The Hawk Tuah Memecoin Rug Pull is the Apotheosis of Bag Culture
December 11, 2024 5:22 AM Subscribe
You might win if you gamble, but the real money is in being the house.
As unlikely as big-time TikTok success is for most people, the barriers to entry are nonexistent, unlike access to the upper tier of American life. Young people today live in a country with collapsing public services, a society actively receding away from them. If they are lucky enough to get into a position to rack up six figures of student debt, they face bleak job prospects and prohibitively expensive housing costs, not to mention the death of the biosphere and its associated shakeups. That aforementioned "pure path"? It doesn't meaningfully exist anymore, so why not play the viral lottery? Why not start gambling? Why not generate AI images of Jesus smoking weed with Santa Claus and harvest the last drops of juice from Facebook's corpse? Why not get involved in cryptocurrency speculation? What is keeping you from getting off your ass and drop-shipping baby products? Sure, the game is rigged, but so is everything, so why not have some fun along the way?Why not at least be on the winning side of something?
I am aware of Hailey Welch because I don't live in a cave (and have no strong opinion about her) but I posted this because the ^paragraph above^ is true. The world is a dumpster fire, so why wouldn't you take any path that might make you well-known and (this is key here) hopefully rich? Or richer than you were before your viral fame?
As unlikely as big-time TikTok success is for most people, the barriers to entry are nonexistent, unlike access to the upper tier of American life. Young people today live in a country with collapsing public services, a society actively receding away from them. If they are lucky enough to get into a position to rack up six figures of student debt, they face bleak job prospects and prohibitively expensive housing costs, not to mention the death of the biosphere and its associated shakeups. That aforementioned "pure path"? It doesn't meaningfully exist anymore, so why not play the viral lottery? Why not start gambling? Why not generate AI images of Jesus smoking weed with Santa Claus and harvest the last drops of juice from Facebook's corpse? Why not get involved in cryptocurrency speculation? What is keeping you from getting off your ass and drop-shipping baby products? Sure, the game is rigged, but so is everything, so why not have some fun along the way?Why not at least be on the winning side of something?
I am aware of Hailey Welch because I don't live in a cave (and have no strong opinion about her) but I posted this because the ^paragraph above^ is true. The world is a dumpster fire, so why wouldn't you take any path that might make you well-known and (this is key here) hopefully rich? Or richer than you were before your viral fame?
Is this headline the final indicator of my brain melting and starting to trickle down my neck? Please give me some sign my brain stem can process on its own.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 5:37 AM on December 11, 2024 [4 favorites]
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 5:37 AM on December 11, 2024 [4 favorites]
It does seem there is currently this enormous gold rush going on involving not just youth but people of all ages, onto the various social platforms. The fascinating part for me is how certain platforms are evolving into billboards through which the talent are directing followers to other, notionally less-restrictive, platforms, where their real content is. Patreon, Twitch, and, yes, OF, seem to be the most common endpoints for much of the redirections.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:41 AM on December 11, 2024 [4 favorites]
posted by Thorzdad at 5:41 AM on December 11, 2024 [4 favorites]
My one qualm about this kind of predatory memecoin scheme is that it doesn't really matter whether Welch had any agency in it or not; she could have been fully involved in the planning and implementation at several levels, she could be blissfully ignorant of its implications, she could be somewhere in between and acting as the pleasant face of the operation and leaving the details to her managers.
Doesn't matter. What certain people will take away from this is that that woman's coin cost me tons of money and that will make her a target for lord knows what kinds of abuse and negativity and potential retaliation. And I don't blame her for possibly not having a handle on this, OR for recognizing that her unexpected fame is in its fourteenth minute and grabbing everything she can, because her entire 2024 has been about as surreal as it comes. Making good decisions, for better and worse, has to be disturbingly difficult when your life is being run by a random number generator that keeps hitting high numbers.
This is why I'm glad I'm an introvert. If someone sticks a microphone in my face on the street, I scuttle into the shadows and hide behind a dumpster. It's so much easier that way.
posted by delfin at 5:47 AM on December 11, 2024 [25 favorites]
Doesn't matter. What certain people will take away from this is that that woman's coin cost me tons of money and that will make her a target for lord knows what kinds of abuse and negativity and potential retaliation. And I don't blame her for possibly not having a handle on this, OR for recognizing that her unexpected fame is in its fourteenth minute and grabbing everything she can, because her entire 2024 has been about as surreal as it comes. Making good decisions, for better and worse, has to be disturbingly difficult when your life is being run by a random number generator that keeps hitting high numbers.
This is why I'm glad I'm an introvert. If someone sticks a microphone in my face on the street, I scuttle into the shadows and hide behind a dumpster. It's so much easier that way.
posted by delfin at 5:47 AM on December 11, 2024 [25 favorites]
Makes me think of Flannery O’Conner’s A Good Man Is Hard to Find.
posted by InkaLomax at 5:48 AM on December 11, 2024 [3 favorites]
posted by InkaLomax at 5:48 AM on December 11, 2024 [3 favorites]
Quite a few young people, when you inquire into their future job titles, choose "Inluencer!"
Science fiction never precisely forecasted this turn of events, but I am somehow reminded the media mouths which were often key elements of Phillip K Dick's plot turns.
posted by kozad at 5:56 AM on December 11, 2024 [13 favorites]
Science fiction never precisely forecasted this turn of events, but I am somehow reminded the media mouths which were often key elements of Phillip K Dick's plot turns.
posted by kozad at 5:56 AM on December 11, 2024 [13 favorites]
~ If someone sticks a microphone in my face on the street, I scuttle into the shadows and hide behind a dumpster. It's so much easier that way.
Sadly, that act, too, would likely be memed to death. I mean, running away and ducking behind a dumpster? Pure TikTok fodder.
