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Vice Ventures is investing in taboo industries that other funds won’t touch

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Re: Vice Ventures is investing in taboo industries that other funds won’t touch

#91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I find so interesting about Vice Ventures is how she has drawn a hard line on the weapons industry.

If it's sex or drugs or any sort of addiction, the user is victim. With weapons, other people are the victim.

Society is a victim if there is a drug overdose and society has to pay for the cleanup.

Re: Vice Ventures is investing in taboo industries that other funds won’t touch

#94
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, its not that they have no moral compass, its just that it points in a different direction to many people. I don't have a problem with sex tech or esports but want nothing to do with addiction. I wonder if they would also fund email spammers if there was money in it.

Yet sex/porn and esports are both addicting. How does that math add up? Games maybe not so much by nature, but the publishers are trying everything they can to increase your time in game.

> sex/porn and esports are both addicting

Sex is not similar to alcohol, tobacco, or pharmaceutical addictions.

You can have orgasms alone without purchasing anything. There's also debate about whether you can be addicted to sex. 1) It's a normal part of our lifecycles, 2) there's no withdrawal effect after you get off of it, and 3) it's a convenient way to pathologize bad behavior.

E-sports are game competitions, not video games in and of themselves. You can be no more addicted to them than you can be to the NBA.

Re: Vice Ventures is investing in taboo industries that other funds won’t touch

#95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Such denials of service are due in part to the politics of the financial bigwigs, but are also due in large point to government programs [1] specifically designed to suppress "undesirable" business. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Choke_Point

I doubt the current administration is targeting gun dealers.

Regulations from previous administrations don't magically disappear at the end of their term.

Re: Vice Ventures is investing in taboo industries that other funds won’t touch

#96
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt the current administration is targeting gun dealers.

Regulations from previous administrations don't magically disappear at the end of their term.

They don't magically appear under certain administrations either. I'm not sure I understand your point.

Re: Vice Ventures is investing in taboo industries that other funds won’t touch

#97
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Esports" typically refers to professional competitive gaming, not to video games in general -- the focus is on viewership, not participation. There are some related side industries which might fit that description (like esports betting sites), but the industry itself isn't particularly "addictive", at least no more than traditional sports. The classification of sex and pornography as "addictive" has been controversi…

ok, i can get on board with the esports part. Porn, you can call it anecdotal, but over a decade in that industry taught me, its certainly addictive for some, and is are some very manipulative marketing going on by the smarter companies. But i do see the opposing argument, people get addicted to all kinds of strange things and nothing about porn per se is addicting. it's that ending they are addicted to, not the cont…

I used the work in the gaming[0] industry and did my best to read up on addiction, both in general terms and related to gambling. One of the main takeaways I found was that the addiction rates are surprisingly similar across different vices. It doesn't matter if the vice is gambling, porn, alcohol, shopping, or whatever -- some low single digit percent of the population is likely to get dangerously addicted, a somewhat larger group will spend way too much money but not otherwise disrupt their life, and the vast majority of people will treat it like just another type of recreation.

I really wish our society could take all of the energy that goes into criminalizing and stigmatizing vice industries and instead use it to offer help to people who are dangerously addicted. Just think of how much free therapy, rehab, and drug research could be funded by the tens of billions of dollars that the drug war has cost.

[0] Gaming is the industry term for gambling

Re: Vice Ventures is investing in taboo industries that other funds won’t touch

#98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Esports" typically refers to professional competitive gaming, not to video games in general -- the focus is on viewership, not participation. There are some related side industries which might fit that description (like esports betting sites), but the industry itself isn't particularly "addictive", at least no more than traditional sports. The classification of sex and pornography as "addictive" has been controversi…

People say they get addicted to porn, what does science have to do with what they say?

Science says that there is a distinction between the colloquial definition of "addicted" and the technical definition of a physiological / psychological addiction.

Many people will also say that a delicious food, an entertaining game, or an enjoyable TV show is "addictive", but these do not actually constitute addictions either.

Re: Vice Ventures is investing in taboo industries that other funds won’t touch

#99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Such denials of service are due in part to the politics of the financial bigwigs, but are also due in large point to government programs [1] specifically designed to suppress "undesirable" business. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Choke_Point

I doubt the current administration is targeting gun dealers.

No, but certain politicians would with a goal of gun elimination might. We have already seen pointless laws passed to ban cosmetic features on guns that has zero purpose other than punish monetarily and criminalize otherwise law abiding citizens. At the very least it makes them buy federal tax stamps or pay for Federal Firearms Licenses which is a paywall for ownership and will ultimately reduce ownership rates.

Re: Vice Ventures is investing in taboo industries that other funds won’t touch

#100
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. A plurality of the gun deaths are suicide (%33). Accidents and homicide add up to more.

I think you have your stats reversed. Fivethirtyeight says about 2/3 of gun deaths are suicides. Around 1/3 are homicides. A surprisingly small percentage (to me) are classified as accidents.[0] [0]: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/gun-deaths/

Im not entirely surprised accidents are low, the places with the most guns have strong gun culture who have learned and put into practice gun safety from a young age. Many of the older folks have taken shooting classes or done shooting sport while in school, many of the younger generation have taken hunter safety courses, and of course military service people throughout the entire time, and all would teach basic gun safety. You will be kicked off any range for not being safe and most anyone who owns guns will very quickly correct anybody not being safe.

The amount of people who know nothing about guns and never shot one under proper supervision and then go out and purchase a firearm without researching anything are extremely low, so accidents remain pretty low.

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