News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on The New Mind Control – The internet has spawned subtle forms of influence. Parent comment

Re:The New Mind Control – The internet has spawned subtle fo... by nickff on Wednesday March 09, 2016 @10:12PM (#11257207)
I disagree with you on every point here. McDonalds provides a consistent array of food and beverages across many countries, and many people (especially children) enjoy the experience in their restaurant. Comcast is often the only provider of Internet services, and in other instances provides faster or cheaper service than their competitors. Fox News is like every other news channel, in that it informs their viewers with the information the viewers want in a format they enjoy for a price they accept. Fox News is no more biased than CNN, NBC, or just about any other news sources; there is no arbiter of truth, and most of the perceived bias comes from the stories each outlet chooses to pursue.

I say this as a person who hasn't gone to McDonalds in 11 years, has no access to Comcast, and doesn't watch television news. The fact that you or I dislike a product does not make it 'bad'.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The New Mind Control – The internet has spawned subtle fo... by coldtea on Thursday March 10, 2016 @10:38AM (#11259787)
>The fact that you or I dislike a product does not make it 'bad'*

Yes. Bad requires either a quantifiable judgement (McDonalds fares poorly in healthiness, nutricients, calories and lots of other metrics), or a qualitative one, based on some sort of agreed ypon "what constitutes good food" standard -- which in the end comes from what vision one has for the world.

Even if the latter is not objectively verifiable (that a steak at Peter Luger is better than a Chipotle one for example), I still find a society where isn't enough common agreement to label McDonalds as bad, a sad one.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The New Mind Control – The internet has spawned subtle fo... by alanwatts on Thursday March 10, 2016 @09:24AM (#11259328)
What does make a product bad then?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The New Mind Control – The internet has spawned subtle fo... by nickff on Thursday March 10, 2016 @02:52PM (#11261764)
My definition of a bad product would simply one where the purchaser would not have bought it given the information they learned after acquiring it. A simple way to measure how good a product is would be to see whether the product is recommended by the purchaser, or whether they buy similar products from the same brand/source again.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The New Mind Control – The internet has spawned subtle fo... by alanwatts on Friday March 11, 2016 @09:08AM (#11266652)
Ah so you don't mean good and bad in terms of morality or the harm it will bring to the user but solely upon consumption preference. By this definition crystal meth can be considered a good product.
[ Parent | on HN ]