this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2025
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Mildly Interesting

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The idea feels like sci-fi because you're so used to it, imagining ads gone feels like asking to outlaw gravity. But humanity had been free of current forms of advertising for 99.9% of its existence. Word-of-mouth and community networks worked just fine. First-party websites and online communities would now improve on that.

The traditional argument pro-advertising—that it provides consumers with necessary information—hasn't been valid for decades.

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[–] Guns0rWeD13@lemmy.world 26 points 1 day ago (1 children)

what if we made capitalism illegal? because all of the bullshit like advertising is symptomatic. the root cause is capitalism. western civilization has to be reset entirely. and it will never get done through protesting.

[–] LarmyOfLone@lemm.ee 2 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah with advances in software and AI you could also manage the economy much more efficient and in real time than the old "planned economy". Shortages and problems could be handled quickly. With crowd funding you could also have banks providing funds for new enterprises (collectives / coops) by people voting democratically on what to approve.

The issue is that I haven't seen any serious work on improving socialism, which most socialists seem to think is a heretical concept. So there is a lack of valid alternatives to capitalism that people can imagine. And the power balance and technology for propaganda to control the population and weaponry and tactics the stage manage protests has advanced too.

And then there is the issue that no matter what ideology and system, those who desire power or wealth above anything else are more likely to attain it, and we haven't yet found good antibodies to this fundamental problem of managing power. Or even know about it.

[–] Guns0rWeD13@lemmy.world 1 points 10 hours ago

yeah, i def agree about AI managed resources. we need to take away as many opportunities for greed and corruption as possible.

and really, this all comes down to letting science run the show rather than financiers and economists. the economy has replaced common sense.