4 ms·

Regulation is freedom. Think of ads powering the web as current day's lead in gas.

• ahallock 9mo ago
  Regulation is freedom? Peace is war, too, I guess.
  • AmbroseBierce 9mo ago
    Regulation took away your freedom when it took asbestos out of your house right? Please be serious.
    • b112 9mo ago
      Viewing this thread, and the back and forth of it, I need to say something. Advertising sucks in this thread too. By that I mean, people are not speaking plainly, and it is almost ingrained into our societies now. We "sell" our position in a discussion, a debate. For example, regulation does curtail freedom. Completely. However, lack of regulation can harm people. Significantly. Thus, regulation does not give people more freedom, it can however reduce harm. In democratic nations, often judges will weigh these two things, when determining if a regulation passes the muster. In my country, we have the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and often judges will determine if a challenged regulation is of sufficient, required public good, whilst not overtly reducing freedom of the individual. This is a mature conversation. Advertising is not. A primary example I've seen in the US, is people calling immigrants "undocumented" on one side, and "criminals" on the other. This is, of course, a reduction in nuance, and designed to advertise a position merely with the words used. And it is a societal sickness. An illegal alien is just that, and using that term confers no judgement, for it is simply fact. There was a time when politics were not first and fore in terms of the use of language. The current trend to be "touchy feely" over use of language, and find great offense at the use of language, does nothing other than stop debate. Reduce discussion. Cause schism instead of collaboration. And there are those around us, which prefer that. Don't feed them.
      • AmbroseBierce 9mo ago
        Completely fair, but I was responding to someone who doesn't think that it curtails freedom but that is the total opposite, you cannot be free if you are dead (except for a few niche philosophical definitions of the word), so human centric regulations like the asbestos ban are orthogonal to freedom, even if I admit in the strictest definition of the word yes, a regulation can curtail your freedom to harm yourself and hypothetically could curtail yourself from positive benefits as well. But the thing is that statistically the likelihood they were discussing in good faith about this is near none, instead their way of speaking are telltales of a libertarian, where they have a almost religious believe that regulation is their biggest enemy and will never admit that the lack of it could harm or even kill them, I have wasted many many hours talking with such kind of people and don't aim to waste more arguing in good faith giving nuanced responses.
        • b112 9mo ago
          Oh I'm not blaming you, but the conversational framework we're being collectively trapped in.
      • duskdozer 8mo ago
        >Thus, regulation does not give people more freedom, it can however reduce harm. If there were no regulation against someone picking you up off the street and chaining you up in their basement, they would be more free in this scenario and you would be less free. You might be able to say regulation can curtail freedom and at the same time increase freedom. >An illegal alien is just that, and using that term confers no judgement, for it is simply fact. Well, it also has a connotation just like the other words. "Illegal" and "alien" both evoke meaning that goes beyond the specific condition, and that phrase was generally the predecessor of "criminals" in this example. Those who use different terms are also incentivized to convince others that their chosen word is the one that is most "simply fact" and not "touchy feely" language.
      • confidantlake 8mo ago
        > Regulation does curtail freedom. Completely. This depends on what definition of freedom you are using. Take this definition. > the ability to do as one wills and what one has the power to do Being able to walk down a street because there is a regulation restricting cars would enhance my freedom.
  • johnnyanmac 9mo ago
    What we have now sure it's freedom. Let's try having our tax dollars work for us this time.
  • jack_pp 9mo ago
    Restricting freedom of bad actors means enhancing freedom of everyone else. Say a a kid started throwing tantrums at school. By not punishing/ removing him you restrict the freedom of everyone else.
    • andsoitis 9mo ago
      Ooh they should do that on planes!
  • NeutralCrane 9mo ago
    Can you think of a singe freedom you enjoy that isn’t in one way or another supported by some form of regulation?
    • andsoitis 9mo ago
      > Can you think of a singe freedom you enjoy that isn’t in one way or another supported by some form of regulation? Regulations can protect freedoms, but they don’t create them. Freedom is inherent. Regulations protect.
      • samrus 8mo ago
        And when freedoms are being infringed, regulations need to be brought in. Hence banning ads online
        • tt24 8mo ago
          Your freedom isn't being infringed by seeing an ad lol, what a hilarious suggestion
          • samrus 8mo ago
            Advertisement commoditizes attention, which incentivizes tech companies to exploit and manipulate people to get their attention. Thats unacceptable. The proposal was to get rid of ads online to combat that. Its a bit drastic, but the logic is clear
    • tt24 9mo ago
      Yeah most of them
      • direwolf20 8mo ago
        Really? It seems like you can't name a single one.