...........
~ Science fiction never precisely forecasted this turn of events, but I am somehow reminded the media mouths which were often key elements of Phillip K Dick's plot turns.
Once AI replaces the human influencers, we get Gibson’s Idoru.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:59 AM on December 11, 2024 [10 favorites]
Sadly, that act, too, would likely be memed to death. I mean, running away and ducking behind a dumpster? Pure TikTok fodder.
...........
~ Science fiction never precisely forecasted this turn of events, but I am somehow reminded the media mouths which were often key elements of Phillip K Dick's plot turns.
Once AI replaces the human influencers, we get Gibson’s Idoru.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:59 AM on December 11, 2024 [10 favorites]
It really is true that everything is pushing people toward self-centered nihilism. One feature of this is simply that the internet makes it possible to know too much, or at least know enough to collapse any loosely-held platitudes about society.
Like, for instance, right now you can go on social media and you can see people being killed, and no one does anything, and if it's abroad or the cops, it's done with your tax dollars. I would argue that it is extremely, fundamentally destabilizing to society to see and know fully that brutal injustice is constantly being done to innocent and helpless people, even unto killing them, and...nothing happens. No one stops it. If you try to stop it, you go to jail.
Black Lives Matter and the George Floyd riots were what happened when a mass of people truly internalized that the cops were just killing innocent people all over the place, and those were put down, and then "look what 'defunding the police' did" was lied everywhere to run down the Democrats, and the cops got more money, and they keep killing people.
Now, I'm not saying that your average wannabe influencer thinks about this stuff, or would care about it if they did think about it. But if the background noise of society is "innocent people get mistreated and murdered all across the world with your tax dollars, there's proof, we see it, and the powerful just crush all attempts to make things better", you get revolutions or you get nihilism, or maybe you get both.
People need to believe in things. "There's no point to life except to grift as much money as you can, and if you don't grift as much money as you can, your life will be one of precarity and misery" is not a foundation for a stable, long-lasting society. It does not make people happy. It does not make people good, or smart, or loving, or secure. It's not their fault; it's the fault of the people who kill the innocent and smash the protests. But it's no kind of way to run a society.
posted by Frowner at 6:09 AM on December 11, 2024 [80 favorites]
Like, for instance, right now you can go on social media and you can see people being killed, and no one does anything, and if it's abroad or the cops, it's done with your tax dollars. I would argue that it is extremely, fundamentally destabilizing to society to see and know fully that brutal injustice is constantly being done to innocent and helpless people, even unto killing them, and...nothing happens. No one stops it. If you try to stop it, you go to jail.
Black Lives Matter and the George Floyd riots were what happened when a mass of people truly internalized that the cops were just killing innocent people all over the place, and those were put down, and then "look what 'defunding the police' did" was lied everywhere to run down the Democrats, and the cops got more money, and they keep killing people.
Now, I'm not saying that your average wannabe influencer thinks about this stuff, or would care about it if they did think about it. But if the background noise of society is "innocent people get mistreated and murdered all across the world with your tax dollars, there's proof, we see it, and the powerful just crush all attempts to make things better", you get revolutions or you get nihilism, or maybe you get both.
People need to believe in things. "There's no point to life except to grift as much money as you can, and if you don't grift as much money as you can, your life will be one of precarity and misery" is not a foundation for a stable, long-lasting society. It does not make people happy. It does not make people good, or smart, or loving, or secure. It's not their fault; it's the fault of the people who kill the innocent and smash the protests. But it's no kind of way to run a society.
posted by Frowner at 6:09 AM on December 11, 2024 [80 favorites]
Quite a few young people, when you inquire into their future job titles, choose "Inluencer!"
...or movie star, or rock star, or star quarterback, or be discovered at the five-and-dime, or tour the world as a vaudeville star, or 'run away with the circus', or hit the high notes as an operatic diva, twirl the stage as a ballet primadonna, or they show up at the Globe Theater and hang out until Shakespeare gives them a role...the wish to be admired and respected, when there's such an obvious role right in front of you that is worshipped by everyone, is a common thing in human nature. Kids want to be cool for life.
posted by AzraelBrown at 6:11 AM on December 11, 2024 [28 favorites]
...or movie star, or rock star, or star quarterback, or be discovered at the five-and-dime, or tour the world as a vaudeville star, or 'run away with the circus', or hit the high notes as an operatic diva, twirl the stage as a ballet primadonna, or they show up at the Globe Theater and hang out until Shakespeare gives them a role...the wish to be admired and respected, when there's such an obvious role right in front of you that is worshipped by everyone, is a common thing in human nature. Kids want to be cool for life.
posted by AzraelBrown at 6:11 AM on December 11, 2024 [28 favorites]
Quite a few young people, when you inquire into their future job titles, choose "Inluencer!"
My 16 year old niece has this occupation (is it an occupation?) has her second choice if her first choice--forensic investigator--doesn't pan out. I mean, honestly, the problem with the first choice is that she decided that after mainlining true crime podcasts and is alarmingly casual about the education she would need to achieve it.
Because I live here and I don’t want to be an asshole? Is this a trick question? I don’t know how to explain to the author that you should care about other people.
I don't think the author is telling you to not care about other people; I think he is talking about how a younger generation sees the world. I'm nearly 50; I'll bet you are too.
It's nothing new but the way the world is now for those in this cohort, sell out and try to get something out of it because everything your parents or grandparents gained--housing, college education, etc--has rapidly become out of reach for them.
posted by Kitteh at 6:15 AM on December 11, 2024 [9 favorites]
My 16 year old niece has this occupation (is it an occupation?) has her second choice if her first choice--forensic investigator--doesn't pan out. I mean, honestly, the problem with the first choice is that she decided that after mainlining true crime podcasts and is alarmingly casual about the education she would need to achieve it.
