Several people emailed me to tell me about this. Yep, Google and Facebook are both banning ads from the commercial bail industry. You can read about it here.
Why is this a big deal? Well, in addition to just the fact of it, it's because of a couple of things called cognitive dissonance and backfire. Cognitive dissonance is basically the state of having inconsistent thoughts. People don't like it, and they mostly strive for consistency with their various views. To do this, they often seek information that reinforces preexisting views and ideas. This is a really powerful phenomenon; in fact, in a couple of studies a year or so ago, some researchers actually found that if you hold certain beliefs strongly enough, even objectively false statements will cause you to become even more firmly entrenched in your sometimes false views. In other words, presenting the actual facts to people holding certain false beliefs "backfires," and causes them to believe their false ideas even more strongly.
This, in my opinion, is why people in the bail industry are constantly befuddled by everything that's currently happening. Everyone in the industry has pretty firm beliefs, and so all statements -- true or false -- are likely woven into the existing narrative of why commercial bail is such a great thing. In fact, if those researchers are right, bail industry people will continue believing that money bail is a great thing, and no matter what we say they'll only believe it more firmly.
But the bigger problem for commercial bail is that the vast majority of people in the United States have absolutely no preexisting notions about bail. That's why, when you explain things to regular people, they don't necessarily like money bail. And it's why, for example, companies like Google and Facebook would immediately choose to forgo advertising revenue from the industry rather than to be a part of the money bail problem. See how it works? Now Google and Facebook have certain beliefs about money bail that they didn't have before, and presumably they'll be looking for facts to support those beliefs.
By the way, this rather dramatic showing of public disdain for the bail industry is very likely caused by the tactics of ABC, which fights everything, treats their own clients as criminals, and personally attacks and insults those who question the status quo. Oh, and when ABC says people are trying to get rid of people's right to bail, what they mean is money bail, and there's no right to money bail in America. Another part of ABC's strategy is apparently to confuse you about the law.
I'd tell you more about the law and the fact that ABC's overall strategy is failing, but cognitive dissonance and backfire tells me that you'll only take it to mean the opposite of what I say.
