Oddbean new post about login | logout The New York Times is running news stories about recent neo-nazi demonstration and arrests in Nashville.
Assuming it's not a coincidence that the Bitcoin conference (including Trump and maybe Musk) is going to be in Nashville this week - and yes this is an assumption I'm making for the sake of this exploration - which of the following seems most likely? ("Some parts of all of them" is a perfectly valid answer)
- neo Nazis feel that this (BTC conference week) is a good environment for them
- NYT is doing some pre-astroturfing so that they can connect Bitcoin/freedom tech to Nazis and the far right
- mostly a coincidence
And before you go twisting my words, I'm NOT saying the neo-nazi activity was unconcerning or overblown or something. But I am speculating on which parties invovled here are leveraging the Nashville context for their own narrative goals. Harming Bitcoin and Nostr in the process, naturally. "Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray's case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the "wet streets cause rain" stories. Paper's full of them. In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know." – Michael Crichton (1942-2008)
I was once in a key role in an international news event. Not one article was even close. Not one person ever asked me, not that I would have shared what I knew. Years later I found this. Now I don't watch the news. I've luckily avoided the "believe any stupid bullshit as long as it contradicts the news" trap many news disrespectoors fall for. I just go on best I can based on what is immediately around me. This hasn't hurt me yet. Turns out most news is only good for getting mad and yelling at other people. I'm still guilty there sometimes when news makes its way to me despite my efforts to avoid it. We all have more growing to do and I'm working on it.
well said! (and now I'm really curious what the international news event was...)
Just because it made international news doesn't mean it was interesting. I promise it was more boring than you are imagining. https://image.nostr.build/315dcdc4cfa2ae152ace115cfffe7a032090f5a0bbe595a719d6d9b31fdd27c3.jpg
fiiiiiiiiiine lol
What is a New York Times? Nobody cares. ¯\_ (ツ) _/¯
agreed, but normies care. and it's useful to be aware of the larger narrative context one finds oneself in (even if that means everyone else is insane)
I know what you're saying, but in my neck of the world, even normies are caring less what the MSM says.
I judge people negatively when I find out that they actually care what the NYT says.... absolute psyop trash.
