3 ms·

> right now, ads serve as a redistribution mechanism If you wanted to redistribute wealth to the global poor, forcing everyone (poor and not-poor alike) to dow

> right now, ads serve as a redistribution mechanism If you wanted to redistribute wealth to the global poor, forcing everyone (poor and not-poor alike) to download massive, useless megabytes of untargeted advertising, malware, and phishing scams is not the most efficient way to do it. This is defending the current broken and destructive ad regime on the basis of a distant third-order effect.

icebraining 11y ago
What you've wrote is almost a perfect example of the Nirvana fallacy. Yes, the current ad system is inefficient, regularly disruptive and even occasionally destructive. But it's here and it's redistributing, while the proponents of alternatives don't even mention that aspect, let alone have a working solution. And it might be a "distance third-order effect" to you, but as someone who lives in a country where credit cards are rare and the average wage is under $15k/y, it's not as abstract to me.
- 13thLetter 11y ago
  > Yes, the current ad system is inefficient, regularly disruptive and even occasionally destructive. But it's here and it's redistributing, Talk about fallacies! Based on that kind of argument, you can defend any awful, destructive policy if it benefits someone, somewhere. > as someone who lives in a country where credit cards are rare and the average wage is under $15k/y, it's not as abstract to me. I'm sorry, but I can't seem to find the contract I signed where I agreed to be tracked by giant corporations and choke all my devices to the point of nonfunctionality with malware and ads just so a stranger wouldn't have to pay for content. Maybe you have a copy?
  - icebraining 11y ago
    You seem to be assuming a lot from my posts; please don't. I'm not saying we should keep the existing system, and I'm not saying you should have to accept tracking. What I'm saying is that bad_user has a point regarding redistribution, and that anti-advertising advocates should deal with it instead of whistling and pretending it'll only affect Buzzfeed, like the post I originally replied to did.
    - 13thLetter 11y ago
      > What I'm saying is that bad_user has a point regarding redistribution Sure, and what I'm saying is that it's not a good point for the reasons I've stated already. I'll add that if you deliberately wanted to turn people against redistribution of wealth, you could hardly do better than to associate it with the intrusive web advertising that everyone hates!

icebraining 11y ago

What you've wrote is almost a perfect example of the Nirvana fallacy. Yes, the current ad system is inefficient, regularly disruptive and even occasionally destructive. But it's here and it's redistributing, while the proponents of alternatives don't even mention that aspect, let alone have a working solution. And it might be a "distance third-order effect" to you, but as someone who lives in a country where credit cards are rare and the average wage is under $15k/y, it's not as abstract to me.

13thLetter 11y ago
> Yes, the current ad system is inefficient, regularly disruptive and even occasionally destructive. But it's here and it's redistributing, Talk about fallacies! Based on that kind of argument, you can defend any awful, destructive policy if it benefits someone, somewhere. > as someone who lives in a country where credit cards are rare and the average wage is under $15k/y, it's not as abstract to me. I'm sorry, but I can't seem to find the contract I signed where I agreed to be tracked by giant corporations and choke all my devices to the point of nonfunctionality with malware and ads just so a stranger wouldn't have to pay for content. Maybe you have a copy?
- icebraining 11y ago
  You seem to be assuming a lot from my posts; please don't. I'm not saying we should keep the existing system, and I'm not saying you should have to accept tracking. What I'm saying is that bad_user has a point regarding redistribution, and that anti-advertising advocates should deal with it instead of whistling and pretending it'll only affect Buzzfeed, like the post I originally replied to did.
  - 13thLetter 11y ago
    > What I'm saying is that bad_user has a point regarding redistribution Sure, and what I'm saying is that it's not a good point for the reasons I've stated already. I'll add that if you deliberately wanted to turn people against redistribution of wealth, you could hardly do better than to associate it with the intrusive web advertising that everyone hates!