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The New Mind Control – The internet has spawned subtle forms of influence

aeon.co

211–212 of 212 posts

Re: The New Mind Control – The internet has spawned subtle forms of influence

#211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you kidding me? Of the major companies out there, almost all of them made money from bad products. McDonald's food is so unhealthy it makes you ill almost immediately when it's even edible. Comcast is hated almost universally for their crap internet and crapper customer service. Fox News makes money by actively deceiving their customers. These aren't exceptions to the rule: these are the rule . They're leaders in…

If these things are so bad, why do people consume them? Is everybody else but you so stupid as to be consuming these obviously 'bad' products? Just because you think something is bad, doesn't mean it is bad. I would have no trouble selling something you think is the 'worst shit in the known universe' as long as everybody else thinks it's pretty good.

People consume bad products because they are in bad circumstances. Maybe they are too stressed to cook and can't afford a healthier alternative, and then become addicted to the sugar content (McDonald's), maybe the company has a monopoly on something people need for work and school so people have to buy it (Comcast), or maybe human psychology makes us susceptible to certain kinds of deception (Fox News).

Claiming that a product can't be bad if people consume it is incredibly naive.

Re: The New Mind Control – The internet has spawned subtle forms of influence

#212
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally I've found Google to be frustratingly difficult to search in recent years. I can't find articles & essays that I remember fondly because the namespace is so polluted with Great SEO.

Google is getting worse. I find that restricting date range in search tools can provide more useful results. But I'm not sure why.

Thank you I will try that, especially when I know I'm looking for an article written N years ago.
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