I was intentionally equating them to emphasize the problem. If you're not educated to discern the difference between traditional education and advertisement, then there is no practical difference.
Coca-Cola (and advertisements for it) is more widely available than basic education. I personally think this is unethical on part of the advertiser, doubly so when you're selling something that's both unhealthy and somewhat addicting. There are populations in the world who can't read, but can recognize the Coca-Cola logo.
Independent of intent, all education is indoctrination.
Where I rent comes into play is what you intend for the indoctrinated to do with that education: buy coke, participate in the local ICBM program, or maintain society’s plumbing, the same plumbing the water and sugar in all that coke is pissed down. Either way it creates jobs.
I quit soda this year, and it's been very difficult. Sometimes I just want to wash down a great meal with a tall, ice cold Coke. Hoping after being away from it long term I start to not want it anymore.
Add a splash of juice to plain seltzer. It gives you that nice fizzy feeling perfect for washing down food, but with a fraction of the sugar of a coke.
I stopped drinking soda in early high school, based on those stupid chain emails about them dissolving teeth and cleaning pennies. It was some years later that it became de rigeur to talk about sugar being The Great Satan, so I pretty much got lucky by completely losing the taste for it pretty early.
I stopped drinking sugared sodas years ago. It's just not part of my diet, and I hate the residue it leaves on the teeth. But I'd have the same feeling if I couldn't have around one beer a week.
So is whisky. Life isn’t worth living if you can’t enjoy it. Kale juice might be good for the physical health, but who wants to live in a world without Coca Cola and ice cream? What’s the point of living a long life if you can’t have any fun?
I guess it really depends on your goals. Some people want to do extreme sports and have a great body. Those people probably drink <1 soda per month. Some people want to sit in front of their computers and binge on soda and video games. Most people are somewhere in the middle. that's all OK, but it doesn't mean all of them are treating their body well.
I find your post to be aggressive and prescriptive, while the post you replied to is just attempting to state fact.
Every human who lived before the invention of Coca Cola and ice cream found a reason to live. The question I have is how did you end up thinking that the only lives worth living must include these specific amenities? That's a dangerously inflexible attitude toward other people's cultures.
No it’s not “dangerously inflexible” — Coca Cola can be any particular vice for a culture. The point is that in my culture, ice cream and Coke are not “good” for you, but they make many people happy. You can find similar “bad” things in every culture that make life worth living.
You could conceivably use "who wants to live in a world without Coca Cola and ice cream" to justify the mercy killing of people who live in a society without Coca Cola and ice cream. So why even condition things in such an absurd way?
>he point is that in my culture, ice cream and Coke are not “good” for you, but they make many people happy.
If the point is that vices can do more good than harm, you can say that. You don't have to use phrasing which suggests life would be valueless without those specific vices. The inflexibility is that not even your own life would be valueless if you lost them: you could easily find other vices to amuse yourself by.
Have you had real sodas? And by that I mean, the sour/salt kind? Sugar wasn't even added to many sodas enjoyed outside of medications until Coca-Cola, who then upped the amount of phosphoric acid instead of switching to something easier like citric acid.
Unfortunately Coca-Cola spends more on their own form of education (advertising) than many countries spend on actual education.