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Facebook is bombarding rightwing users with combat gear ads. See for yourself

theguardian.com

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Re: Facebook is bombarding rightwing users with combat gear ads. See for yourself

#71

Post by pushECX »

slibhb wrote: post #68
smt88 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't think it's possible that ads make people want things they don't need? Or to put it another way, you believe advertising is not effective at all on anyone?

I don't believe the author's bizarre story that, while pretending to be a Trump supporter on the internet, he was brainwashed into wanting to buy a gun by nefarious advertisers. People are susceptible to advertising but we aren't that susceptible. I bet the author is very concerned about "internet radicalization". I bet he's so concerned that he began to feel the stirrings of his own radicalization while pretending t…

I stopped reading when I reached that part of the article. The way it was described made it unbelievable to me; That ads made the author feel "convinced [they] needed them". The author is being melodramatic throughout the entire article.

Re: Facebook is bombarding rightwing users with combat gear ads. See for yourself

#72

Post by davmar »

Ancapistani wrote: post #69
yao420 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a chance. Cops and security don’t generally carry ar-15’s and those that do certainly are using locks. The site also doesn’t mention a single law enforcement client which is something they would be bragging about. Maybe it’s because I’m a Texan but suburban dads are probably the largest gun owning demographic. Ive so many engineers show up to the range with a $4k ar-15 and shoot a couple hundred bucks in ammo. At…

> Cops and security don’t generally carry ar-15’s You’re in for a surprise if you ever look in a patrol car. Every agency I know of, even in a very rural state, has an AR as standard equipment - either in the cabin, or in rare cases, in a trunk lid mount.

Googled which weapons cops have out of curiousity and the AR-15 isn't in the top 10 according to this list:

https://www.criminaljusticedegreehub.com/popular-guns-for-la...

Re: Facebook is bombarding rightwing users with combat gear ads. See for yourself

#74

Post by notacoward »

gnu8 wrote: post #67
filoleg wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Facebook controls the juxtaposition of ads with content, and with each other. This can reinforce the power of the individual ads, or attenuate it. In this case, it's pretty clearly creating a "caravan" of ads because that's more effective than letting each stand alone. Oh, totally agreed on this one. FB fully controls the layout and where ads are displayed. When I said that FB doesn't control things, I meant that th…

So what is the argument here? Facebook should manipulate their advertising marketplace to prevent this? You can buy ads to sell your gun supplies and body armor but when it comes to targeting the ads, you can't choose the demographic groups that are buying this stuff up like it is going out of style? I think Facebook is awful, but this how their business works. I can't see them going out of their way to not serve the…

> So what is the argument here?

I'm not sure GP is suggesting anything, and I know I'm not. These are just observations about how things actually work. The fact that certain groups of users get "bombarded" with ads for certain categories does not indicate intent or interference, as some here have suggested. It just means the system is doing what it's designed to do, which is to optimize the effectiveness and efficiency of serving billions of ads to billions of people.

Re: Facebook is bombarding rightwing users with combat gear ads. See for yourself

#75

Post by smt88 »

slibhb wrote: post #68
smt88 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't think it's possible that ads make people want things they don't need? Or to put it another way, you believe advertising is not effective at all on anyone?

I don't believe the author's bizarre story that, while pretending to be a Trump supporter on the internet, he was brainwashed into wanting to buy a gun by nefarious advertisers. People are susceptible to advertising but we aren't that susceptible. I bet the author is very concerned about "internet radicalization". I bet he's so concerned that he began to feel the stirrings of his own radicalization while pretending t…

> People are susceptible to advertising but we aren't that susceptible.

I know a guy who bought a $500 axe (for chopping wood) from one of those "be a manly man" e-commerce sites that popped up a few years ago. He had never chopped wood before, and to this day he never has chopped wood. Ads convinced him he wanted it.

The same is true of all the ads from those companies, selling beautiful, sturdy compasses or hunting knives that never get dull.

Guns can be beautiful, well-made objects. They can make someone feed safe and prepared. I don't see any reason an ad couldn't convince someone that they want/need one, especially if they're seeing dozens of ads a day.

Re: Facebook is bombarding rightwing users with combat gear ads. See for yourself

#76

Post by archagon »

yao420 wrote: post #38
opwieurposiu wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was working in the machine shop business around 2016 another shop owner called our shop asking if we had any work to sub out. I was surprised because his shop was running at max capacity the year before, making gun parts. Apparently when a republican becomes president the gun parts market dries up; when a democrat wins, the market booms. I think the arms retailers are having a boom right now and have plenty of…

While historically that has been somewhat true, 2020 saw an extreme rise in gun sales due to covid, mass protests, and tons of growth in both right and left wing militias.

Left wing militias?

Re: Facebook is bombarding rightwing users with combat gear ads. See for yourself

#77

Post by ashtonkem »

archagon wrote: post #76
yao420 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While historically that has been somewhat true, 2020 saw an extreme rise in gun sales due to covid, mass protests, and tons of growth in both right and left wing militias.

Left wing militias?

Relatively rare in modern American politics, but not unheard of. In the 1960s and 1970s left wing militias and terrorism was a pretty common thing. A great example of this is the Weather Underground, who ended up bombing a lot of people. Whether or not you’d call these groups “militias” or “terrorist groups” probably depends on who you ask, but they certainly were armed.

It’s gotten a bit mixed up lately, but historically left wing militias made more sense than right wing militias. Left wing groups are usually in opposition to this form of government and therefore have a lot of things they’d like to change with force if necessary. Historically right wing groups usually wish to preserve (to whit, conserve) things as is, which usually doesn’t require militias per se. Anti-government right wing militias are historically speaking, kind of weird, even though they’re the norm since Ruby Ridge or so.

Re: Facebook is bombarding rightwing users with combat gear ads. See for yourself

#79

Post by ashtonkem »

followthesmell wrote: post #56

I don't have a gun, and I live in a country that doesn't have a problem with guns, and I'm happy about that. Not everyone who buys these accessories will go on to rush the Capitol, despite the article hinting at that implication. Facebook's advertising policies are not a suitable place to enact desires that people have been unable to achieve democratically. For a hot topic like guns, the constraints on where/when the…

As a funny confluence, body armor carriers make fantastic weighted vests. Rogue sells both a ESAPI compatible plate carrier and non-ballistic plates for endurance training. If one was so inclined you could either put armor in your rogue carrier (they used to just be 5.11 carriers), or use actual steel armor during training because they’re heavy.

Re: Facebook is bombarding rightwing users with combat gear ads. See for yourself

#80

Post by ashtonkem »

jmalicki wrote: post #16
seany wrote: post #7

It's a weird thing since I have to imaging people that might buy that kind of thing already have it, or would be searching for it on other forums ( I have ).

Couldn't you say the same for, say washing machines? You: I just bought a washing machine on Amazon Amazon: "Here are some ads for more washing machines, in case you're an enthusiastic collector!"

Gun owners typically buy more than one gun, often much more, but very few people have two washing machines.
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