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Facebook Has Been Showing Military Gear Ads Next to “Insurrection” Posts

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Re: Facebook Has Been Showing Military Gear Ads Next to “Insurrection” Posts

#201

Post by emilfihlman »

libertine wrote: post #196
emilfihlman wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you say what country? Because I might even bet that yes, you most definitely can buy an AR15 or any semiautomatic rifle just fine.

Ah yes, I'm from Portugal!

Yes, you can buy AR15s and other semiautomatic rifles in Portugal.

Most of Europe allows sports shooting, for example (from the top of my hear what I know for sure): Finland Sweden Norway Estonia Czech Republic Poland Germany France Italy Switzerland Austria Spain

And I haven't even put research into the rest of the countries

Re: Facebook Has Been Showing Military Gear Ads Next to “Insurrection” Posts

#202

Post by shoemakersteve »

JeremyNT wrote: post #182
skrowl wrote: post #114

Calling body armor "Military Gear" as in "only the military should be able to buy body armor" is pretty sad, even by Buzzfeed extreme-left standards. Body armor can't kill anyone.

Can you describe a typical scenario where a civilian might want to use body armor? I understand that shooting high powered rifles is a lot of fun, so recreation makes sense with respect to weaponry, but I'm legitimately confused about why a civilian would ever want to own body armor. I can't imagine it's terribly comfortable to wear, and it doesn't seem very fun to me.

Really? You can't imagine any? Regardless of how unlikely it might be, there's a very real risk that shit's gonna go down in the next week and who knows what might happen. Even if nothing does happen, there's been an increasing amount of unrest in the past few years, it doesn't hurt to be prepared for the worst. You probably won't ever need to use the spare tire in your trunk, but it's reassuring to know that it's there if ever you need it.

Re: Facebook Has Been Showing Military Gear Ads Next to “Insurrection” Posts

#203

Post by thereddaikon »

fasteddie31003 wrote: post #91

Worked on me. I just bought some AR500 plate armor. Better safe than sorry in today's world. I don't see any downside to buying body armor.

AR500 and any steel ballistic armor is a liability. It may stop the bullets, or maybe it wont. You cant be sure its not NIJ certified. But even if it did AR500 has the bad side effect of making the bullet fragment, the bits them flying perpendicular to the plate into your crotch and neck. They will apply truck bed liner and claim this "spall liner" prevents it but it doesn't really.

The same companies that make body armor for the military and police, Hesco and RMA also sell to civilians. The NIJ also helpfully provides a list on their website of all currently certified body armor that passes their test. If its NIJ certified then it is deemed acceptable for law enforcement units in the US to use it.

AR500 the company has only one product on the NIJ's CPL and its their most expensive plate and its ceramic like all real plates, not steel.

The body armor industry has a history of a lot of shady dealings and AR500 is only the latest chapter. They pay youtube gun influencers to make videos that make their products look good.

Re: Facebook Has Been Showing Military Gear Ads Next to “Insurrection” Posts

#204

Post by libertine »

emilfihlman wrote: post #201
libertine wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah yes, I'm from Portugal!

Yes, you can buy AR15s and other semiautomatic rifles in Portugal. Most of Europe allows sports shooting, for example (from the top of my hear what I know for sure): Finland Sweden Norway Estonia Czech Republic Poland Germany France Italy Switzerland Austria Spain And I haven't even put research into the rest of the countries

You can not buy semiautomatic rifles in Portugal, even if you are a collector I think but for that you might need to have some sort of special requirement.

These are the types of licences we have: http://armas.mai-gov.info/obtencao-de-licencas/

Now you can buy weapons of the same caliber, for hunting (but you need hunting licensing).

Edit: Ok I need to clarify this. Because we have a different name for specific weapons.

Here we can sell semiautomatic rifles (we call them "carabinas", I didn't label them as rifles so my bad), for hunting (a specific class, for boars, deer, etc). The thing is every weapon that's imported in Portugal gets and inspection and a classification if it's a military weapon or not. An AR15 is considered a military grade weapon by our government standards.

So yes, you can buy some specific models of semiautomatic rifles (for hunting), but you can't buy military grade semiautomatic rifles.

You can't buy an AR15.

Re: Facebook Has Been Showing Military Gear Ads Next to “Insurrection” Posts

#205

Post by inglor_cz »

ghostbrainalpha wrote: post #177
dathinab wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This software is working exactly as it was designed to. Exactly this is why I think micro targeting should simply be banned by governments. I mean: - It's fundamental meant to manipulate people. - It's easy to abuse and not really possible to control. - Discriminatory micro advertisement, weather on a gender, race, religion or similar basis are pretty common for affected people, but at the same time hard to detect…

Micro Targeting can absolutely be abused and you have done a good job outlining the dark side of targeting. But to say nothing would be lost from banning it because its always used without regard for health and dignity is way to far. Brands like Zappos Adaptive which sells adult shoes that don't need to be tied to people with Autism. Its very hard to do this kind of sales without targeting people affected by disabili…

Would "people who bought this book also bought books X,Y,Z" count as microtargeting?

