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Those gas station ads are so offensive to the senses. I want so desperately for them to stop.

I used to live near Cupertino, and the Valero station on De Anza and Prospect always played the local classical radio station. Driving a car is pretty tiring, and to take a break and have loud ads projected at you only adds to the stress. To instead step out of your car to modestly amplified classical music is really much better. I always made a point to stop at that specific station for gas. We really need to be more mindful of the world we create for one another.




Digital signs with super bright lights are just so dystopian.

We can be far away from vigilantes killing them. I’d sponsor the odd hit.


What we really need is to stop praising CEO and marketing idiots who do that and normalize punching bad people in the face. There’s too much of them in the world who do bad things consciously and cover behind ignorance and inaccessibility. Atrocious interactions by technical means should be considered misdemeanors and treated respectively. There’s no difference between a flashing ads screen and a street sales guy buzzing in your ear, a car playing ads at you and a guy knocking on your window selling nonsense. Voting with your money doesn’t work when you normalize screaming at you with no consequences.


The problem is, 95% of people don't like classical music, they like pop, and every business is motivated to cater to as wide audience as possible.


The other gas stations don't play pop, they play ads. The point is this business made a choice not to bombard people with ads, and I wish more places did that.


Yeah. Only 37% of people prefer pop.

https://www.statista.com/forecasts/997214/preferred-radio-co...

Anyway, they should

1. Play the least annoying music, not the most popular.

2. Use decent speakers.


Press the button on the right, one down from the top.

x x

x here

x x

x x


Yeah, until you realize why they're doing it. Hint: it's to drive away "undesirables" like roaming teenagers and homeless people.


Driving me and my money away too. It only seems to start when I insert my card, so I think you are wrong.


I don't understand what's bad about this.


Whether you think it is bad or not is typically a question of your personal politics. My point is not to litigate that but to mention that the gas station isn't playing it because they want you to have a better day, but for the same reason why they might blast an ad: because they see is as a solution to a problem that they solve independently of you.


That means you're a bad person.


Why? I'm not OP, but I'm honestly asking.

Is it immoral to, for instance, design a "planned city" to be as boring as possible in order to not attract thrill-seekers?

Now, mind you, I'm asking solely about design. There would be no enforcement of any kind. No "we don't want your kind here". Nothing like in the opening to First Blood.

Just boring AF. Everything closes at 8pm excluding a few bars and restaurants. Lots of playgrounds, good schools, and walking paths to attract a population of young families with children.


It's not a problem for architecture to solve, it's a problem for the society to solve.

Architects can just move those people somewhere else.


I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you, but I also don't see what's "bad" or immoral about the example I outlined above.

FWIW, it's not hypothetical. I'm more-or-less describing Columbia, MD which is wedged midway between Washington DC and Baltimore.




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