That looks to me like a very uncharitable reading of (or extrapolation from) what abramdemski has said. I take it to be, rather: enjoyment is (to abramdemski, at least) less valuable than we are apt to think it and enjoyment of things that harm us is a snare and a delusion; the existence of superstimuli (and especially the fact that superstimuli can be engineered by others who don’t necessarily have our best interests in view) makes it more dangerous.
The ice cream example aside, I think it would be wrong to say fiction is something that harms us even as we enjoy it, except in the sense of opportunity costs, which is what abramdemski seems to be arguing. Fiction can use superstimuli to manipulate people, but so can lots of other things.
There’s nothing especially wrong with ice cream, that I know of. But abramdemsky disagrees:
Eating ice cream is bad as a matter of fact (this doesn’t seem to require much argument). It’s just a superstimulus for “good food”, and furthermore, negatively impacts health.
That looks to me like a very uncharitable reading of (or extrapolation from) what abramdemski has said. I take it to be, rather: enjoyment is (to abramdemski, at least) less valuable than we are apt to think it and enjoyment of things that harm us is a snare and a delusion; the existence of superstimuli (and especially the fact that superstimuli can be engineered by others who don’t necessarily have our best interests in view) makes it more dangerous.
The ice cream example aside, I think it would be wrong to say fiction is something that harms us even as we enjoy it, except in the sense of opportunity costs, which is what abramdemski seems to be arguing. Fiction can use superstimuli to manipulate people, but so can lots of other things.
What is it about ice-cream? I had one as recently as a month ago, and, well, what?
There’s nothing especially wrong with ice cream, that I know of. But abramdemsky disagrees: