John Oliver is funny, and on and off I would catch shows and they seemed to be an interesting spin on his predecessors John Stewart and Stephan Colbert's tactic of using humor to educate on important topics. Oliver had a sort of mini-documentary style that helped you dive into and digest a single issue, and I felt like this was welcome in the age of soundbites and the topic bombardment of social media. He lost me a while ago, and it was bit by bit but culminated in his interview with Edward Snowden, in which he wasted everyone's time (seemed like mostly his with the flight to Russia) to do an extended dick pic joke that was sort of clever at first and but quickly ran out of steam. Then to top it off, he preceded to show clips of people saying they didn't know who Edward was and to tell him he wasted his life because, "No one cares". Great job Oliver, you just pointed out what any mopey 15 year old has figured out, that people are vapid, and forgot to mention that because of cases like him and Assange, the public was having real discussions about privacy. He took a single mocking stance and never balanced it.
Needless to say I do not seek out and watch his show any more, but a friend sent me his episode on Cryptocurrency. He didn't disappoint in his disappointment . He starts the show by saying that cryptocurrency is "Everything you don't understand about money combined with everything you don't understand about computers". This is true. I am not a programmer and I have a hard time wrapping my head around a lot of the technical aspects. It is also true most people really DO NOT understand money. So, John, this is a GREAT time to use your public reach to help people understand some of how money is such an easy tool to manipulate people physically and mentally. Help them understand how unemployment is a manufactured concept because hoarded currency keeps them from trading their products and services amongst each other, how Walmart can come in and leave minimum wage workers where there once was a middle class. Drug wars, food distribution and waste, debt slavery, RACISM, increased depression, suicide, and psychological stress within your personal relationships. Or you know, don't, but you could give a rounded view of what different projects are doing, what the aim of decentralization actually is, or how small communities could more easily trade data/services. Instead he spends most of his 25 minutes talking about Bitconnect, Pump and Dump groups, and mocking the language (because he isn't in on the joke that all of us hodling to the moon with our lambos are actually mocking exactly what he is accusing of us being). It is a 25 minute "Bro" joke and either he is actually insanely ignorant on the topic for how intelligent he is or he is a reptilian Illuminati overload ( and just because irony has apparently died again I will say very clearly: I don't believe he is a reptilian Illuminati overlord. Even if they did exist he would never be accepted :p ).
Please, if you are new or you have friends or family that watch, you know, TV, then please hear this: coins with funny names and assholes trying to take advantage of you are NOT what is going on here. They are here, there are always scummy selfish people, in every field (and I've checked them all to be sure lol), but they can only take advantage of you if *you * are trying to be selfish and scummy. Please, two things, 1. Do not go crazy and try to get rich quick, you WILL totally get REKT (go broke, lose your money and hate crypto), do not put your whole emergency flat tires fund or daughters college bonds. Do NOT make yourself more of a slave going into to debt taking out laons to gamble with. Please. I know it sucks being stressed about money, but that is the point of this whole possible revolution: not for a few to get rich but for many to have a better quality of life. and 2. Watch some videos about the history of money (if people are interested I will pull some more up). The second two in the Zeitgeist series (Zietgeist Addendum and Zietgeist Moving Forward) are really great overviews and introductions to how money has evolved and how it affects us in ways we never understood.
Please, and ask John to try and get back to a more balanced approach to his topics.
You are spot on with this post for sure. I still like John and tend to watch each of his segments he puts out, so when I saw his segment on crypto I was interested in seeing where he took it. I actually in my head, thought "I bet he is going to talk about Bitconnect" sure enough no surprise there. I do think he had good intention when it came to warning people. I however feel like he missed the mark by not doing enough research, ironically the very thing you should be doing if you are looking into getting involved in crypto to begin with.
yeah, totally fine to warn people, but I felt he was saving face in front of his more corporate friends/sponsors/bosses especially by showing things like the HODL Gang rap video. I mean I've never seen that, that's not a main part of the culture, its just one of the most embarrassing and comedic. And, he's a comedian so I get it, but definitely balance it out. I guess I just will always miss Stewart, he was a god in his ability to be well rounded and fair. Colbert was a really solid second, and i forget that Oliver is just not them. I also feel like I've noticed him taking much more 'establishment' type stances as the show progressed, have you noticed that? Its been a while since I watched more than 1 or two randomly, but I used to really like how deep and honest he got into subjects.
Yeah, I totally get what you're saying, on the aspect of him only displaying the most comedic aspects, maybe that's because it's an easier joke to make. I mean keep in mind he does have a team of writers behind him, so it's not all him, he just happens to be the face of the joke really. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying he is guilty, I'm just saying he and his team with for the easy jokes. I mean it was kinda obvious they were looking for filler as well to ride out the time, I mean look how many times he kept doing callbacks to the "Jeremy bit", I mean how many callbacks can you do in one segment. As far as feeling like he has been taking more establishment fronts, that I haven't noticed, and on this one I think it's was just an easy target. I don't think there is an underlining objective in this case. I mean after all the establishment is trying to find ways to get their hands in this game as well, I think they already realize it's too late to try to kill it. Pandora's box is open.
haha the bit about the intern was way over done . I guess when I say him, I mean the whole show, I know he has writers and he's just a face, but yeah more appropiately "the show" not "him as guy ". About banks not trying to kill, they 100% are still pretending to try and kill it so they can get as heavily into as possible and not lose control. Its a very cutthroat tactic. Tobacco did it to us with vaping, they tried to kill it and couldn't, and then instead they went a route of pushing for legislation that was bad for them on the surface, but actually just made it impossible for small businesses to compete, they couldn't kill it so they isolated as much of the market for themselves. I believe some establishment money is creating a lot of panic and fud on purpose to drop pricing and get a longer/deeper position, though some is honestly still stubbornly trying to just bully it out of existence. They've been doing a good job of it for hundreds if not thousands of years, some believe that they can still do that (and possibly they could, idk humans are dumb and we fall for the same trick over and over) lol
I just looked up the hodl gang rap vid and its a parody itself lol. come on Oliver give some credit to some other funny men ;)
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