<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>photochemsyn</author><text>IIRC a liter of Coca-Cola contains ~120g of sugar, and they need to add phosphoric acid to make it all go into solution.  In fact, so much phosphoric acid that it makes a good de-rusting agent, i.e. any iron oxide (rust) will, after being soaked in Coca-Cola overnight, be converted to iron phosphate, which is easily removed with a light scrub.  In addition, regularly consuming that much sugar puts you at high risk for type II diabetes, heart disease due to obesity, liver malfunction, and probably other things.&lt;p&gt;So no, absolutely do not want to drink what amounts to a toxic industrial solvent... though I did drink the stuff as a teenager before I learned all that, I must admit.&lt;p&gt;Point being, such advertising only works that effectively if you have a dumbed-down population ignorant of science, math, history and similar matters.&lt;p&gt;Here&amp;#x27;s a viable conspiracy theory, on that could very well be true: the attacks on American public education over the past 40 years are part of a deliberate effort to create a dumbed down population more susceptible to manipulation by corporate advertisers and state propagandists.</text><parent_chain><item><author>fragmede</author><text>If you think you&amp;#x27;re not being manipulated, you&amp;#x27;re deluded. Advertising &lt;i&gt;works&lt;/i&gt;. It worked before the Internet and there&amp;#x27;s even more of it now. We do still have individual agency but don&amp;#x27;t you want a cool refreshing Coca-Cola right about now?</text></item><item><author>Barrin92</author><text>&amp;gt;either individually or collectively anonymously or not, gives them power over us in many ways to predict, manipulate, dispossess&lt;p&gt;The thing is, is that actually true? What always comes to mind for me is the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which involved their self-declared &amp;#x27;psychometric targeting&amp;#x27;, which it turned out, after scientists did some studies had a measurable effect of zero on people&amp;#x27;s behaviour[1].&lt;p&gt;People &lt;i&gt;love&lt;/i&gt; this idea of &amp;#x27;big data&amp;#x27; as some powerful ominous tool, even big companies themselves seem to push it explicitly to seem more towering than they are. It&amp;#x27;s much more boring and unfashionable to think that people are a little more complex and have more agency and that companies push it because it makes them sound more sophisticated than they are.&lt;p&gt;[1]&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.vox.com&amp;#x2F;science-and-health&amp;#x2F;2018&amp;#x2F;3&amp;#x2F;23&amp;#x2F;17152564&amp;#x2F;cambridge-analytica-psychographic-microtargeting-what&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.vox.com&amp;#x2F;science-and-health&amp;#x2F;2018&amp;#x2F;3&amp;#x2F;23&amp;#x2F;17152564&amp;#x2F;ca...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>kornhole</author><text>Author does not mention the major reason I care which is that allowing others to know what we are doing, thinking, saying, where we are going.. either individually or collectively anonymously or not, gives them power over us in many ways to predict, manipulate, dispossess.. which leads to the imbalances we have today of the haves and have nots of data.&lt;p&gt;The people who say big tech already has so much data on them so why care are missing the valence of time. What you did, thought, said.. last year is much less valuable and useful than what you are doing today.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Online privacy: to what extent should you try to go dark?</title><url>https://cyb3rsecurity.tips/p/-online-privacy-to-what-extent-should</url></story>
<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>spunker540</author><text>Nobody is denying advertising works. But most of the time ads are trying to win you over vs competitors in the market. Most of it is predicated on the fact that you are in the market for something, and they want you to choose them over someone else. I doubt coca-cola is targeting non-soda drinkers in their advertisements. But they want you to pick coke over Pepsi.&lt;p&gt;Even if you create an open source drug that cures cancer and give it away for free, you’re gonna need a marketing campaign so that doctors know about it, or that patients know to ask their doctor about it. Not because you’re malicious and trying to manipulate people but because otherwise people who would benefit from your product won’t know it exists.</text><parent_chain><item><author>fragmede</author><text>If you think you&amp;#x27;re not being manipulated, you&amp;#x27;re deluded. Advertising &lt;i&gt;works&lt;/i&gt;. It worked before the Internet and there&amp;#x27;s even more of it now. We do still have individual agency but don&amp;#x27;t you want a cool refreshing Coca-Cola right about now?</text></item><item><author>Barrin92</author><text>&amp;gt;either individually or collectively anonymously or not, gives them power over us in many ways to predict, manipulate, dispossess&lt;p&gt;The thing is, is that actually true? What always comes to mind for me is the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which involved their self-declared &amp;#x27;psychometric targeting&amp;#x27;, which it turned out, after scientists did some studies had a measurable effect of zero on people&amp;#x27;s behaviour[1].&lt;p&gt;People &lt;i&gt;love&lt;/i&gt; this idea of &amp;#x27;big data&amp;#x27; as some powerful ominous tool, even big companies themselves seem to push it explicitly to seem more towering than they are. It&amp;#x27;s much more boring and unfashionable to think that people are a little more complex and have more agency and that companies push it because it makes them sound more sophisticated than they are.&lt;p&gt;[1]&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.vox.com&amp;#x2F;science-and-health&amp;#x2F;2018&amp;#x2F;3&amp;#x2F;23&amp;#x2F;17152564&amp;#x2F;cambridge-analytica-psychographic-microtargeting-what&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.vox.com&amp;#x2F;science-and-health&amp;#x2F;2018&amp;#x2F;3&amp;#x2F;23&amp;#x2F;17152564&amp;#x2F;ca...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>kornhole</author><text>Author does not mention the major reason I care which is that allowing others to know what we are doing, thinking, saying, where we are going.. either individually or collectively anonymously or not, gives them power over us in many ways to predict, manipulate, dispossess.. which leads to the imbalances we have today of the haves and have nots of data.&lt;p&gt;The people who say big tech already has so much data on them so why care are missing the valence of time. What you did, thought, said.. last year is much less valuable and useful than what you are doing today.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Online privacy: to what extent should you try to go dark?</title><url>https://cyb3rsecurity.tips/p/-online-privacy-to-what-extent-should</url></story>