I don't like quote-tweeting for the purpose of argument, but I want to quickly push back against an apparently popular tweet saying people don't want to come to America. This is, of course, nonsense.

The US remains the most popular destination of choice for immigrants, though we take far fewer people per capita than e.g. Canada or Australia.

To use an overused word, it's a sign of privilege that you think there aren't people who'd love even a lower class American lifestyle.
The groups least likely to immigrate here are the ones with the least to gain. If you're a wealthy European, you've got to have a pretty good offer on the table to come. Or a loved one you want to be with. Or you really like American cheese, perhaps.
It's just another face of American exceptionalism to think this country is especially bad. We didn't invent corruption or bad leaders or prejudice. We've excelled at a few forms of evil no doubt, but do you think that really deters someone from wanting their income multiplied 5x?
Put it this way - suppose there's a Mars colony run by a crazy billionaire. You despise Martian politics, and you know some Martians would look down on you for your appearance and accent. But, by going there, you take your current income and add a zero to it.
How much do you care at that point about whether the leader is a dick, whether the culture is malign in some way, whether life is too consumerist, foreign policy too expansionist, whether there are many people who would like you to go away? Very little, I suspect.
And even if that puts you off, surely you can appreciate that immigrants throughout history have been willing to endure far worse to give themselves and their kids a better shot at health, wealth, and happiness.
This sort of thing strikes me the same way as hearing Americans complain about too much economic growth in the world. Try telling that to a Bangladeshi economist. It's like yelling from an infinity pool about how people need to appreciate the little things.
Anyway, this is turning into a rant, so let me just say: yes, many still want to enter past the Statue of Liberty, and land here to stay. It's different people, and they come by plane now, but they still want to come. And, we should be glad of the opportunity to welcome them.
PS: The least we could do right this second is welcome everyone fleeing Syrian, Rohingya, Uighur, Hong Konger, and Venezuelan. And everyone else too, but those are the no-brainers. Want a patriot? Give them a patria.

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Humans inherently like the act of solidarity. We are social beings. We like to huddle up and be together.
They used this against us.
They convinced us that it was an act of solidarity to flatten the curve, to wear a mask for others, to take the vaccines for others,


and to reach #covidzero for others. They convinced us that this was for the greater good of society.
In reality, this couldn't be further away from the truth. They have divided us and broken the core structure of our society. They have dehumanized us with their masks.

They set us against each other into clans on opposite sides of a spectrum. They have turned us into aggressive beings fighting for our survival. Some of us fear harm from the virus, others fear harm from the vaccine, and yet others fear harm from the attack on our civilization.

We are all on a flight or fight mode. We are all operating under the influence of fear. We must collect ourselves and reflect on what has happened over the last year.
How is this for the greater good of society?

They used a tactical warfare strategy against us.
'Divide and conquer'.
We fell for it.
Now we must become aware of it and fight back.
We must reunite. We must find true solidarity to save our world. To free ourselves. To regain our autonomy.
This response to my tweet is a common objection to targeted advertising.

@KevinCoates correct me if I'm wrong, but basic point seems to be that banning targeted ads will lower platform profits, but will mostly be beneficial for consumers.

Some counterpoints 👇


1) This assumes that consumers prefer contextual ads to targeted ones.

This does not seem self-evident to me


Research also finds that firms choose between ad. targeting vs. obtrusiveness 👇

If true, the right question is not whether consumers prefer contextual ads to targeted ones. But whether they prefer *more* contextual ads vs *fewer* targeted

2) True, many inframarginal platforms might simply shift to contextual ads.

But some might already be almost indifferent between direct & indirect monetization.

Hard to imagine that *none* of them will respond to reduced ad revenue with actual fees.

3) Policy debate seems to be moving from:

"Consumers are insufficiently informed to decide how they share their data."

To

"No one in their right mind would agree to highly targeted ads (e.g., those that mix data from multiple sources)."

IMO the latter statement is incorrect.

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