Context was the idea of a government banning certain popular foods

  • AmidFuror
    link
    fedilink
    9616 days ago

    Unregulated anarchy vs nanny state. There’s a wide spectrum in between we can argue about, but let’s not get too far toward either extreme.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      3116 days ago

      Kinder eggs should NOT be banned, and Americans have an inferior product because of it.

      …but also I agree with the banning of Red dye #3.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        2015 days ago

        It’s banned in the US because we’re sue-crazy. Companies can’t rely on the common sense of their customers here. Even if the egg comes with a blinking neon sign that says there’s a non edible toy inside, someone would sue (and win!) claiming that it’s not enough and the toy shouldn’t be there in the first place.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          415 days ago

          Even if they don’t win the case, court cases in general can be extremely costly. So companies will try to avoid getting sued as much as they try to avoid doing things that would actually lose them a lawsuit.

      • ElectricMachman
        link
        fedilink
        English
        615 days ago

        I was about to protest, but grog calls for red dye #2, so we’re all good.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          2015 days ago

          I live in a place where kinder eggs arent banned and i dont often find rocks inside cheap brownies. Theres a way to have both lol

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          916 days ago

          Without a warning, sure. But they aren’t trying to hide that there is something inedible in there. It’s not even a “hey, there is a prize inside one of the brownies in this box.” It’s, “there is something inside this thin chocolate shell. Break it to see what it is.”

        • Cethin
          link
          fedilink
          English
          114 days ago

          Most fruit have inedible seeds inside, yet those aren’t really an issue. Yes, these are marketed specifically towards children, which could be part of the issue, but it’s a bit ridiculous.

    • Cethin
      link
      fedilink
      English
      414 days ago

      As a (social) anarchist, yeah there’s a wide range. The government shouldn’t tell people what they’re allowed to eat, in my opinion, but they should protect them from dangers and exploitation. We don’t usually have the tools, or the time, to test all our food to ensure safety. We need government oversight for that. However, they shouldn’t go too far beyond that and force us to eat particular things.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      -816 days ago

      In a right wing “anarchy”, dangerous foods will appear in the markets all the time.

      In a left wing anarchist society, the community would consult their experts on food safety then band together and colletively stop making such foods, and stop importing those from other communities.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        15
        edit-2
        15 days ago

        That’s anarchy? Wow, that’s dumb. They should not just collectively decide something. They should write down what they decided so that people who couldn’t attend or that later come from outside the community know what has been decided. Or, even better, if I know I can’t participate in the decision (or don’t want to) I should be able to pass my voice to somebody who’s there who I trust. Or, even better, just in case that person spontaneously gets sick or dies, to a group of people. Maybe, to get some consistency with people getting to know the details of the decision making process and the prior decisions, only redistribute these stand in votes every few years or so. Just to get the anarchy organised a bit.

        • IndiBrony
          link
          fedilink
          English
          15
          edit-2
          15 days ago

          That sounds great!

          Wait a minute… That doesn’t sound like anarchy… That sounds like democracy!

      • AmidFuror
        link
        fedilink
        415 days ago

        I have to admit I never really understood how anarchist societies were supposed to work. Now that you’ve pointed out they are just people banding together to make collective decisions based on expert information, I can’t fathom why I ever thought they could go wrong.

        • MolochAlter
          link
          fedilink
          English
          14
          edit-2
          15 days ago

          Simple: they wouldn’t work that way.

          Left anarchism, like everything left, only works on paper.

          Here’s a few holes:

          • Who decides who is and isn’t an expert? Jim Jones was considered an expert by the Jonestown people, RFK is considered one by maga.

          • Assuming we find a way to establish an “expert” category of citizens, that’s already hierarchical. You now have a ruling class since these people get more of a say than the average person by virtue of their role, and don’t have a completely flat anarchist society anymore but instead a sort of representative technocracy.

          • Moreover anarchist societies are supposed to not employ coercion, so even if you had experts whose opinion dictates norms, how are you going to enforce them?

          Anarchists (left and right) reinvent the state, just shittier, less consistent, and without founding principles, every time they are put in front of the practical needs of a society where not everyone agrees with them.

          Some go as far as inventing authoritarian oligarchies, just ones they happen to agree with and thus support.

            • MolochAlter
              link
              fedilink
              English
              315 days ago

              Oh god you have no idea how many believe this in earnest (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            English
            615 days ago

            Some go as far as inventing authoritarian oligarchies

            tankies are authoritarian, their “leftism” is just a disguise to obtain power

            • MolochAlter
              link
              fedilink
              English
              515 days ago

              They are authoritarian and marxist leftists, they are not mutually exclusive, if anything they are more likely bedfellows than not, by necessity.

              You can’t have a free economy without decentralised price controls (i.e. a market) and you can’t have a market without ownership, so you will eventually end up having a control economy if you remove private ownership from the equation, and control economies are fundamentally authoritarian.

              The ultimate means of production is the person, and you don’t get to own it exclusively, even if it’s yourself.

              • @[email protected]
                link
                fedilink
                English
                115 days ago

                I think some market-based leftists have proposed various solutions for this problem, like mandating that all companies be run as coops. But I’m still skeptical of these for a number of reasons.

                • MolochAlter
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  115 days ago

                  That’s also a non-solution, all it does is make scaling a company a huge mess, and contractorship basically mandatory for any kind of expansion.

                  I.e. I don’t hire anyone cause they would need to buy into the co-op, or they’d have their surplus value taken and thus be exploited, so instead everyone makes self-employed ““co-ops”” and hires eachother as contracting businesses.

                  It’s literally just capitalism with really stupid centralist extra steps.