Because I live here and I don’t want to be an asshole? Is this a trick question? I don’t know how to explain to the author that you should care about other people.
I don't think the author is telling you to not care about other people; I think he is talking about how a younger generation sees the world. I'm nearly 50; I'll bet you are too.
It's nothing new but the way the world is now for those in this cohort, sell out and try to get something out of it because everything your parents or grandparents gained--housing, college education, etc--has rapidly become out of reach for them.
posted by Kitteh at 6:15 AM on December 11, 2024 [9 favorites]
"Hawk tuah" memecoin immediately crashes [Molly White]
posted by chavenet at 6:15 AM on December 11, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by chavenet at 6:15 AM on December 11, 2024 [2 favorites]
Snake Oil salesmen
Nigerian princes
Enron
Pyramid schemes
Madoff
Worldcom
Tulip mania
Alchemists
Go down the list. There will always be grifters, cheats, and those looking to take advantage of people. Social media, like the town square, newspapers, and media before, just amplifies the voice.
posted by tgrundke at 6:22 AM on December 11, 2024 [4 favorites]
Nigerian princes
Enron
Pyramid schemes
Madoff
Worldcom
Tulip mania
Alchemists
Go down the list. There will always be grifters, cheats, and those looking to take advantage of people. Social media, like the town square, newspapers, and media before, just amplifies the voice.
posted by tgrundke at 6:22 AM on December 11, 2024 [4 favorites]
Talk Tuah is a brilliant name for the podcast. Period.
And the old wisdom still applies: Hate the game, not the player.
I’m totally rooting for her. I’d like to see her run for Congress.
posted by Lemkin at 6:28 AM on December 11, 2024 [4 favorites]
And the old wisdom still applies: Hate the game, not the player.
I’m totally rooting for her. I’d like to see her run for Congress.
posted by Lemkin at 6:28 AM on December 11, 2024 [4 favorites]
Spit On It: Anatomy of Hawk Tuah, a Microcelebrity Trend Gone Horribly Wrong
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:31 AM on December 11, 2024 [6 favorites]
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:31 AM on December 11, 2024 [6 favorites]
"In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes."
Not "should be." Not "can be." "Will be." This is a Chinese curse akin to the one about living in interesting times.
posted by delfin at 6:31 AM on December 11, 2024 [11 favorites]
Not "should be." Not "can be." "Will be." This is a Chinese curse akin to the one about living in interesting times.
posted by delfin at 6:31 AM on December 11, 2024 [11 favorites]
Adding to the chorus of voices - grifts are as old as civilization, kids have always wanted to be movie stars/rockstars/teen idols. Frankly as grifting idols go, she seems to be pretty innocous compared to folks like Joe Rogan or Ben Shapiro.
To the article itself, "if it bleeds, it leads," is that old newspaper adage and has only been amplified and accelerated thanks to social media, it's not new. The world has ever been grossly brutal and unfair, and though for a slightly larger slice of (white, mostly male) people in a few areas of the world it was easier for a few decades to find a foothold to prosperity, 1946 - 20.., was not some golden age for vast most people on earth. I say all this not as some mea culpa for our current stew of shit, but more to push back on the tone and POV of this article, and the insanely dire gnashing of teeth over our current state as some uniquely horrific fall from grace, that is so common to meta-filter discourse.
Shit sucks, through a lot of hard work for many millions its better than its ever been by any measure, keep fighting so it gets even better.
posted by DarlingMonster at 6:38 AM on December 11, 2024 [3 favorites]
To the article itself, "if it bleeds, it leads," is that old newspaper adage and has only been amplified and accelerated thanks to social media, it's not new. The world has ever been grossly brutal and unfair, and though for a slightly larger slice of (white, mostly male) people in a few areas of the world it was easier for a few decades to find a foothold to prosperity, 1946 - 20.., was not some golden age for vast most people on earth. I say all this not as some mea culpa for our current stew of shit, but more to push back on the tone and POV of this article, and the insanely dire gnashing of teeth over our current state as some uniquely horrific fall from grace, that is so common to meta-filter discourse.
Shit sucks, through a lot of hard work for many millions its better than its ever been by any measure, keep fighting so it gets even better.
posted by DarlingMonster at 6:38 AM on December 11, 2024 [3 favorites]
Most people don't realize that "influencer" is itself a bullshit job. You're now doing pointless work generating money for a platform and brand sponsors. A stastistically-insignificant portion of influencers will ever have any lasting cultural impact or the actual influence to command long-lasting, lucrative business relationships. I'm not even sure "movie star" is really a lasting profession at this point, but none of these folks are going to be Timothee Chalamet or Angelina Jolie or whoever you want to pick as a powerful, well-compensated famous person in entertainment.
And forget it if you make music in this environment.
posted by Captaintripps at 6:39 AM on December 11, 2024 [4 favorites]
And forget it if you make music in this environment.
posted by Captaintripps at 6:39 AM on December 11, 2024 [4 favorites]
Hate the game and hate the player.
No players, no game.
She’s an adult. She can be held accountable for her actions. Plenty of people make it in this world without having to run grifts.
posted by chasing at 6:41 AM on December 11, 2024 [7 favorites]
No players, no game.
She’s an adult. She can be held accountable for her actions. Plenty of people make it in this world without having to run grifts.
posted by chasing at 6:41 AM on December 11, 2024 [7 favorites]
"I think he is talking about how a younger generation sees the world. I'm nearly 50; I'll bet you are too. "
I, 51, have a child high school. That cohort is the kindest, most caring, if also a bit jaded (but most media literate) group of people that I have ever met.
