this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2024
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Privacy

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[–] interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml 8 points 5 months ago (1 children)

The real goal is to get the population to regret demanding things like gdpr.

Similar to the plastic industry's covert legislative push to ban plastic straw.

Irritate the public enough to stop them demanding more.

In this case it's a double whammy of also getting our sweet private data for their AI models.

[–] sramder@lemmy.world 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Got any more info on the plastic straw plot? Because I’d love for that to be true, but I’m just getting craploads of articles saying the opposite.

[–] interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Of course, the mad men won't leak those details until they're on their death bed and need to repent.

Here of a slightly more refined take.

Anti plastic straw campaign is an industry gambit to undermine environmentalist anti plastic movement. It create maximum public inconvenience and backlash against the environmentalist cause for a minimal loss of profits. This moves protects the rest of the industry by reducing support to the anti plastic caused through backlash and the feeling of accomplishment and sacrifice

Chatgpt re interpretation

This perspective suggests that the anti-plastic straw campaign is a strategic move by the plastic industry to protect itself. By targeting plastic straws, which are a minor part of plastic waste but widely used, the campaign creates significant public inconvenience. This inconvenience can lead to a backlash against the broader environmental movement. Consequently, people might feel that the inconvenience of giving up straws is enough of a sacrifice, reducing their motivation to support more substantial anti-plastic initiatives. Meanwhile, the plastic industry sustains minimal financial impact since straws represent a small fraction of their overall product lineup. This theory implies a sophisticated tactic to safeguard the industry's interests by diverting attention from more impactful areas of plastic production and consumption.

[–] sramder@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago

So just a personal theory then?

There was definitely a time when I would have called this seriously tinfoil-hat… but given the stuff that keeps coming out, the industries support for community recycling programs that they knew would never work, etc. I’m giving it a 7/10 for probably and a 10/10 for creativity ;-)

Personally I tend to believe that generally well meaning people thought that paper straw technology would continue to improve, didn’t involve PFAS or microplastics… or that we’d all carry around a personal straw. But I do love the smoke filled room of mad men architecting a masterful conspiracy propped on the plastic shoulders of the humblest of columns.