Comment by jart
7 days ago
Yeah it's similar to how Facebook is blamed for social malaise. Or how alcohol was blamed before that.
It's always more comfortable for people to blame the thing rather than the person.
7 days ago
Yeah it's similar to how Facebook is blamed for social malaise. Or how alcohol was blamed before that.
It's always more comfortable for people to blame the thing rather than the person.
More than one thing can be causing problems in a society, and enterprising humans of lesser scruples have a long history of preying on the weaknesses of others for profit.
Enterprising humans have a long history of giving people what they desire, while refraining from judging what's best for them.
Ah yeah, fentanyl drug adulterers, what great benefactors of society.
Screaming "no one is evil, its just markets!" probably helps people who base their lives on exploiting the weak sleep better at night.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_good
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This is fine statement on its own but a gross reply to the parent.
Worse than enterprising humans are authoritarian humans who want to tell others how they should live, usually also exempting themselves from their rules.
They also prey on the weaknesses of humans and social appearances to do things for a "greater good".
There's a problem and we 'must do something' and if you're against doing the something I propose youre evil and I'll label you.
The real mindfuck is that sometimes, an unscrupulous entrepreneur only has to play your "societal harm fighting" game through politicians and they get their way and we lose.
I like the facebook comparison, but the difference is you don't have to use facebook to make money and survive. When the thing is a giant noisemaker crapping out trash that screws up everyone else's work (and thus their livelihood), it becomes a lot more than just some nuisance you can brush away.
If you are in the news business you basically have to.
I think humans actually tend to prefer blaming individuals rather than addressing societal harms, but they're not in any way mutually exclusive.
Marketing has a powerful effect. Look at how the decrease in smoking coincided with the decrease in smoking advertisement (and now look at the uptick in vaping due to the marketing as a replacement for smoking).
Malaise exists at an individual level, but it doesn't transform into social malaise until someone comes in to exploit those people's addictions for profit.