I think it's very easy to draw sweeping generalizations about "those kids" (it has ever been so!), but basing your views (if that's what you are doing) on the slice of the generation that is tiktok-focused is not representative.
posted by oddman at 6:42 AM on December 11, 2024 [18 favorites]
I, 51, have a child high school. That cohort is the kindest, most caring, if also a bit jaded (but most media literate) group of people that I have ever met.
I think it's very easy to draw sweeping generalizations about "those kids" (it has ever been so!), but basing your views (if that's what you are doing) on the slice of the generation that is tiktok-focused is not representative.
posted by oddman at 6:42 AM on December 11, 2024 [18 favorites]
Quite a few young people, when you inquire into their future job titles, choose "Inluencer!"
I know very little about Hailey Welch although it sounds like she has really capitalized on a viral moment.
But, as someone who enjoys long distance running, I do know a lot about influencers in another area: the Running Youtuber / Shoetuber trend. There are many Youtube channels / Instagram accounts by distance runners who attempt to make a living posting videos of their training, races, and thoughts about running. Some of them are very well produced (Floberg Runs in Chicago, a filmmaker who produces mini-movies about his marathons, Nick Bester in the UK, This Messy Happy an English couple who are based in Thailand).
At their best, these channels provide an insight into the dedication, persistence, and hard work it takes to turn in strong race performances. Bester took five years to crack two hours twenty minutes in the marathon; Floberg's gone from a three and a half hour marathon to a gunning for sub 2:30 next year. Those are extremely good times and outside the realm of possibility for 99% of marathon runners (their "easy recovery" pace is faster than my hard interval pace!) And occasionally they are truly professional: Clayton Young, who represented Team USA in the men's marathon at the Paris Olympics, put his training up on Youtube (and as expected it's very professional, free of shilling for products , and fascinating to watch).
What is more concerning, and relevant to this discussion, is that you can only post so much content about putting one foot in front of the other on a random road for an arbitrary distance. So the channels slowly start to find different ways to monetize or find even narrower niches to keep up their subscribers. Some turn into "shoetubers", reviewing endless variations of running shoes for viewers who want to see which shoe will give them the edge in their next race - and prompting speculation that they're being paid by shoe companies or running apps to push product. Others, like Bester, use their channel to promote their running club / coaching business (and he's been the subject of online criticism for charging exorbitant fees for supposedly AI-generated plans). Floberg has linked up with Nick Bare, a "hybrid athlete" who runs his own fairly sketchy supplement company from Texas, and by the tone of Floberg's videos you'd think he was girding his loins to battle the Persians at Thermopylae.
Other influencers push themselves too hard to keep generating content and end up battling injury and burnout - long distance running, especially at the level that will generate clicks on a Youtube video, is pretty unforgiving. And they have started an incredibly irritating trend of disrupting races in order to generate content. For instance, Bester pulled off a stunt in this video where he deliberately started at the absolute back of a 770-person Parkrun 5K and ran as fast as possible - he overtook 766 people and finished fourth. That's not in the spirit of Parkrun, and he had someone follow him on rollerblades to film him the whole way. What an absolute knob.
The highest profile example of this disruptive behavior was Matt Choi at the NYC Marathon last month. Choi is regarded as irritating even by other influencers; he's run races as a "bib mule" (taking someone else's race bib and number and run under their name, which is very poor behavior for a runner), and then he ran the NYC Marathon and had two people follow him on bikes to film his race, in complete violation of the marathon rules. From the USA today article:
New York Road Runners said in a statement that Choi violated World Athletics rules and code of conduct and their own rules of competition.
Choi, a former football player at Monmouth University, used the people on the e-bikes to film his run, but other runners complained that Choi and the bikes were obstructing their view and he was being a nuisance to the other racers on the course. More than 55,000 completed the 26.2-mile five-borough race on Sunday.
"I have no excuses, full-stop," Choi said on social media. "I was selfish on Sunday to have my brother and my videographer follow me around on e-bikes, and it had serious consequences."
If you're a moderately talented runner there is always the temptation to start putting up content to get clicks, and, eventually, money. But it's not great for the sport and it spills over into other people's enjoyment of the races.
Sorry for the long derail - but I thought it is an interesting parallel to what the OP was highlighting in Welch's case.
posted by fortitude25 at 6:45 AM on December 11, 2024 [18 favorites]
I know very little about Hailey Welch although it sounds like she has really capitalized on a viral moment.
But, as someone who enjoys long distance running, I do know a lot about influencers in another area: the Running Youtuber / Shoetuber trend. There are many Youtube channels / Instagram accounts by distance runners who attempt to make a living posting videos of their training, races, and thoughts about running. Some of them are very well produced (Floberg Runs in Chicago, a filmmaker who produces mini-movies about his marathons, Nick Bester in the UK, This Messy Happy an English couple who are based in Thailand).
At their best, these channels provide an insight into the dedication, persistence, and hard work it takes to turn in strong race performances. Bester took five years to crack two hours twenty minutes in the marathon; Floberg's gone from a three and a half hour marathon to a gunning for sub 2:30 next year. Those are extremely good times and outside the realm of possibility for 99% of marathon runners (their "easy recovery" pace is faster than my hard interval pace!) And occasionally they are truly professional: Clayton Young, who represented Team USA in the men's marathon at the Paris Olympics, put his training up on Youtube (and as expected it's very professional, free of shilling for products , and fascinating to watch).
What is more concerning, and relevant to this discussion, is that you can only post so much content about putting one foot in front of the other on a random road for an arbitrary distance. So the channels slowly start to find different ways to monetize or find even narrower niches to keep up their subscribers. Some turn into "shoetubers", reviewing endless variations of running shoes for viewers who want to see which shoe will give them the edge in their next race - and prompting speculation that they're being paid by shoe companies or running apps to push product. Others, like Bester, use their channel to promote their running club / coaching business (and he's been the subject of online criticism for charging exorbitant fees for supposedly AI-generated plans). Floberg has linked up with Nick Bare, a "hybrid athlete" who runs his own fairly sketchy supplement company from Texas, and by the tone of Floberg's videos you'd think he was girding his loins to battle the Persians at Thermopylae.
