Oddbean

In a way it's very enlightened - personally I do take the view that we are all gonna die real soon, possibly to go to "a better place", and that nothing really matters that much.. ..but I don't think that's what's going on with these people!

For us all to die would involve the big red nuclear button. Nothing is impossible, but I doubt even megalomaniac world leaders would be that MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction). Despite the advances in military technology, most wars / battles are still mostly localised and mostly fought between the military themselves. That can and does change as one side starts to see defeat on the horizon. A loosing powerful nation is potentially very dangerous. An interesting phenomenon that I've noticed. When I am in pain, my wife is more concerned and distressed than I am, and vice versa. When we understand the danger, we often accept it, but worry for others. So it is with my family. I am much more concerned with the long term safety of my family than I am about my own life. I am older, but even so, I still value my life, but not as much as my families. This is the planning I am doing right now, securing the future for my family for the next 150 years or 5 generations, as best I can.

Not everyone believes in MAD, some believe in preemptive strikes, others believe in escalating to deescalating. Very interesting phenomenon how popular the preemtive nuclear strike on Japan was at the time. But after John Hersey wrote his book, Hirosima, opionion changed hugely. The media also plays a huge role. There is a style of propaganda, described in Ellul's book "Technique", that works on the feedback cycles of groups (think spin doctors) where the population is put in a state of "numbness" and cannot react to urgent things around them. This is by design, there's manuals on how to achieve it, that all copywriters read. You can disect any article in, say, The Guardian, and find the propaganda payload, and emotional triggers. But it applies to pretty much all MSM. They aim to create a docile sheep like population whose only recourse is to "vote harder", by achieving a total (hence totalitarian) environment. Hopefully nostr is a bit of a break from that, tho nostr has its fair share of propaganda, too!

I agree, I think there is a strong possibility for a failing nuclear nation facing defeat to hit that big red button. Propaganda / cults, they are the same thing and we are in the Bitcoin cult. Choose your cult wisely. Also, when I see MSM, I still think it's an actual news outlet, like MSNBC 😂

Different kinds of propaganda. "Integration" propaganda is to create a cult type thing. But it's too fractured to work. So you get disintegration. "Agitation" or agit prop is used to rile people up, get them want to go to war, revenge etc. "Horizontal" prop is creating controversial topics to argue about down the pub. This is particularly effective in keeping a population exhaused and docile. If they do hit the red button, we can be content that bitcoin miners have done their part helping to stave off a nuclear winter :) https://image.nostr.build/7e160570f945230b85b1f34fdb71ab4ff7ade5d73f02531898eef28d4c740c71.jpg

Good question. There was lots of agit prop. "We cant go on like this". "We cant just do nothing". "For bitcoin to be a success ...". You may recognize these recurring tropes even today, they will trot them out again. Then there was an element of integration prop. Lets keep it open source. Let's keep the core developers. There's obviously more nuance here, because you dont want dogmatic gatekeepers, and you also dont want to starve innovation. However, bitcoin has the magical property that not tinkering with it, makes it stronger. The only caveat here, is that the subsidy halves every 4 years, and with it, some of the security. It's a complex topic, that needs rational analysis. But Im guessing here really. I do think we're still wide open to such attacks (e.g. drivechains is one), and have very limited tools to defend. Maybe they will improve with time. The fight goes on ...