Originally Posted by Gilles de Rais

How is advertising authoritarian?

By vistue of being imposed upon us without consent. If I reqwuested information about a product and received it, that would be fine, but out public spaces are awash with it.

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That's because bans are usually ineffective. See the ban on drugs or on alcohol in the USA in the 30s.

False equivalence. The ban on smoking in public spaces is not prohibition, is no more than a minor inconvenience, and is easily policed.

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Since it's hard to push actuarial calculations down to the individual level (and the concept of insurance requires mutualisation, actually), the gvt seeks to limit harmful behaviours at the population level.

And there is a difference between public information campaigns, like the famous AIDS adverts, and seeking to manipulate someone without their knowledge or consent. After all, if that principle is established, why shouldn't we be manipulated into voting the "right" way too? It's for our own good, they say.

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OTOH, gvts ought to respect data. If smoking is proven to be actuarially positive by killing off people fairly fast in their late 50s, early 60s, gvts MUST encourage smoking...

Well indeed, becuase the last thing we want is for people to live long lives. This is where your logic becomes utterly self defeating.

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Agreed. And Z is teasing me with this extreme porn stuff etc. Because, like their anti-gay stance, this is part of the moral agenda of the Conservatives, without any concrete proof of harm ever confirming society ought to fear gay marriage or BDSM sex being filmed by consenting adults for consenting adults... THIS is authoritarian. They use legal powers to ENFORCE their views. THIS is, emphatically, NOT nudging.

And I say bah humbug to that.

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Nudging, in the case of gay marriage, would be something like putting some extra taxes on same sex marriages or requiring extra paper work for the marriage to be performed...

I think you missed the point.