Man we have really entered an era were companies have access to powerful tools to convince people using psychological techniques.
Welcome to the information war.
Shell using Fortnite, TikTok, etc. to convince kids fossil fuels are cool
41–50 of 238 posts
Re: Shell using Fortnite, TikTok, etc. to convince kids fossil fuels are cool
#42On a topic not directly related to the article, there's a book written by a former CEO of Shell called "Why We Hate the Oil Companies" that's rather interesting. In summary, his points are that oil is not necessarily good or bad, but that the lack of effective energy policies and the inherent challenges of the field incentivize bad practices by oil companies, while simultaneously these companies fail to communicate t…
Energy and energy availability certainly have saved many lives and made many others much better than they would've been, but that's not really due to energy companies.
Give the ownership of oil rights to other people / companies and they'd have done the same stuff, specially after the first waves of development. Attributing all the positives of cheap energy on humanity to oil companies and their employees seems like attributing the joy of music to the record labels.
Re: Shell using Fortnite, TikTok, etc. to convince kids fossil fuels are cool
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I get that "Big Oil" might have delayed some reforms That's a huge understatement. They have actively sabotaged green initiatives all along. They have stopped green policies, and green policies is and has always been the ONLY way forward, you can't put shit like this on individuals.
Sometimes I think, that green policies are not stopped by Big Oil but undermined. You see, in many countries green policies are tied with rejection of nuclear power plants, which is much more effective and sustainable than all solar & wind sources. When I've lived in Russia, I've donated to Green Peace and WWF, because they helps a lot to save Nature Reserves, oppose predatory laws which allows to exploit Protected A…
> because their agenda is not about nature reserves and factory waste treatment, but, first, anti-nuclear-plant and then anti-travel, antu-car-ownership, etc.
All of these things are indeed stupid imo, typical EU green party style navel gazing. The one I kind of agree with is anti-car-ownership, but it’s an extremely poor treatment of the symptom, where the decease is poor (and in many cases irreversible) city planning and public services. Excessive car ownership in urban areas is a solved problem in many parts of the world (where a car is less convenient than alternatives for personal travel for small families/households). It’s not rocket science.
Re: Shell using Fortnite, TikTok, etc. to convince kids fossil fuels are cool
#44On a topic not directly related to the article, there's a book written by a former CEO of Shell called "Why We Hate the Oil Companies" that's rather interesting. In summary, his points are that oil is not necessarily good or bad, but that the lack of effective energy policies and the inherent challenges of the field incentivize bad practices by oil companies, while simultaneously these companies fail to communicate t…
Well, the reason for the hate could be that OR things like oil companies sponsoring climate change deniers and exxon hiding results of their own study which shown that continued burning of fossil fuels will have catastrophic consequences.
Re: Shell using Fortnite, TikTok, etc. to convince kids fossil fuels are cool
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
Okay? And now where do we go from here? Decisions about the future shouldn’t be based on some weird tribalistic pride about your fav energy source’s vibes or the historical ethics of it. It’s fucking oil, it isn’t going to get hurt feelings.
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Energy always increase the amount of transformation, good or bad, so it’s inherently an unknown gamble
Re: Shell using Fortnite, TikTok, etc. to convince kids fossil fuels are cool
#46Fossil fuels caused the greatest progress in history of mankind, and resulted in decimation of disease, famine and poverty. Green movement has spent the last 50 years opposing nuclear power, otherwise we would have decarbonised at least 90% already (like France has).
Yeah, I'm not a fan of big corporations using propaganda, especially towards children but, that topic aside, people are kidding themselves if they believe their way of life would exist without fossil fuels. Look up the Haber process; your ability to walk down to a Whole Foods in a city of millions and buy groceries to support your vegan diet wouldn't be a thing. The stepping stone to things like nuclear and solar wou…
I'd never heard of the Haber process, it was interesting to read about
according to wikipedia it cut the required farmland to feed a population in four. obviously it's hard to argue with more food for more people, but it clearly made urbanisation and overpopulation that much easier. quite a brilliant invention of engineering, but is it actually a good thing for a population to grow at that rate?
Re: Shell using Fortnite, TikTok, etc. to convince kids fossil fuels are cool
#47Man we have really entered an era were companies have access to powerful tools to convince people using psychological techniques.
It has been so since the time of religion.
The only difference now is that people are more aware of it.
Re: Shell using Fortnite, TikTok, etc. to convince kids fossil fuels are cool
#48Does anyone really think this will work? This isn’t cigarette advertising, which raises the profile of a directly harmful activity. Like what’s the best case for Shell here?
If you’re going to get upset about anything in games, get upset about loot boxes. Promoting gambling to children should be illegal. That’s psychologically damaging.
Re: Shell using Fortnite, TikTok, etc. to convince kids fossil fuels are cool
#49Man we have really entered an era were companies have access to powerful tools to convince people using psychological techniques.
This has been the case for a hundred years already.
It is why Santa is dressed in red. Why people buy diamond engagement rings. Why cigarettes were readily available for literally decades after they were already known to be harmful. And why American gun control laws have never matured despite all the evidence that proves the status quo isn’t viable.
Re: Shell using Fortnite, TikTok, etc. to convince kids fossil fuels are cool
#50Instead, Shell—a massive oil company and one of the many entities directly responsible for destroying our planet—wants you all to know just how rad its fossil fuel products are, and even made a whole Fortnite world for you to enjoy! Sure, spreading oil propaganda and trying to influence policies despite very well knowing of the negative consequences is bad, maybe even evil behavior. But making it sound like Shell sin…
Oil and gas is like the whale oil of the 19th century except that it has rooted deeply into civilization and will strike at anyone who tries to remove its influence. It has provided many great benefits to humanity and still has a function in society. However it needs a diminished role and it needs to stop blocking progress.
Its literally causing expensive electricity now and blocking cheap electricity.