Other influencers push themselves too hard to keep generating content and end up battling injury and burnout - long distance running, especially at the level that will generate clicks on a Youtube video, is pretty unforgiving. And they have started an incredibly irritating trend of disrupting races in order to generate content. For instance, Bester pulled off a stunt in this video where he deliberately started at the absolute back of a 770-person Parkrun 5K and ran as fast as possible - he overtook 766 people and finished fourth. That's not in the spirit of Parkrun, and he had someone follow him on rollerblades to film him the whole way. What an absolute knob.
The highest profile example of this disruptive behavior was Matt Choi at the NYC Marathon last month. Choi is regarded as irritating even by other influencers; he's run races as a "bib mule" (taking someone else's race bib and number and run under their name, which is very poor behavior for a runner), and then he ran the NYC Marathon and had two people follow him on bikes to film his race, in complete violation of the marathon rules. From the USA today article:
New York Road Runners said in a statement that Choi violated World Athletics rules and code of conduct and their own rules of competition.
Choi, a former football player at Monmouth University, used the people on the e-bikes to film his run, but other runners complained that Choi and the bikes were obstructing their view and he was being a nuisance to the other racers on the course. More than 55,000 completed the 26.2-mile five-borough race on Sunday.
"I have no excuses, full-stop," Choi said on social media. "I was selfish on Sunday to have my brother and my videographer follow me around on e-bikes, and it had serious consequences."
If you're a moderately talented runner there is always the temptation to start putting up content to get clicks, and, eventually, money. But it's not great for the sport and it spills over into other people's enjoyment of the races.
Sorry for the long derail - but I thought it is an interesting parallel to what the OP was highlighting in Welch's case.
posted by fortitude25 at 6:45 AM on December 11, 2024 [18 favorites]
Hate the game, not the player.
This is literally one of the points made by Trumpies.
...so, no, I am going to hate.
I'm going to hate the player that agrees to the game. Especially so if their version of "playing" involves perpetuating the game.
It always takes longer than it should, but eventually most scum gets scraped off.
posted by aramaic at 7:00 AM on December 11, 2024 [7 favorites]
This is literally one of the points made by Trumpies.
...so, no, I am going to hate.
I'm going to hate the player that agrees to the game. Especially so if their version of "playing" involves perpetuating the game.
It always takes longer than it should, but eventually most scum gets scraped off.
posted by aramaic at 7:00 AM on December 11, 2024 [7 favorites]
> The Hawk Tuah Memecoin Rug Pull is the Apotheosis of Bag Culture
Going back in time and showing this headline to Benjamin Franklin, killing him instantly
posted by dis_integration at 7:16 AM on December 11, 2024 [20 favorites]
Going back in time and showing this headline to Benjamin Franklin, killing him instantly
posted by dis_integration at 7:16 AM on December 11, 2024 [20 favorites]
Some technical context:
The Hawk Tuah token was run on the solana blockchain, a proof of stake cryptocurrency/smart-contract network that offers similar functionality to ethereum.
posted by neonamber at 7:34 AM on December 11, 2024
The Hawk Tuah token was run on the solana blockchain, a proof of stake cryptocurrency/smart-contract network that offers similar functionality to ethereum.
posted by neonamber at 7:34 AM on December 11, 2024
Makes me think of Flannery O’Conner
this is gold
posted by ginger.beef at 7:35 AM on December 11, 2024 [1 favorite]
this is gold
posted by ginger.beef at 7:35 AM on December 11, 2024 [1 favorite]
I dunno, Franklin strikes me as the kind of guy who would have replied the same if asked
posted by Kitteh at 7:35 AM on December 11, 2024 [7 favorites]
posted by Kitteh at 7:35 AM on December 11, 2024 [7 favorites]
Most people don't realize that "influencer" is itself a bullshit job. You're now doing pointless work generating money for a platform and brand sponsors.
So basically a new name for marketing, largely specific to working in the format of SM.
posted by biffa at 7:36 AM on December 11, 2024 [1 favorite]
So basically a new name for marketing, largely specific to working in the format of SM.
posted by biffa at 7:36 AM on December 11, 2024 [1 favorite]
Most memecoins are pump and dump schemes, which is why investing in them is a fool's errand. Rug pulls are super common, this one just got traction because Hawk Tuah. Don't invest in memecoins! At least not until after the rug has been pulled.
posted by grumpybear69 at 7:40 AM on December 11, 2024 [4 favorites]
posted by grumpybear69 at 7:40 AM on December 11, 2024 [4 favorites]
Most people don't realize that "influencer" is itself a bullshit job. You're now doing pointless work generating money for a platform and brand sponsors.
So basically a new name for marketing, largely specific to working in the format of SM.
exactly this! i remember in the 90s when i was living in NYC, learning about the “street crews” that brands sponsored to get the word out on how fly their product was in a way that connected with the kids. it's just nuts how social media has amplified this marketing tactic.
posted by rude.boy at 7:42 AM on December 11, 2024 [1 favorite]
So basically a new name for marketing, largely specific to working in the format of SM.
exactly this! i remember in the 90s when i was living in NYC, learning about the “street crews” that brands sponsored to get the word out on how fly their product was in a way that connected with the kids. it's just nuts how social media has amplified this marketing tactic.
posted by rude.boy at 7:42 AM on December 11, 2024 [1 favorite]
It's 2024, how many greater fools are still out there that that looked at Tuah Coin and thought, wow-- what a long-term great currency that will persist for eternity, come onnnn-- it's just FOMO betting all the way down.
