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A comment on Why Don’t We Just Ban Targeted Advertising?. Parent comment

Re:Why Don’t We Just Ban Targeted Advertising? by jstanley on Monday March 23, 2020 @08:39AM (#22663462)
We also functioned for centuries without electricity, hot and cold running water, or good sanitation.

The fact that we functioned without something doesn't imply that we're better off without it.

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Re:Why Don’t We Just Ban Targeted Advertising? by Razengan on Monday March 23, 2020 @09:24AM (#22663864)
The fact that we functioned without something doesn't imply that we're better off with it.
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Re:Why Don’t We Just Ban Targeted Advertising? by jstanley on Monday March 23, 2020 @01:35PM (#22666442)
Agreed. The fact that we functioned without it before is of zero information content when deciding whether we should function without it again.
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Re:Why Don’t We Just Ban Targeted Advertising? by Razengan on Monday March 23, 2020 @03:33PM (#22667832)
No, the fact that we functioned without it is a fact that we can function without it.

And literally billions of people do function without targeted advertising, right now.

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Re:Why Don’t We Just Ban Targeted Advertising? by jstanley on Monday March 23, 2020 @04:07PM (#22668181)
Nobody is saying we can't function without advertising!

But we can function without lots of things. The fact that we can function without something isn't a strong argument in favour of getting rid of it.

I don't even like advertising. I'm not trying to support advertising. I'm just addressing the logical fallacy.

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Re:Why Don’t We Just Ban Targeted Advertising? by throwaway5466 on Monday March 23, 2020 @09:05AM (#22663705)
We would be certainly better off without advertising. We don't need people to tell us to buy things to function in society.
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