The harm they do is huge. Especially some of these influencers who target children and make them feel like crap because their hard working parents can't afford nice toys like in the videos.
The harm they do is huge. Especially some of these influencers who target children and make them feel like crap because their hard working parents can't afford nice toys like in the videos.
In a very real sense this is true of every part of the advertising industry I have ever had the displeasure to witness or interact with. This is a point I have been making for years and real people have never failed to point out that I am a paranoid crackpot for it. At this point it almost seems more worth it to just sit back and sip water while the world slowly burns around me, but of course that is far too cynical.
Have you found a way to get the point across that doesn't land as being abrasive and difficult in a way that nobody seems to understand?
New money enters the economy through arbitrary financial channels and is backed by nothing so this distorts our collective sense of what is valuable and worthwhile.
These days nobody tries to cut back on consumption. The current fiat-based economy rewards production but doesn't punish consumption. The reason is that everybody feels that cash is worthless because it's not backed by anything. The focus therefore is on amassing assets; any assets, even if you're dirt poor and can't afford anything of value, you're better off buying junk that you don't need than to hold on to your paper fiat which is always losing value.
There being misaligned incentives is a reasonable point, maybe that merits further thought. Thank you!
Is it though?
What other option is there really..
As I was asking the grandparent, there is always a way to communicate it more effectively than you are doing. Maybe they have the answer! I can't know that, but I can know it is an option because people have been convinced of much more evil and much dumber things by people good at talking.
Sure, but it usually follows this scenario..
People ignore issues, accumulate technical or monetary debt, ignore issues, accumulate debt, ignore issues, accumulate debt, lie cheat and scheme to keep ignoring issues... start to suffer because of historical laziness and avarice... someone comes along and says, "Hey, you can solve all these problem with violence, you know..", then evil shit happens.
People are not really persuaded "out" of being lazy or amoral, generally speaking. They're just given social "permission" to do bad things because of tough times.
Lazy is not handy, but then again I'm not convinced that people can't be motivated out of this. Wars and other really unfriendly things cost a large amount of effort from many people. Laziness is seeing problems and doing absolutely nothing about them, not doing the wrong things. That's just being misguided.
What kind of people?
That would be like saying that Kim Jong Un is a messenger because he teaches his people about the evils of a totalitarian dictatorship (through a very hands-on approach).