If they're mad that it pumped and dumped so quickly, instead of in three weeks, well-- I'm all out of empathy for everyone involved.
posted by Static Vagabond at 7:42 AM on December 11, 2024 [6 favorites]
What certain people will take away from this is that that woman's coin cost me tons of money and that will make her a target for lord knows what kinds of abuse and negativity and potential retaliation.And, they'd be entirely accurate in that, if someone scams you some abuse and retaliation isn't out of bounds. The memecoin-industrial-complex approached her, her identity is what gave it FOMO value, she knows that at least. She's spending her 15 minutes and she is choosing to use a few minutes of that on this instead of something else.
If they're mad that it pumped and dumped so quickly, instead of in three weeks, well-- I'm all out of empathy for everyone involved.
posted by Static Vagabond at 7:42 AM on December 11, 2024 [6 favorites]
just woke up in a cold sweat screaming “WHY DIDN’T HAWK TUAH GIRL CALL IT SPITCOIN”
posted by lalochezia at 7:48 AM on December 11, 2024 [50 favorites]
posted by lalochezia at 7:48 AM on December 11, 2024 [50 favorites]
Yeah, the coin was going to crash eventually. I have little sympathy for people who thought that they were going to find a greater fool to unload their holdings on first, and discovered that they were actually the bagholders.
posted by BungaDunga at 7:50 AM on December 11, 2024 [3 favorites]
posted by BungaDunga at 7:50 AM on December 11, 2024 [3 favorites]
She could have hawked (heh) little glass vials filled with "her spit" and called them Hawk Tubes.
posted by grumpybear69 at 7:50 AM on December 11, 2024
posted by grumpybear69 at 7:50 AM on December 11, 2024
Snake Oil salesmen
Nigerian princes
Enron
Pyramid schemes
Madoff
Worldcom
Tulip mania
Alchemists
Go down the list. There will always be grifters, cheats, and those looking to take advantage of people.
The difference between the Tulip mania of the 17th century and the meme coins and meme stocks of today is as if people started reading Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds and said to themselves, "Let's do this on purpose! And for the lulz!"
posted by jonp72 at 7:55 AM on December 11, 2024 [8 favorites]
Nigerian princes
Enron
Pyramid schemes
Madoff
Worldcom
Tulip mania
Alchemists
Go down the list. There will always be grifters, cheats, and those looking to take advantage of people.
The difference between the Tulip mania of the 17th century and the meme coins and meme stocks of today is as if people started reading Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds and said to themselves, "Let's do this on purpose! And for the lulz!"
posted by jonp72 at 7:55 AM on December 11, 2024 [8 favorites]
just woke up in a cold sweat screaming “WHY DIDN’T HAWK TUAH GIRL CALL IT SPITCOIN”
I hope her inevitable memoir will be titled Spit Takes.
posted by Lemkin at 8:00 AM on December 11, 2024 [6 favorites]
I hope her inevitable memoir will be titled Spit Takes.
posted by Lemkin at 8:00 AM on December 11, 2024 [6 favorites]
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was.
posted by Czjewel at 8:05 AM on December 11, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by Czjewel at 8:05 AM on December 11, 2024 [2 favorites]
Like, for instance, right now you can go on social media and you can see people being killed, and no one does anything, and if it's abroad or the cops, it's done with your tax dollars. I would argue that it is extremely, fundamentally destabilizing to society to see and know fully that brutal injustice is constantly being done to innocent and helpless people, even unto killing them, and...nothing happens. No one stops it. If you try to stop it, you go to jail.
Henry Thoreau writing "On Walden Pond" about his experiment in living apart from society as a protest against his taxes being used to fund the Mexican-American war.
posted by subdee at 8:25 AM on December 11, 2024 [5 favorites]
Henry Thoreau writing "On Walden Pond" about his experiment in living apart from society as a protest against his taxes being used to fund the Mexican-American war.
posted by subdee at 8:25 AM on December 11, 2024 [5 favorites]
At least you can plant a tulip bulb.
posted by gimonca at 8:29 AM on December 11, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by gimonca at 8:29 AM on December 11, 2024 [1 favorite]
>And the old wisdom still applies: Hate the game, not the player.
Naw, hate both when it's a game they have chosen to play and play in that way.
posted by GoblinHoney at 8:30 AM on December 11, 2024 [2 favorites]
Naw, hate both when it's a game they have chosen to play and play in that way.
posted by GoblinHoney at 8:30 AM on December 11, 2024 [2 favorites]
All of the so-called powerful and responsible people are cashiering institutions and goodwill so it's no surprise that they would be mimicked.
posted by hypnogogue at 8:32 AM on December 11, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by hypnogogue at 8:32 AM on December 11, 2024 [1 favorite]
At least you can plant a tulip bulb
Snake oil is a versatile lubricant, actually.
posted by Lemkin at 8:35 AM on December 11, 2024 [1 favorite]
Snake oil is a versatile lubricant, actually.
posted by Lemkin at 8:35 AM on December 11, 2024 [1 favorite]
I realize the Player/Game language is just language, but if we're going to talk about hating the players in this case I'm just wondering where the boundaries of the game begin and end.
I don't know about you, but I feel very much like I'm a player in a game at times. My job doesn't result in outright grift but like so many things--services, education, healthcare--I work in a sector that increasingly realizes and reinforces prevailing economics.. namely, the extraction of wealth from one group, largely to the betterment of a different much smaller group.
how prevalent is self-loathing these days anyway
posted by ginger.beef at 8:38 AM on December 11, 2024 [7 favorites]
I don't know about you, but I feel very much like I'm a player in a game at times. My job doesn't result in outright grift but like so many things--services, education, healthcare--I work in a sector that increasingly realizes and reinforces prevailing economics.. namely, the extraction of wealth from one group, largely to the betterment of a different much smaller group.
how prevalent is self-loathing these days anyway
posted by ginger.beef at 8:38 AM on December 11, 2024 [7 favorites]
If Tiffany Gomas can make a run at the bag, well then anyone can.
posted by chavenet at 8:40 AM on December 11, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by chavenet at 8:40 AM on December 11, 2024 [1 favorite]
I'm just wondering where the boundaries of the game begin and end
Indeed.
