"Would you like to hear a pro-Trump piece of propaganda?" If you say yes, they tell you. If you say no, they move on. But what they don't do is lead with the pr

"Would you like to hear a pro-Trump piece of propaganda?" If you say yes, they tell you. If you say no, they move on. But what they don't do is lead with the propaganda. You can get mired in the details of proper categorization and the fact that people will undoubtedly try to hack the system to create communication without consent. But try not to, and see what I'm trying to say. Billboards are an example of communication without consent. There you are driving on the freeway, and this brightly lit picture of a half-naked woman is selling you perfume. This is not something you just don't notice, or choose not to allow to influence your mind. I would argue it is exactly like having someone shove a cupcake down in your mouth - and I daresay I'd take the cupcake. Regarding information, times have changed. In the past, in small rural towns where the biggest thing that happens is when the carnival sets up once a year at the end of summer, sure. You'd probably re-read the Sears catalog just to keep from being bored. In that information-starved environment I don't think "consensual communication" is a problem. That is not the world we live in. Sadly, computer mediated communication greatly amplifies the moral hazards of lying, of speaking for money not for conviction, and of exercising cruelty. Spam is part of it, surveillance capitalism another. So much of my interaction is paid for by the information that is forcibly shoved into my eyeballs as I try to do something else! So, yeah, I'd like to have such an agent looking out for me. No, I personally wouldn't want to be always insulated from ideas I disagree with; but nor do I want to be bombarded by the exact same claim, with the exact same argument, that I already decided was bogus. I don't want spam, or robocalls, or to be asked if I've accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior. Amen.