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Spoken like a true advertiser. The reality is that psychologically manipulating people into buying things by forcing yourself as a middleman into every busines
by imiric 9mo ago
Spoken like a true advertiser.
The reality is that psychologically manipulating people into buying things by forcing yourself as a middleman into every business transaction and industry on the planet is not just morally despicable, but opportunistic, exploitative, and many other negative descriptors I can't quite put into words.
But this isn't even the truly insidious and harmful part. That is reserved for the fact that the same systems used to get people to consume, are also used to manipulate them into thinking and acting in ways that someone, somewhere, could potentially benefit from. So anyone with a negligible amount of resources and effort has the ability to influence individuals, groups of people, societies, and entire countries, to buy into their agenda by pushing their propaganda. After all, modern advertising uses the same propaganda tactics pioneered by the likes of E. Bernays a century ago.
It should be clear to any sane adult that this psychological manipulation is directly responsible for the corruption of democratic processes and sociopolitical instability we've seen around the world for the past decade+.
And then, if all this wasn't enough, these advertising leeches are doing this by violating digital rights, abusing our privacy, corrupting every entertainment experience, and utilizing every nasty trick they can legally get away with to steal our data, and get rich from it via dark data broker markets in perpetuity.
So, please, spare me the bullshit excuse that this is "just" advertising, and that it's a public good that helps poor small businesses reach customers. Catalogs and contextual advertising have existed for decades, but that wasn't enough for these greedy bastards. Humanity is objectively far worse off because of this, and the adtech industry has played a huge role in making it happen. Everyone who has worked on this tech should be ashamed of themselves, even though I'm sure they don't think twice about it, and enjoy the sight of their bank account statements.
- satvikpendem 9mo agoPeople say all this but have no alternative solution.
- robotpepi 9mo agothat's fair, but the sentence "marketing kills the humanity" remains true.
- imiric 9mo agoAh, yes. Only chefs should be food critics, and every product reviewer should propose ways to improve the product. There is no alternative solution to greed. Better solutions will become viable when there is less greed. Current political and economic systems allow the greediest people to profit the most.
- satvikpendem 9mo agoSure, but then why even comment in the first place? It's a foregone conclusion.
- somebehemoth 9mo agoOne cannot criticize anything ever if they don't have a better solution? You can't think of any benefit to people collectively discussing their seemingly unsolvable problem? You don't think that people discussing a problem that seems to have no solution have ever come up with a solution?? All problems in history were solved by individuals who immediately had the correct answer without any discussion?!! How many problems were solved by shutting down discussions do you think? Are we thinking stifling conversations causes more problem solving?!
- satvikpendem 9mo agoBut the commenter I initially replied to is not discussing in good faith, they're diatribing and soapboxing. That is why my question was framed as rhetorical, not to shut down actual discussion.