[FRIAM] Web 3 is going great!

[glen]

Interesting take. It reminds me of Stockholm Syndrome and abusive relationships. I've made disruptive runs at ad hominem, hume's guillotine, appeal to authority, and petitio principii. I have yet to make a run at the slippery slope. I had 2 recent opportunities to do so, 1) regarding consent and 2) re: populism. My bougie post is a bit of a start and your defense of MLM propogation is similar. Peter Singer gives us a foundation by arguing that bestiality doesn't *necessarily* represent the abuse of animals. Maybe the sheep likes it when the farmer has their way? Maybe we should take Alison Mack's explicit *consent* to becoming a branded slave and slave recruiter seriously? Maybe the wife enjoys being beaten?

These slopes are obviously slippery. But one that's not so obvious is the asymmetric relationship between the actually powerful and the bougie. E.g. when *I* buy crypto, given that I not only know what they are, what distributed ledgers are, how to do some cryptography, a bit of math, a lot of programming, a lot of systems engineering and supply chain analysis, I really am giving my consent. Like you say, the person selling the Amway products just because they enjoy it and like some of the products isn't necessarily being scammed or scamming others.

The problem is analogous to the redefinition of racism. Racism used to be widely used to *cover* individual prejudice. But as the language evolves, racism is coming to target less visible, systemic infrastructure. The small-minded right doesn't see that. The intellectual right does see it, but purposefully obfuscates. Buying Amway products makes you complicit, whether you understand that or not. ... similar to the insanity defense. I actually don't care if you murdered 17 children because you're insane or radicalized by Fox News or whatever. You still need to die, humanely, regardless of your motivations. Ideas don't matter. Actions do. Maybe that's why I can't bring myself to make a full-throated defense of slippery sloped conclusions like bestiality or "radical democracy".


On 5/31/22 21:29, Eric Charles wrote:
> Alternate take: Web3 is doing just fine.
> 
> Identity politics is bad in all contexts, including when it's used to get people to buy things they otherwise wouldn't buy (which is the main focus of the Molly White article). Also, Pyramid schemes are bad anywhere you find them, not just on the web, and certainly not just in web3. Oh, and also you can manipulate people by giving them a false sense of security... well... no shit.
> 
> But also, if people are getting a thing they want, then that isn't a scam. If you go to a tupperware party put on a friend, because you need tupperware, and might as well buy it there, and then you buy it there, and later the tupperware that you wanted arrives, that simply isn't a bad thing. The tupperware sales scheme might even be an MLM, but that doesn't mean you got scammed when you bought a container, it just means your friend probably isn't going to get rich off the whole thing.
> 
> Here is a link to an NFT that looks to be a pure pyramid scheme, you shouldn't buy it.... but hey... if you get in early maybe you will get lucky and the scheme will work: https://opensea.io/assets/ethereum/0xa8089bf595f2b2ada60b24224fcdc411cf0a40da/300 <https://opensea.io/assets/ethereum/0xa8089bf595f2b2ada60b24224fcdc411cf0a40da/300>
> 
> Here is a link to an NFT minting that is being put on by PokerGo, which is a known, real world company, that runs tons of tournaments, has a production studio, and has its own streaming service for poker (including the biggest back list anywhere), and if you get the NFT it comes with free membership to their streaming service. So, if you figure you are going to pay for their streaming service for a year or two, you probably want to buy this NFT. PokerGO Genesis NFT Collection - Collection | OpenSea <https://opensea.io/collection/pokergo-genesis-nft-collection>
> 
> If eth goes to zero tomorrow (which it won't), as long as PokerGo honors the streaming membership, it will be a fine purchase. If eth goes up and/or there is a run on PokerGo NFTs, and I can sell at a profit in a year or two, that would be even better, but it isn't necessary for the purchase to make sense.
> 
> (Technically the PokerGo NFT is still in mint, so you actually want to "mint" not "buy", but let's not complicate things....)
> 
> Best,
> Eric
> 
> 
> 
> -----------
> Eric P. Charles, Ph.D.
> Senior Workforce Analyst
> Human Capital Management Office
> Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA)
> American University - Adjunct Instructor
> <mailto:echarles at american.edu>
> 
> 
> On Mon, May 30, 2022 at 7:47 AM Frank Wimberly <wimberly3 at gmail.com <mailto:wimberly3 at gmail.com>> wrote:
> 
>     I have too many subscriptions but there's this from the source
> 
>     https://blog.mollywhite.net/predatory-community/ <https://blog.mollywhite.net/predatory-community/>
> 
>     ---
>     Frank C. Wimberly
>     140 Calle Ojo Feliz,
>     Santa Fe, NM 87505
> 
>     505 670-9918
>     Santa Fe, NM
> 
>     On Mon, May 30, 2022, 4:53 AM Roger Critchlow <rec at elf.org <mailto:rec at elf.org>> wrote:
> 
>         https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/05/29/molly-white-crypto/ <https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/05/29/molly-white-crypto/>
> 
>         -- rec --
> 
>         On Fri, May 27, 2022 at 8:17 PM glen <gepropella at gmail.com <mailto:gepropella at gmail.com>> wrote:
> 
>             Ha! No, I won't be buying any NFTs. I do still hold out some hope for distributed computation, however naïve. My Ada is staked. And I'm sporadically re-piqued by FileCoin and AR. But the anti-crypto rants are fantastic. Perfect examples of healthy criticism. This one was a lot of fun:
> 
>             Web3.0: A Libertarian Dystopia
>             https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-sNSjS8cq0 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-sNSjS8cq0>
> 
>             On 5/27/22 17:02, Roger Critchlow wrote:
>              > The longer-form, less sarcastic thoughts on web3 are also good reading, https://blog.mollywhite.net/blockchain/ <https://blog.mollywhite.net/blockchain/> <https://blog.mollywhite.net/blockchain/ <https://blog.mollywhite.net/blockchain/>>, though the rate at which things are going great is pretty hilarious.  Who knew the future would bring us serial rug-pullers?
>              > -- rec --
>              >
>              >
>              > -- rec --
>              >
>              >
>              > On Fri, May 27, 2022 at 6:31 PM Marcus Daniels <marcus at snoutfarm.com <mailto:marcus at snoutfarm.com> <mailto:marcus at snoutfarm.com <mailto:marcus at snoutfarm.com>>> wrote:
>              >
>              >     So you won’t be buying commemorative NFTs of the Heard/Depp verdict?
>              >
>              >      > On May 27, 2022, at 1:51 PM, glen <gepropella at gmail.com <mailto:gepropella at gmail.com> <mailto:gepropella at gmail.com <mailto:gepropella at gmail.com>>> wrote:
>              >      >
>              >      > ...and is definitely not an enormous grift that's pouring lighter fluid on our already-smoldering planet.
>              >      >
>              >      > https://web3isgoinggreat.com/ <https://web3isgoinggreat.com/> <https://web3isgoinggreat.com/ <https://web3isgoinggreat.com/>>
>              >      >
>              >      > --
>              >      > Mɥǝu ǝlǝdɥɐuʇs ɟᴉƃɥʇ' ʇɥǝ ƃɹɐss snɟɟǝɹs˙

-- 
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