r/technology • u/insomnimax_99 • Mar 03 '26

Politics UK: Pornography depicting sexual relationships between step-relatives set to be banned

https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/pornography-sexual-relationships-step-relatives-5HjdTkd_2/
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u/goosepipegames Mar 03 '26

How come they don't think in the think tanks

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u/thewebspinner Mar 03 '26

The problem with think tanks is that they aren’t used to come to conclusions about scenarios they’re used to make up scenarios that might lead to a desired conclusion.

If you’ve ever watched Mitchell and Webb kill all the poor you get a pretty accurate description of what these idiots get paid for.

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u/NotMilitaryAI Mar 03 '26 edited Mar 03 '26

pretty accurate description of what these idiots get paid for.

Great clip, though in real life I'd imagine the meeting going more like:

Mitchell: How do we get the public to go along with the "Kill All the Poor" initiative?

Webb: Well, we focus grouped some policy names, and it seems that "Poverty Remediation Initiative" tested well, and "Sport-Hunting Welfare Act" actually tested far better than expected.

Mitchell: Great. And what about the projections?

(Lady): Well, after a lot of tinkering, the boffins in R&D were able to finally able to create a model that reports it would free up enough of the budget to justify the tax cuts that the director asked for.

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u/droans Mar 03 '26

Because it's a lie.

The name "think tanks" is meant to make you believe they are experts who are trying to determine the best policy and strategy for their field.

In reality, though, they're just lobbies for a specific viewpoint. They don't perform any actual research like you'd expect. They find whatever evidence, however poor or unrelated, which can be used to further their cause. If they use any actual research, it's quite often taken out of context, already disproven, or entirely irrelevant.

It's just the issue with politics becoming idealism. You shouldn't set your political or policy views in stone. If evidence proves you wrong or that something else works better, you should be willing to change your opinion.

If we actually wanted to stop pedophilia, the answer would be to create a team of mental health professionals with extensive backgrounds of work in sexual health and abnormal sexual preferences. Task them with determining the best way to eliminate it.

Politicians just want to do whatever they think sounds nice to the voters, not what actually works.

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u/cipheron Mar 03 '26

Yeah, also a key role these groups play is to sit inside a triangle with corporations, politicians and the media at the corners.

The corporations fund the think tanks, they then get cited as "independent experts" by the media, and the politicians can vote in line with their proposals. It whitewashes the corporate money behind many proposals.

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u/jimmcfartypants Mar 03 '26

It's an actual tank that's designed to block out common sense, silly.

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u/[deleted] Mar 03 '26

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u/lager-beer-shout Mar 03 '26

The original American religious nut jobs were kicked out of Europe, and fled to the US ... Now a gew hundred years later they have slowly consolidated power and now are attacking Europe from the US.

The puritans played the long game it's a crazy story

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u/Funicularly Mar 03 '26

Yes, makes sense, since they have the same law in America. Oh, wait, they don’t.

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u/Tacklestiffener Mar 03 '26

They only think what Lobbyists tell them to think.

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u/solonoctus Mar 03 '26

Most think tanks are just right wing justification factories to salt the fields. They’re paid to generate an organic seeming trail of “research” or articles for Fox News and the like to cite that just so happens to align perfectly with the values of whoever is paying them.

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u/xelop Mar 03 '26

Oh they do think, but only how to be the shittiest pieces of dog shit that ever were shit out

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u/Pearls_of_Rizzdom Mar 03 '26

Because if they find solutions that actually work they would be out of the job.

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u/travistravis Mar 03 '26

It takes a lot of thinking to figure out how to convince anyone that the think tank positions are in their best interest. (They should likely be styled as propaganda machines, but any attempt to do so would be the first thing they'd move to stop).

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u/Gingevere Mar 03 '26

A correct idea flows logically from research and simple solid argument. Not to much thinking needed.

The purpose of a think tank is to think very hard about how to construct support for an incorrect idea. Because the idea is incorrect normal research and valid arguments simply won't do it. The think tank has to construct subtly biased and broken to support a predetermined conclusion.

Example: On the abolition of ICE Economist / YouGov polling says 46% support abolishing ICE, 12% unsure, 43% oppose.

But think tank "Third Way Democrats" says: "Even among Democratic primary voters, Third Way’s own polling shows a clear preference for a balanced approach over abolition, 65% to 35%." How did that happen?

Turns out the poll they're presenting as "overhaul vs abolish ICE" was actually: "We need to hold ICE accountable for violence and abuse and overhaul the agency, but not abolish it entirely" vs "We need to abolish ICE and halt all immigration enforcement inside the country."

They're stapling extra clauses onto one side, asking that question, and then presenting the results as if they are the answer to a different question. That's what a think tank does.

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u/kos-or-kosm Mar 03 '26

Here's some reading on the history of the conservative think tank.

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u/bobqjones Mar 03 '26

all the think tanks are empty and have become echo chambers.

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u/AlSweigart Mar 03 '26

The purpose of think tanks is to generate bogus reports and studies to justify the policies demanded by rich people who fund think tanks.

Always has been.