Indeed.
Vice President Kamala Harris has unveiled a plan focused on supporting Black men, with cryptocurrency playing a significant role. Her “Opportunity Agenda for Black Men” includes ensuring that those holding digital assets “benefit from financial innovation.” Noting that over 20% of Black Americans have owned cryptocurrency, Harris promises regulatory protections to help safeguard their participation in the evolving financial landscape.posted by Lemkin at 8:41 AM on December 11, 2024 [5 favorites]
The tulip bubble crashed in large part exactly because you couldn't plant those bulbs and get tulips. The virus that caused the pretty streaks made the bulbs weaker and more sickly over generations. Eventually people were paying the price of large houses for a single bulb, but not only could they not make more bulbs to sell and recoup their "investment" because nobody wanted the bulbs anymore, they ALSO could NOT make more bulbs because the bulbs were spent and no longer capable of making more bulbs. In the later stages, the "bag holders" were left with not even one flower to show.
posted by SaltySalticid at 8:41 AM on December 11, 2024 [16 favorites]
posted by SaltySalticid at 8:41 AM on December 11, 2024 [16 favorites]
I love that someone is bound to bring tulips to this fight and someone else is like "oh NO you do not"
read about your fuckin tulips before you casually contrast them to crypto, noobs
posted by ginger.beef at 8:44 AM on December 11, 2024 [16 favorites]
read about your fuckin tulips before you casually contrast them to crypto, noobs
posted by ginger.beef at 8:44 AM on December 11, 2024 [16 favorites]
MetaFilter: make a run at the bag
posted by Lemkin at 9:02 AM on December 11, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by Lemkin at 9:02 AM on December 11, 2024 [2 favorites]
Within the past few weeks I ran across the observation that it doesn't matter who was first, it matters who popularized it. I work in software (and sometimes hardware in embedded devices), and boy howdy is it played out so often that we who do the innovation are largely interchangeable commodities, what matters most is who can take innovation and blow enough smoke up the appropriate people's posteriors to get enough money that it can get marketed and sold.
So, yeah: influencer is where it's at. And, yeah, at some point the actual innovation is moot, why not just sell snake oil? And I don't want to under-sell this, there is real skill in finding new marks this late in the crypto game. When you can make $50k on a site called "pump.fun" with a $350 rug pull, why bother learning a craft and creating actual value?
I don't know how we fix this, but I can sure look around and say "yep, wish I had those skills, working on cultivating some of them, way too later in life."
posted by straw at 9:17 AM on December 11, 2024 [1 favorite]
So, yeah: influencer is where it's at. And, yeah, at some point the actual innovation is moot, why not just sell snake oil? And I don't want to under-sell this, there is real skill in finding new marks this late in the crypto game. When you can make $50k on a site called "pump.fun" with a $350 rug pull, why bother learning a craft and creating actual value?
I don't know how we fix this, but I can sure look around and say "yep, wish I had those skills, working on cultivating some of them, way too later in life."
posted by straw at 9:17 AM on December 11, 2024 [1 favorite]
one things for sure with trump and his coterie elected we will finally close the nihilism gap that has plagued america for centuries
posted by lalochezia at 9:20 AM on December 11, 2024 [4 favorites]
posted by lalochezia at 9:20 AM on December 11, 2024 [4 favorites]
I believe that creating unregistered securities is entirely legal.
However, advertising/promoting unregistered securities to non-accredited investors is illegal. Link
So, she may be the patsy for the asshole tech bros who actually did the deed.
posted by pdoege at 9:20 AM on December 11, 2024
However, advertising/promoting unregistered securities to non-accredited investors is illegal. Link
So, she may be the patsy for the asshole tech bros who actually did the deed.
posted by pdoege at 9:20 AM on December 11, 2024
Frederick Pohl's _The Age of the Pussyfoot_ (1965) came close to predicting Influencers.
"Her profession is that of "Reacter". This means that she is employed as a consultant of sorts, giving her response to consumer products, and is rated by the number of potential customers she represents, and the chance that a favorable reaction from her will mean that the product is going to sell that many copies."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Age_of_the_Pussyfoot
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 9:28 AM on December 11, 2024 [8 favorites]
"Her profession is that of "Reacter". This means that she is employed as a consultant of sorts, giving her response to consumer products, and is rated by the number of potential customers she represents, and the chance that a favorable reaction from her will mean that the product is going to sell that many copies."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Age_of_the_Pussyfoot
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 9:28 AM on December 11, 2024 [8 favorites]
> [smithsonian:] Why is “snake oil” so widely used?
posted by HearHere at 9:44 AM on December 11, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by HearHere at 9:44 AM on December 11, 2024 [1 favorite]
Reminds me of William Gibson's Pattern Recognition (2003):
"Advertising consultant Cayce Pollard, who reacts to logos and advertising as if to an allergen, arrives in London in August 2002. She is working on a contract with the marketing firm Blue Ant to judge the effectiveness of a proposed corporate logo for a shoe company." - Wikipedia
posted by neuron at 9:46 AM on December 11, 2024 [2 favorites]
"Advertising consultant Cayce Pollard, who reacts to logos and advertising as if to an allergen, arrives in London in August 2002. She is working on a contract with the marketing firm Blue Ant to judge the effectiveness of a proposed corporate logo for a shoe company." - Wikipedia
posted by neuron at 9:46 AM on December 11, 2024 [2 favorites]
The humorous bit about Hawk Tuah, is that spitting on a dick to lube it has been a staple in porn for ages, and Hailey was just (somewhat-drunkenly?) repeating what she's (apparently?) seen or has been passed-around as received wisdom on "what one does with a dick." Kinda saying the silent part out-loud, in a weird way.
