“Daddy, that’s not fair.” The late, great P.J. O’Rourke used to joke about one of his young daughters pulling out the “fair” card, only for the satirist to respond with how unfair it was that she was so smart, so cute, so well-off, not to mention that she was born American. O’Rourke was cheerfully clear to her that she had better hope life never became fair.
O’Rourke’s perfect response about life in wildly prosperous America came to mind a lot while reading about this week’s jury verdict against Meta and Google. They were held liable for allegedly “fueling social media addiction for a 20-year-old woman,” and were ordered to pay $6 million in total damages. One can only hope the technology companies vigorously appeal the over-the-top verdict. For now, however, we can marvel at how the definition of addiction has evolved.
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