The other night late night talk show host and comedian Jimmy Kimmel conducted a taste test to see how folks would react to the new $7 cup of coffee, Starbucks was introducing. The only hitch to the test was each person filmed was given a cup of regular coffee for each sample. Time and time again we saw folks talk about how one cup was better than the other. It was funny seeing how people would go into elaborate explanations about how one cup of coffee had a richer, more creamier feel than the next.

Because all of us watching were in on the joke we got a good laugh. We all applauded when the crazy looking biker cat at the end who looked like he would be the one most easily fooled wound up being the most perceptive, brutally honest and on point. Without hesitation, he said that both cups of coffee tasted the same. Homeboy was not about to be taken in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxlGI4OzeBk

While the Jimmy Kimmel Starbucks taste test was fun and games, it was hard not to wonder how often and how many of us are taken in by sophisticated, highly scripted scenarios where folks are sitting in a room watching us react and  getting a good laugh as we literally ‘buy’ into’ whatever BS they’re selling…

Say what you will, but there was a cadre of people including; TV news anchors, big box retailers, baby kissing politicians who are all in on the joke of us being mass manipulated.. So yeah, many of us won’t buy that $7 dollar cup of coffee, but that’s only because they got us for so much more..It could be the War on Drugs,  War on Immigrants, Weapons of Mass Destruction, Black Friday sales of 60″ HDTVs for $100 if you camp out for 3 days in the freezing rain,tax breaks for billionaires  will lead to the creation of more jobs, Reverse Racism, George Bush being a compassionate conservative, Barack Obama being a masterful political chess playing progressive, Donald Trump having real hair, Drake being the first major artist torap and sing, the Dallas Cowboys being America’s team.