3 ms·

> Adtech is a cancer and it's time to cut it out using every legislative and regulatory option we have. That attitude is the problem: why do we go straight fro

> Adtech is a cancer and it's time to cut it out using every legislative and regulatory option we have. That attitude is the problem: why do we go straight from "This is a problem!" to the government? Aren't there solutions other than making things illegal? Is it just because making things illegal is easier than talking to our neighbors and friends, and giving them peaceful solutions to their problems, doing business locally, and refusing to do business through online ads that use techniques that lead to results like this? People who call for insurrection are usually plenty aware of where to get things like this anyway. It's a bad look for Facebook, sure; but are these ads likely to do real harm? I doubt it. There's plenty of time for sensible people to make a difference without creating more anger by trying to make even more restrictive laws.

arcticbull 6y ago
One of the major specific roles of government in a civil society is to maintain and establish the rules of fair play which then allow for a functioning market economy. This represents an inherent compromise.We recognize and appreciate the value that integration and scale provides, and we use the scale of the government to keep it in check. This isn’t just about going out and talking to people who disagree with you. Part of the issue is that the news bubbles that have been created out of news and stories and conspiracies that algorithms know we will react to chip away at our ability to have those conversations with each other. You know, I watch a lot of Fox News, I have some deeply conservative friends and acquaintances and dude they live in a parallel universe. We need the government to collapse those universes together so we can have those conversations in the first place. The ads to harm because they reinforce the structural walls between universes which prevent the necessary conversation from taking place. It’s pretty bad out there dude.
- JasonFruit 6y ago
  I disagree on your first paragraph, but that's less critical than my disagreement with your second and third. Don't you think that some personal engagement could help bring that parallel universe — and yours — back into sync with reality? You say the algorithms chip away at our ability to have conversations, but I see the opposite: real life has a stronger effect on people's perceptions of truth than on-line bubbles, and can help reassert reality.
  - arcticbull 6y ago
    The role of government is literally to establish rules for fair play in a free market economy. Like that’s the point of the United States code :-) that’s what being a rule of law country means. Regarding the rest I’m not saying don’t talk to them, By all means invite crazy Susie over for dinner. Have those conversations. It’s tilting at windmills as long as they continue to get their reality defined by what they’re going to react to online and in media. Humans aren’t really able to process an objective reality, we live in a world of abstractions. Our preconceived notions of what the universe and objective reality are define are personal realities. Reality is all around each and everyone of us, if objective reality were all it took, we wouldn’t be having this conversation in the first place.

arcticbull 6y ago

One of the major specific roles of government in a civil society is to maintain and establish the rules of fair play which then allow for a functioning market economy. This represents an inherent compromise.We recognize and appreciate the value that integration and scale provides, and we use the scale of the government to keep it in check. This isn’t just about going out and talking to people who disagree with you. Part of the issue is that the news bubbles that have been created out of news and stories and conspiracies that algorithms know we will react to chip away at our ability to have those conversations with each other. You know, I watch a lot of Fox News, I have some deeply conservative friends and acquaintances and dude they live in a parallel universe. We need the government to collapse those universes together so we can have those conversations in the first place. The ads to harm because they reinforce the structural walls between universes which prevent the necessary conversation from taking place. It’s pretty bad out there dude.

JasonFruit 6y ago
I disagree on your first paragraph, but that's less critical than my disagreement with your second and third. Don't you think that some personal engagement could help bring that parallel universe — and yours — back into sync with reality? You say the algorithms chip away at our ability to have conversations, but I see the opposite: real life has a stronger effect on people's perceptions of truth than on-line bubbles, and can help reassert reality.
- arcticbull 6y ago
  The role of government is literally to establish rules for fair play in a free market economy. Like that’s the point of the United States code :-) that’s what being a rule of law country means. Regarding the rest I’m not saying don’t talk to them, By all means invite crazy Susie over for dinner. Have those conversations. It’s tilting at windmills as long as they continue to get their reality defined by what they’re going to react to online and in media. Humans aren’t really able to process an objective reality, we live in a world of abstractions. Our preconceived notions of what the universe and objective reality are define are personal realities. Reality is all around each and everyone of us, if objective reality were all it took, we wouldn’t be having this conversation in the first place.