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33 sats \ 6 replies \ @gmd 8 Apr \ on: An Inch Deep and a Mile Wide mostly_harmless
Unfortunately the alternative media sources are just as bad or even worse with worse incentives. Old school journalists used to have standards to aim for at least. Before the business model went under, they used to pay people to fact-check etc. Now it's a crazy free for all for clicks in a post-truth world. And the scary part is it's only going to get 100x worse with AI...
We've seen a fiat induced decline it quality. It affects all aspects of our systems. That said, the old school was very state influenced. I would not go back to the old school era of media. The NYTs published pro Stalin propaganda. The media covered up for politicians. They lied to the public. I don't believe there was a time when you could just trust the media. When you read revisionist historians you can see different perspectives on different time periods and its is clear the press always has an agenda or multiple agendas. They have always sucked but I agree, they suck more today. At least today we have the Internet.
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I don't disagree but as a side note, why are we always so quick to label stuff we disagree with or dislike as "fiat"?
Not trying to pick on you specifically but it is really one of my pet peeves about BTC circles, how rapidly we resort to BTC tribalism instead of just stating our arguments on their own merits.
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Yeah, I hear you. But, the reason I say this is because this is a good example. Fiat encourages high time preference. It encourages short term thinking. It encourages getting in and out. It discourages careful thoughtful transactions. The reason I said this was because I see it in many places. It is not the only factor but I believe it is a HUGE factor in cultural changes in modern life. I recognize that like all movements there are people that just throw out trite phrases but I believe it is based in rational understanding of the economic side effects of fake money and inflated debt based economies.
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Yeah I definitely see what you're saying. I just think we extrapolate too far too often in attributing what is inherently caused by fiat and what is caused by normal chimp brain induced flaws like greed which can certainly be seen with hard money. Low vs High time preference are ideals I don't think really has anything to do with bitcoin... we certainly see lots of people lose their BTC chasing more BTC.
Anyway I don't mean to derail your thread, just some random thoughts probably better reserved for a Meta post.
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Created a post in econ about Time Preference for those interested in learning more about it as an economic concept.
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Fair enough. I haven't written out my reasoning connecting all the dots in my thinking here. It might interest you to know that I actually didn't have a clue that bitcoiners talked about time preference for years. I learned about this subject area from economics, not bitcoin. Its not an ideal as many bitcoiners state. Its a calculation everyone makes every day many times a day. Its a fascinating topic to me. High time preference has its place just as low time preference does. In the end its all about incentives and their side effects.
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