How Big Corporations and Government Force You To Buy "Advanced" Products That You Don't Need or Want (and Are Often Less "Advanced")
Posted by freedomforall 3 years, 2 months ago to Government
"Marketing is the business of persuading you to feel the need for something you otherwise would probably have never thought of buying – and to make you feel good about buying something you probably don’t need.
Two automotive examples come to mind.
The first is what’s marketed as “advanced driver assistance technology.” It is a euphemism wrapped in a manipulation, inside a cloying infantilism.
Of course it is “advanced” – in the manner that being in favor of authoritarian collectivism is “progressive.” The implication being that to not possess or desire either thing is retrograde. Thus a car without “driver assistance technology” is not “advanced.” And that, of course, is very bad.
It is certainly not safe.
Ergo, you must buy.
In order to be countermanded, controlled and nanny’d – which is what “driver assistance technology” actually does, with the insulting implication that you need “assistance,” in the manner of offering a wheelchair to a man who can walk. You are too incompetent to keep the car in its travel lane or apply the brakes when it is necessary to slow the car down or stop the car or even park the damned thing . . . without “assistance.”
Which is of the “we’re from the government and we’re here to help you” variety.
Which “help” – and “assistance” – you aren’t free to refuse. There is as yet no law requiring that all new cars be equipped with “advanced driver assistance technology” but it isn’t necessary to legislate because corporations have become functionally indistinguishable from government and have the advantage of not having to bother about passing laws or even spewing “mandates.”
They just give you the “choice” of accepting what they force-feed you – by making sure you have no other choice. It is almost impossible to buy any new car without “advanced driver assistance technology” because it has been made standard equipment in almost all new cars, with the handful remaining being holdovers, soon to be updated.
Because it is profitable – and because of something else.
There is no alternative to “advanced driver assistance technology” because only corporations can build cars in a corporatist state – which is what the United States has become. The corporations figured out that it is more profitable to “partner with” the government, in fact and in principle, than to oppose what the government wants – which is become the same thing the corporations want, which is to leave you with no alternative to what they both want.
Free competition is the last thing either want – because of the freedom and the competition.
They want your freedom – and to be free from competition.
This necessarily means not only reducing your options, it means convincing you that they haven’t. Hence “advanced driver assistance technology,” which does just that while implying it does something else. The less control you’ve got over your car, the more control it has over you.
And when you can’t buy a new car without “advanced driver assistance technology,” they have more control over you.
Not to mention more of your money."
Two automotive examples come to mind.
The first is what’s marketed as “advanced driver assistance technology.” It is a euphemism wrapped in a manipulation, inside a cloying infantilism.
Of course it is “advanced” – in the manner that being in favor of authoritarian collectivism is “progressive.” The implication being that to not possess or desire either thing is retrograde. Thus a car without “driver assistance technology” is not “advanced.” And that, of course, is very bad.
It is certainly not safe.
Ergo, you must buy.
In order to be countermanded, controlled and nanny’d – which is what “driver assistance technology” actually does, with the insulting implication that you need “assistance,” in the manner of offering a wheelchair to a man who can walk. You are too incompetent to keep the car in its travel lane or apply the brakes when it is necessary to slow the car down or stop the car or even park the damned thing . . . without “assistance.”
Which is of the “we’re from the government and we’re here to help you” variety.
Which “help” – and “assistance” – you aren’t free to refuse. There is as yet no law requiring that all new cars be equipped with “advanced driver assistance technology” but it isn’t necessary to legislate because corporations have become functionally indistinguishable from government and have the advantage of not having to bother about passing laws or even spewing “mandates.”
They just give you the “choice” of accepting what they force-feed you – by making sure you have no other choice. It is almost impossible to buy any new car without “advanced driver assistance technology” because it has been made standard equipment in almost all new cars, with the handful remaining being holdovers, soon to be updated.
Because it is profitable – and because of something else.
There is no alternative to “advanced driver assistance technology” because only corporations can build cars in a corporatist state – which is what the United States has become. The corporations figured out that it is more profitable to “partner with” the government, in fact and in principle, than to oppose what the government wants – which is become the same thing the corporations want, which is to leave you with no alternative to what they both want.
Free competition is the last thing either want – because of the freedom and the competition.
They want your freedom – and to be free from competition.
This necessarily means not only reducing your options, it means convincing you that they haven’t. Hence “advanced driver assistance technology,” which does just that while implying it does something else. The less control you’ve got over your car, the more control it has over you.
And when you can’t buy a new car without “advanced driver assistance technology,” they have more control over you.
Not to mention more of your money."
