Debate with Ruben Cober
Initial post
Might be me, but I don’t think advertisements by public broadcasters questioning whether babies are ‘the future or climate killers’ are very healthy for Europe’s future
My disagreement
As pointed out in the comments, this post is misleading. It wants you to imagine that public broadcasters are just putting out advertisements for political slogans to make fewer people in Europe have babies. It plays into the classic right-wing narrative of taxpayer funds being used to promote degeneracy, with some in the comments going as far as to say that this is proof of "anti-white" propaganda. (I'll link a documentation of the whole dispute in the comments where I show this)
Now, if you examine this on its merits, it falls apart. Not only is this poster from the year 2020, it also doesn't just advertise a slogan. It is an advertisement for a documentary about a specific climate group in the UK that chose not to have children. I would have liked to verify if the documentary itself was any good, but I think it got taken down because of the regulations on public broadcasters, which say that their content gets deleted after 2 years.
This significantly impacts the evaluation of that case. It is an advertisement for a product made by a public broadcaster that examines an admittedly niche cultural debate. You can still say the product was bad or that you disagree with not having children because of climate change, but claiming that the poster existing is bad feels weird from the side that normally bangs on about the importance of open debate.
Comment
Here’s the whole documentation context I promised:
https://egon-obsidian-publish.vercel.app/misc/disagreeing-with-ruben-cober/
Ruben's reply
Thanks for your reply. At least you took the time to substantiate it, in contrast to some others. I didn´t say it was an ad FOR a political slogan. Even if it´s an advertisement for a documentary, as I´ve said, I consider such a message to not be healthy for Europe´s future, given the already very low birth rate throughout Europe. Yet that does not mean that I think it should be ´banned´ or should not be shown. Nowhere did I say this. Finally, I am not responsible for the comments under my notes or for the opinions of others. So I did not say that the poster was bad; I believe the message on it is bad, even if it’s ‘just’ about a documentary
My Reply
While you say it wasn't an advertisement for a political slogan, it certainly came across that way. I interpreted it that way, as did many of the people in your comment section, which is why I included that section in my documentation. You can disagree but avoiding that misconception would only require a marginal edit.
As for thinking it's not healthy, I can understand that perception, but I'm not sure how else the broadcaster should have acted. If they do a documentary on something which is niche but relevant and want people to watch it, this is the most attention-grabbing way to do it. You can't expect them to dodge the topic of their documentary while promoting that documentary.
RR
I disagree with you in the sense that I did not say it was a political slogan, and I won’t edit it. And as I’ve said, I’m not ‘against’ them showing an ad. They can advertise whatever they want. I just don’t think it’s healthy for Europe’s future. But thanks again for your genuine engagement. All the best