TIL: not everyone on HN uses an ad blocker.
I don’t. Instead I use a /etc/hosts file. Much better imo, because I don’t have some external script that has access to the content and input of all my web pages.
Ask HN: Since when is everything a scam?
51–60 of 114 posts
Re: Ask HN: Since when is everything a scam?
#52I’m guessing you are relatively young, because what you are seeing isn’t a significant change on society, but rather a change in yourself, or to be more specific a change in how others perceive you.
In fact I’m willing to bet you’re ~27-28 years old, because what you are seeing is your profile getting moved from the 18-25 market segment to the 26-35 segment.
The scams where always there, it’s just that people thought you were too poor to market them to you.
Re: Ask HN: Since when is everything a scam?
#53There's a good chance we'll look back on this as a post-truth era. I have some guesses about underlying drivers, but they're just guesses. At the top, we have regulatory 'avoidance' masquerading as 'innovation', and enough regulators stood down for it to have consequences. We have the entire journalism industry brought to it's knees financially, and turning to low-quality opinion written predominantly by immature, in…
Just like the 1500s was a “post truth era”. The exact same discussions happened back then.
Turns out, eventually it became the exact opposite. With more and better means of communication, it was possible to expose all the lies of the ruling class and build a better and more fair society.
Re: Ask HN: Since when is everything a scam?
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
I totally agree with this. The active removal of any (even semblance) of community in society, to be replaced with radical individualism, has been horribly detrimental. There is no shame, there is no right or wrong, there is no responsibility to others. And this extends to both sides of the political spectrum. The right glorify this "Don't step on me", "I don't care about others that don't exactly fit into my in-grou…
Meh. That's a straw man based on ignorance. The left puts effort into responsibility and care for community. Why do you think the right advocates for dismantling social services and the left champions them?
Broadly speaking, the community-oriented left in places like the US support bureaucratic government welfare programs, while community-oriented conservatives support more organic, often religious, and non-government charitable organizations. My preference runs toward the latter, for reasons best explained by John Carmack:
Re: Ask HN: Since when is everything a scam?
#55I’m guessing you are relatively young, because what you are seeing isn’t a significant change on society, but rather a change in yourself, or to be more specific a change in how others perceive you. In fact I’m willing to bet you’re ~27-28 years old, because what you are seeing is your profile getting moved from the 18-25 market segment to the 26-35 segment. The scams where always there, it’s just that people thought…
I might argue differently. I am regularly shown how to start day trading and starting my own ecommerce site that makes 30k a month with no effort needed on Youtube regularly. These guys aren't looking for intelligent people.
Youtube profiled me as a pure dumbass, and it might have to do with all the Rogan videos I watch.
Just watch a few minutes of this: https://www.digitalpodcastmillionaire.com/episode13
These are the types of ads I'm seeing 24/7.
Re: Ask HN: Since when is everything a scam?
#56There's a good chance we'll look back on this as a post-truth era. I have some guesses about underlying drivers, but they're just guesses. At the top, we have regulatory 'avoidance' masquerading as 'innovation', and enough regulators stood down for it to have consequences. We have the entire journalism industry brought to it's knees financially, and turning to low-quality opinion written predominantly by immature, in…
This is one of the most concise and ‘on point’ summaries of our current situation that I have seen. Thanks for laying this out so clearly.
Re: Ask HN: Since when is everything a scam?
#57I haven’t experienced any of that yet. Something in particular upset you?
I deactivated personalized ads on YouTube and literally every ad is now a scam.
Get a /etc/hosts file that blocks access to ad domains and never see ads on Yt or any other site. Without the need to grant any script access to the content of your browser.
Re: Ask HN: Since when is everything a scam?
#58I try to rely on sources I trust. But it can be difficult when a new owner buys a good media and transform it to make more profits. LesNumériques (French) was a good source and is not trustworthy anymore. Tek.no (Norwegian) may be alright on average, even though the owner is so-so. I also stopped to use Google Search. It is a completely useless search engine for this usage. I prefer DuckDuckGo/Bing and I usually appe…
It will be interesting if those 'trustworthy' sources grow and can make money in a world where trust becomes more valuable.
I suppose as we trust Amazon less we will begin shopping at the curated store more.
As we trust Google less, maybe people who curate links will become valuable again.
As we trust Google ads less (to get our product in front of real people) we will trust specialist advertisers more.
Re: Ask HN: Since when is everything a scam?
#59There's a good chance we'll look back on this as a post-truth era. I have some guesses about underlying drivers, but they're just guesses. At the top, we have regulatory 'avoidance' masquerading as 'innovation', and enough regulators stood down for it to have consequences. We have the entire journalism industry brought to it's knees financially, and turning to low-quality opinion written predominantly by immature, in…
You've hit the nail on the head repeatedly there.
Regulators, and checks and balances of all kinds, have been systematically dismantled and de-fanged. People literally can't fathom the full scale of the power disparities.
Still, trust in authority is at a record low - if not yet low enough! You're 100% right that this is a structural problem. It's too easy for bad actors to not only avoid accountability but to even get the crowd blaming the wrong people.
Re: Ask HN: Since when is everything a scam?
#60Since house prices started to become unattainable for the average individual without going 40 years into debt. Remove the problem of earning money to achieve independent housing, remove 75% of the hussle for most people to participate in scams.
I have this pet theory that no matter what goes wrong in the world - whether it's a pandemic, climate change, or the threat of nuclear annihilation, HNers will find a way of blaming it on housing prices. Do you all live in California?
I don't live in California, I work at a non-IT company in a country of Europe in a non-major city.
It's a global problem, it doesn't matter where you go. People and companies have an absolute fetish with real state that makes young people like me give up with hope. What is work good for if you're just a slave to the system?
Right now, it'd take me 7 years of salary JUST to afford the initial down payment for a house. If we're talking about purchasing it out-right after basic expenses, 40 years. Is this normal? Well, in the fucked up we live in, yes!
Start working in your 20s, own your house in your 60s. Nice.