Controversial Opinions Thread

[Mando Pandango]

Whatever you crazy Internet people say  

As you might know, I am a full time Internet.

[Kalahari Inkantation]

Whatever you crazy Internet people say 

and the

[Thyme]

Never go to bed

[Samus Aran]

Unfortunately, as we all know, people

[strongbad]

the pressure that our society holds over the obligation to vote is stupid. in reality you're just trying to guess which candidate will be better based on what they've said and what they have done, which is hardly a good indicator of the future. voting is just guessing coupled with inherent bias. nobody can see both sides to anything (not saying that i am exempt from this), and if you don't want to participate in the broken system you shouldn't have to

the idea of "race" will and should be abolished, and people need to view the human race as one race instead of a bunch of different races in competition with eachother. i feel the same way about gender. while differences between sexes are much more tangible, instead of mostly made up (like that with races), i feel like you should just be an individual with a penis or an individual with a vagina, and then fuck whoever you want, instead of having to identify yourself as something and experience a shit ton of bias based on your identification

marketing is inherently unethical and should be entirely information based. this would give the consumers the best possible experience (because really, when you're trying to find out if a product is good or not do you ever look at the company's page for it? of course not) and encourage better products to be made instead of whatever appeals to idiots who have been brainwashed by fox news

copyrights on productivity based software (anything that can be used as a tool) should be abolished, everything should be open-source, and there should be a tax to support open source software. this would create an ultimately superior computing experience that is driven by quality instead of one-upping the competition and financial gain that brings down the consumer (i.e. drm)

[Mando Pandango]

I agree with most of that except the voting thing.

[Hiro]

how is trying to convince people to buy your product unethical

[Mando Pandango]

I somewhat disagree with the race part too. The racial barriers that exist are certainly more concrete, in my eyes, than the ones that separate gender. Mostly because people of different races tend to be from different cultural backgrounds, so in that respect it's really just the culture instead of race, but there's a strong correlation to race that can't be ignored.

[strongbad]

how is trying to convince people to buy your product unethical

It's not unethical if you're only using factual data. Why do coke and pepsi need to sell a "lifestyle" when they sell their product? people being happy and bubbly and drinking coke. when in reality, you can get the exact same product for less money with a "fred meyer brand cola" or "safeway select cola" label on it. it baffles me that people buy the name brand.
that kind of marketing is a waste of time and money. people know what the product is. it's fucking cola. it's not a lifestyle.
using that kind of marketing for every product (which happens) brainwashes people. look at how successful beats headphones are. overpriced as shit. you can get better headphones for half the price, but people can't see through the marketing, and they want to fit into the "beats lifestyle" which is moronic

bill hicks has a pretty good bit about it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=awgipAZ8x5c#t=159s

I agree with most of that except the voting thing.

why exactly?
I'm mostly talking out of my ass with that one, but I feel like it doesn't change a whole lot. It's be interesting to see some longitudinal data over expectations and realities for candidates across time.

[silvertone]

if u dont watch television and dl adblcok , you are pretty well off in terms of Evol Advertisements

[strongbad]

I somewhat disagree with the race part too. The racial barriers that exist are certainly more concrete, in my eyes, than the ones that separate gender. Mostly because people of different races tend to be from different cultural backgrounds, so in that respect it's really just the culture instead of race, but there's a strong correlation to race that can't be ignored.

definitely, and i have nothing wrong with cultures. the problem with race is that people immediately identify one's race with the culture that is most fitting for their physical appearance. if you want to appreciate your culture, that's awesome. the problem that i have is that if you were 25% african american and 75% caucasian, and you were interested in your african roots more than your caucasian ones, people would think you were ridiculous. looking white and having vested interests in a culture that doesn't look fitting for you. i think that the word "race" should be abolished, since that implies differences beyond a cultural background (and the minor physical differences, which probably wont be around for a couple hundred more years anyway because of increased globalization).

[Nyerp]

I somewhat disagree with the race part too. The racial barriers that exist are certainly more concrete, in my eyes, than the ones that separate gender. Mostly because people of different races tend to be from different cultural backgrounds, so in that respect it's really just the culture instead of race, but there's a strong correlation to race that can't be ignored.

the word you're looking for is "ethnicity"

[strongbad]

the word you're looking for is "ethnicity"

which is a much better word.

also, it's idiotic that you need to check a box to identify your ethnicity whenever you're applying for something or filling something out. that just enforces the idea that our different ethnicities pull us apart from being of the same human race. 

[ME##]

which is a much better word.

also, it's idiotic that you need to check a box to identify your ethnicity whenever you're applying for something or filling something out. that just enforces the idea that our different ethnicities pull us apart from being of the same human race. 

even more extreme:  i don't think there should be any sort of personal identifying data [gender/ethnicity/etc] on applications.  just qualifications and how to contact the individual.

[strongbad]

even more extreme:  i don't think there should be any sort of personal identifying data [gender/ethnicity/etc] on applications.  just qualifications and how to contact the individual.

i agree completely
though once they get to the interview the interviewer's biases take over and fuck over black people and non-straights