Comment by whacko_quacko

> I'm just saying, we change the market via regulation (or at least, used to) all the time, and businesses survive despite their endless moaning about it.

Ah, got it. Then I'd say we should only regulate things that need regulation. I don't think advertising is one of these. The data collection happening in the background on the other hand...

> State funded operations don't generally prioritize profits [...]

Yes, but people generally do, even when they're funded by government. They just lose the incentive to create a good product.

> Yeah, again. Fund [the local little league] with taxes.

No. Why should I pay for something like that?

> If you want Microsoft Office, any Adobe product, Quickbooks, just to name a few, your only options are subscriptions to them.

Yes. And there's LibreOffice, GIMP/Inkscape and GNUCash (and many others) if you don't like that model.

BTW, these aren't what I was thinking about. I assume big players would generally be favored by such a prohibition, because they're already known to a wide audience.

> I mean just having a newsletter that advocates for socialism doesn't mean you're advertising socialism. It's propaganda, and that's fine. Propaganda isn't necessarily a bad thing despite the modern attitudes towards it.

I agree with you, but the article explicitly lumps together propaganda and advertising. I think that's dangerous. Socialists should be free to make their case, even though I think it's idiotic