4 ms·

It seems that supernormal stimulus + profit motive = bad outcomes for society. From the snack-food industry breeding a nation of diabetic hamplanets, to the Inf

It seems that supernormal stimulus + profit motive = bad outcomes for society. From the snack-food industry breeding a nation of diabetic hamplanets, to the Infinitely Novel Pornotron that real women just can't compete with, to the teeny-boppers who are so addicted to social media that they'll publicly shit-talk their own parents[0] for internet up-cummies... I think we're inevitably gonna have to amend our idea of "freedom" to account for things that blatantly exploit human psychology. It's like the Greek philosophers said. Being truly free is synonymous with living temperately; someone who is ruled by his primal urges to coom and consoom is just a slave to himself. [0] https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/504615-michigan-candidates-daughter-urges-people-not-to-vote-for-him-in-viral https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/504615-michigan-candid...

scpedicini 6y ago
Just as one case example, snack foods have been ubiquitously available worldwide for a long time and there are countries that have somehow managed to retain a relatively healthy lifestyle without resorting to yet more government regulations. I think banning is a fairly unimaginative legislative knee-jerk response. For example what if we genetically engineered snack foods to be more like pistachios. The amount of effort required to open up a single pistachio often results in the expenditure of an equal number of calories to the actual energy content of the food itself. Thus it acts as a natural net negative caloric food. Also I'm not sure how much we should be taking from the ancient Greeks considering that pederasty was commonly practiced there.