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1. slibhb+(OP)[view] [source] 2023-09-30 16:29:37
Your mentality (people are monkeys who can't make choices) is more responsible for people making bad choices than engineers at facebook. We can make choices to improve our lives! And the more convinced we are of that, the better choices we will make.
replies(1): >>lm2846+t1
2. lm2846+t1[view] [source] 2023-09-30 16:38:05
>>slibhb+(OP)
Or... we can do both ? I'm fit, eat clean, live frugally, yet I still see how these organisations are absolutely fucking the system by making people overeat, overspend, &c.

Do you think people wake up one day with the bright idea of becoming obese and dying at 45 of heart issues ?

You can only make decisions between the choices you're being provided, and if half of these choices are engineered to be addictive, on a global scale you're fighting a losing battle

> is more responsible for people making bad choices than engineers at facebook.

But... they're the same mentality, don't you see it ? It's been studied and developed by marketing people

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioural_sciences

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_behaviour

replies(1): >>slibhb+RH
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3. slibhb+RH[view] [source] [discussion] 2023-09-30 20:59:37
>>lm2846+t1
> Or... we can do both ? I'm fit, eat clean, live frugally, yet I still see how these organisations are absolutely fucking the system by making people overeat, overspend, &c.

That's good but have you considered that this is motivated reasoning? I.e. you think you have free will but all those shlubs making bad choices don't. This casts you as a hero with special insight into various oppressive "systems" to which you are apparently immune.

It would be better to judge people for their bad decisions. Although this strikes many people as cruel, judgment involves respecting other people's agency and creates a culture that encourages people to take responsibility for their lives and make better decisions. To put it another way, people don't intend to be obese...but they also don't believe they have a choice, and that's not good.

Finally, I think you seriously overrate the ability of behavioral sciences to do anything useful. What you're really pushing is the always-seductive idea that shadowy forces manipulate the masses through quasi-magical powers.

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