Because I actually find these recommendations valuable.

Re: Facebook Has Been Showing Military Gear Ads Next to “Insurrection” Posts

#206

Post by threatofrain »

dathinab wrote: post #165
brundolf wrote: post #67

The unintuitive thing here (for the general population at least, possibly not the HN crowd) is that almost certainly nobody at Facebook saw, and approved (much less designed) this marketing strategy. It naturally emerged from the goals the system has been given. That doesn't excuse it: in fact, it indicts automated targeted-advertisement as a category. This software is working exactly as it was designed to. I'm sure…

> This software is working exactly as it was designed to. Exactly this is why I think micro targeting should simply be banned by governments. I mean: - It's fundamental meant to manipulate people. - It's easy to abuse and not really possible to control. - Discriminatory micro advertisement, weather on a gender, race, religion or similar basis are pretty common for affected people, but at the same time hard to detect…

> It's fundamental meant to manipulate people.

Manipulation implies that you're lying to people to get them to buy things, but is it easy to make that argument for FB? What would be the leading argument here?

And why should we think that automated processes tend towards manipulation (lying) as a strategy in the marketplace?

Re: Facebook Has Been Showing Military Gear Ads Next to “Insurrection” Posts

#207

Post by shoemakersteve »

gorgoiler wrote: post #95

I’m surprised to see this here, on HN. For all its faults, Facebook isn’t to blame for the existence of edgy paraphernalia merchants of the kind that make Buzzfeed feel squeamish. Journalism like this is bullying. Ironically, Buzzfeed’s intention is to rabble rouse negative sentiment against those in charge — in this case, Zuckerberg. Profiting off of cultural and political discord indeed. Et tu, Buzzfeed?

Poor Zuck, getting bullied like this :( I hope he pulls through

Re: Facebook Has Been Showing Military Gear Ads Next to “Insurrection” Posts

#208

Post by [deleted] »

thereddaikon wrote: post #197
mywittyname wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> so my guess is that someone out there is spending a lot of money on a huge ad target I think this is really it. The profit margins on this stuff is insane. And the volumes of money typical people spend on this stuff is also insane. (speculation here) The insurrection is probably opening the door for new customers. I would not be surprised to hear a people in zero-gun households are now seeking to acquire their firs…

I've seen a lot of reports published lately that indicate that 2020 saw massive purchases of guns by people who weren't already owners. Its been a rough year with a lot of uncertainty and plenty of motivating examples for people of most political leanings to justify buying one, or two or some level 4 plates and Nods. Ammunition has been difficult to get since April and its going to stay that way for some time I think…

[deleted]

Re: Facebook Has Been Showing Military Gear Ads Next to “Insurrection” Posts

#209

Post by ceph_ »

threatofrain wrote: post #206
dathinab wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This software is working exactly as it was designed to. Exactly this is why I think micro targeting should simply be banned by governments. I mean: - It's fundamental meant to manipulate people. - It's easy to abuse and not really possible to control. - Discriminatory micro advertisement, weather on a gender, race, religion or similar basis are pretty common for affected people, but at the same time hard to detect…

> It's fundamental meant to manipulate people. Manipulation implies that you're lying to people to get them to buy things, but is it easy to make that argument for FB? What would be the leading argument here? And why should we think that automated processes tend towards manipulation (lying) as a strategy in the marketplace?

> Manipulation implies that you're lying to people

No it means you are trying to change their behavior, usually in an unscrupulous way.

These ads aren't lying. But they are certainly pushing a narrative. Which at best, is normalizing the violent actions taken. And at worst, is recruiting people for that cause.

Re: Facebook Has Been Showing Military Gear Ads Next to “Insurrection” Posts

#210

Post by titzer »

jjk166 wrote: post #185
titzer wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the back half of the arms race. Just wait until the industry for armor-piercing bullets gets ramped up. Look at the cold war arms race. Anti-missile technology just led to a massive increase in nuclear weapons production. If your enemies defenses are 90% effective at shooting down missiles, just launch 10x as many missiles! This why both the United States and Soviet Union peaked at over 30,000 nuclear warheads[1…

Well if you don't wear bullet-proof armor, their switching over to armor piercing bullets doesn't put you in any more danger. If anything it's probably better than them using ammunition optimized for use against non-armored targets such as yourself.

Armor costs money and it's heavy. If armor piercing rounds become common, it's a total waste. It's pretty ridiculous that we are having this conversation about civilian life. What the heck is happening in this country?
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