and the fact that she’s from here. I am already a monthly campaign contributor, have purchased tee-shirts for myself and my parents (BTW: ummmm…..where are they, https://kamalaharris.com/??? I ordered them over a month ago and we’re 53 days away!)

Why oh why, then, do the campaign texts persist? She’s clearly already got my vote…if I were a different sort of person, the redundancy would have irritated me to the point of withdrawing my financial support by now. Know your demographic, people. Seriously.

And then there are the phone calls.

I understand that the callers are just doing their jobs. Way back in the olden days (before the days of smart phones if anyone remembers such a time) I worked for a telemarketing company that did surveys for everything from movies to political polling. I know the job ain’t easy, but the rule was ALWAYS try twice and move on. Not try over and over again and leave endless messages and, if the number you’re calling from is blocked, call from another. What do they think I’m going to say? “Oh, thank you so much for not moving on when I don’t respond! Now what can I buy from you?”

It's just…can’t we even have agency over our own phone numbers anymore? At what point has “no” stopped being a complete sentence?

I don't get it.