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Comment by shadowgovt

2 months ago

One man's propaganda is another man's truth-to-power.

There are dangerous consequences to handing the government the authority to ban public communication (even about mouthwash brands) without very careful scrutiny.

Imagine if you couldn't advertise energy alternatives because oil and gas came first and, with advertising banned, we can't even talk about the relative merits of installing solar vs. buying coal-made grid electricity. The status quo will maintain until the planet cooks.

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shadowgovt

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makapuf  2 months ago

There is a big difference between advertising and information. First, most people are generally not being paid by big energy alternatives to promote it. Of course we can talk about things. What we wouldn't be able is to be paid by someone to have a specific public discourse.

  • shadowgovt  2 months ago

    > There's a big difference between advertising and information

    I recommend looking up the videos they made in the 1950s about how to use modern appliances, telephones, etc. and then noting that those videos were mostly paid for by the companies that manufactured those goods because they had a vested interest in people knowing how to use the tools so they would buy the tool.

    > What we wouldn't be able is to be paid by someone to have a specific public discourse.

    Widecast public communications always cost money. Always. Somebody is putting money forward to put a message on that billboard, or on that radio, or on that website. If we ban advertising but we aren't banning billboards, radio, and websites, we are tying off one category of communicator. Cynically, I would expect the result to not be an end to commercial advertising, but for more commercial advertising disguised as other things. I don't know that we would be able to disambiguate the two ideas, not in a world where, for example, public television programs are supported by the Sears Roebuck Corporation.

    • makapuf  2 months ago

      Those explication videos are product instructions. They can still be made available in the youtube channel of this brand (and for my bike, they were and I'm glad for them).

      Yes youtube costs money to run. Selling your private data and attention shouldn't be an option. So who should pay the bill? If you're the customer, that would be You, or no one if you consider that empty channel not to be worth it.

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