its a rhetorical question, you moron

Yes! Advertising is also manipulative! I fucking hate ads! I have ads blocked in every single possible way I can! Buying a product doesn't validate its advertising, but buying a product TO HAVE THE PRODUCT validates the way the product is physically presented to you. God fucking damn you are dumb

These don't exist because "haha its fun"! They exist because it makes it harder and more expensive to complete sets! It is a business practice that takes advantage of you! How do you guys fall for it so fucking bad that you're out here simping for corporations doing it to you, directly?! Christ!

This type of product- random chance purchases- ONLY EXISTS TO MANIPULATE BUYERS. You thinking the surprise is fun is part of the manipulation, and you HAVE been manipulated, because you believe the *fun* is more important than the *ethics* of it, and refuse to concede that its manipulative!

Can you come up with a reason they WOULDNT sell them individually but WOULD sell them as random boxes that ISNT evidence of trying to get people to spend more money and buy into FOMO and gambling systems? I'm pretty fucking sure you can't. So can you admit that maybe it'd be best to do BOTH?

GO AHEAD But have the fucking mental capacity and concern for others well being to recognize that it being the ONLY way to complete a collectible product is a manipulative business practice! They could very, very easily sell them random for people who want a surprise AND sell them individually!

You think "Hey, maybe it's actually NOT cool to be chill with dangerous and unethical business practices designed around manipulating people" is a MAGA position? Are you genuinely this fucking stupid?

IDGAF if they sell a "random" option. I don't know how you guys can't wrap your fucking heads around this, but it's the EXPLOITATIVE MANIPULATION PART that's bad. Sell them all! Make it so you can buy what you want or need! But ONLY SELLING THINGS AS MYSTERY BOXES is MANIPULATION. That is BAD.

Thank YOU for validating mine. Yes, you are a bad person, if your response is "Sure the experts all say it's bad, and sure manipulative advertising is a scourge on humanity, and sure FOMO tactics are manipulative, and sure it's objectively costing more to complete sets, but *I* like the surprise".

"I think it's fun, therefore we shouldn't be concerned with the ethics of it" is a wild fucking take.

Yeah wait until you get to the part where the "whatever story" literally makes you play the first half of the game a second time and you'll understand why it wasn't a media darling.

You know what responsible people do when the thing they signal boosted is inaccurate? They delete the signal boost

Either misinformation is bad and you're against it or it's convenient for you and you're totally chill with spreading it, you can't have both lmao "I delete everything after 2 days" yeah I can see why, less accountability for spreading misinformation and getting upset with people calling you on it

You called someone a pendant for pointing out that the data YOU reposted and YOU declared indicated something didn't actually indicate that and while doing so clarified nothing and presented no facts. How are you gonna talk about misinformation and not bother to curate your own speaking on it? Cmon

i dont doubt there's massive russian disinformation farms, that's like. a known thing. but you directly quoted a correlation being made, agreed with it, and did a whole-ass thread on it...and now it's pedantry when someone points out that the graph doesn't show what you believe/reposted it saying?💀

"looks like after I poured this entire jug of water on the ground there was 98% less poison in it" "but there's no proof the water had poison in it?" "but if it did, there's probably a lot missing. pedantry" this is what you're doing lol either put up or shut up, if this happened, there's data

i mean if it's not pedantry show us the proof that actual traffic *of this kind* is down cuz that's not what you quoted or are talking about you dont get to have 40k followers and post potential misinformation and go "well its not misinformation if it happens to be right maybe" and call it a day

At this point I think you might just be fucking stupid. "adults aren't susceptible to manipulation" is your argument? Fuck off.

Merch is fine! Merch that requires you to GAMBLE to get it and plays on FOMO and obfuscates the purchase and results in excess is NOT! Can you TRULY not concede that? Are you ACTUALLY that dedicated to the people behind these products to the degree you'll PRETEND not to get it? Give me a break!

IT'S NOT ABOUT TOYS BEING BAD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT. IT'S ABOUT THIS BEING A SHOW ABOUT HOW IT IS *BAD TO CREATE PREDATORY CAPITALISTIC PRACTICES TO ADVERTISE MEDIA USING COLLECTIBLE TOYS THAT MARKET TO VULNERABLE PARTS OF THE HUMAN BRAIN*. Making merch for it **THAT DOES THOSE THINGS** is wild!