posted by Thorzdad at 9:54 AM on December 11, 2024 [3 favorites]
posted by Thorzdad at 9:54 AM on December 11, 2024 [3 favorites]
IMO: newspaper restaurant critic or ESPN sports analyst (they go back farther than ESPN, but I'm just offering a comparison) are the easily identifiable analogues to 'influencer', which is just 'advertiser'. They don't have anything to do with the primary business, are not directly paid - but rather just paid for their loud opinions.
Most 'influencers' don't actually make much, if any money, but unlike the early days of the internet where people created content mostly for themselves and their own reasons, now it's easy to create content that might make you a few bucks.
Again, IMO the coins they are creating are also really no different than a Frankie Says Yes! tshirt or "Do the Bartman Dallas Cowboys!" except that the actual costs of creating a NFT or bitcoin analogue is extremely low, lower than the cost of having a guy draw something on a shirt and doing a print run.
posted by The_Vegetables at 9:57 AM on December 11, 2024
Most 'influencers' don't actually make much, if any money, but unlike the early days of the internet where people created content mostly for themselves and their own reasons, now it's easy to create content that might make you a few bucks.
Again, IMO the coins they are creating are also really no different than a Frankie Says Yes! tshirt or "Do the Bartman Dallas Cowboys!" except that the actual costs of creating a NFT or bitcoin analogue is extremely low, lower than the cost of having a guy draw something on a shirt and doing a print run.
posted by The_Vegetables at 9:57 AM on December 11, 2024
are also really no different than a Frankie Says Yes! tshirt
I'm trying to imagine a hippybear response to this
I guess I don't see the analogy, but I'm likely biased by the immense weight of memory and the feeling of being a pre-teen who happened to be in England and happened to purchase a Frankie Say War t-shirt in 1984 and I can't reconcile the memory of that feeling with the words you typed
we are all slaves! to something. but to your comparison I summon my hawkiest tuah and spit, spit, spit
posted by ginger.beef at 10:06 AM on December 11, 2024 [2 favorites]
I'm trying to imagine a hippybear response to this
I guess I don't see the analogy, but I'm likely biased by the immense weight of memory and the feeling of being a pre-teen who happened to be in England and happened to purchase a Frankie Say War t-shirt in 1984 and I can't reconcile the memory of that feeling with the words you typed
we are all slaves! to something. but to your comparison I summon my hawkiest tuah and spit, spit, spit
posted by ginger.beef at 10:06 AM on December 11, 2024 [2 favorites]
The difference is that nobody bought a Frankie shirt or any other meme-of-the-month shirt from their favorite beach boardwalk vendor with the expectation that they could resell it later for a gigantic profit.
I mean, Dogecoin started out as an explicit parody of 'real' crypto coins; there were automated bots you could ping that would send you handfuls of them at a time, since they were worth miniscule fractions of a penny. Back THEN, memecoins were closer to Frankie shirts, advertising a popular slogan. Then Elmo got involved, and the general public became aware of them, and Reddit started up its meme-stock crusades to try to propel otherwise-dying-and-nearly-worthless stocks back to prominence through simple force of will.
Crypto itself is a pyramid scheme, obviously -- give us your money that is money for our money that isn't money that measures itself against what it's worth in money that is money, in hopes that more people will want to trade money that is money for money that isn't money and the value of your money that isn't money will skyrocket and you can trade it back for -- oops you clicked a link or breathed wrong near your computer and some kid in Romania owns all your money now, sorry!
But at least 'serious' coins PRETEND to have something of value backing them up. The memecoins at present are more like two holes in a random wall, one with a picture of a meme and the caption INSERT YOUR MONEY HERE. The second hole is blank, but if you clap loudly enough and believe, riches await!
posted by delfin at 11:41 AM on December 11, 2024 [11 favorites]
I mean, Dogecoin started out as an explicit parody of 'real' crypto coins; there were automated bots you could ping that would send you handfuls of them at a time, since they were worth miniscule fractions of a penny. Back THEN, memecoins were closer to Frankie shirts, advertising a popular slogan. Then Elmo got involved, and the general public became aware of them, and Reddit started up its meme-stock crusades to try to propel otherwise-dying-and-nearly-worthless stocks back to prominence through simple force of will.
Crypto itself is a pyramid scheme, obviously -- give us your money that is money for our money that isn't money that measures itself against what it's worth in money that is money, in hopes that more people will want to trade money that is money for money that isn't money and the value of your money that isn't money will skyrocket and you can trade it back for -- oops you clicked a link or breathed wrong near your computer and some kid in Romania owns all your money now, sorry!
But at least 'serious' coins PRETEND to have something of value backing them up. The memecoins at present are more like two holes in a random wall, one with a picture of a meme and the caption INSERT YOUR MONEY HERE. The second hole is blank, but if you clap loudly enough and believe, riches await!
posted by delfin at 11:41 AM on December 11, 2024 [11 favorites]
The tulip bubble crashed in large part exactly because you couldn't plant those bulbs and get tulips. The virus that caused the pretty streaks made the bulbs weaker and more sickly over generations.
This is certainly true about Tulip Breaking Virus- that the bulbs become weaker and weaker, leading to varieties with this disease to go extinct- but that's not what caused the economic crash. "Unbroken", that is, non-virused bulbs, also had wild price increases due to speculation. At the time of the crash, no physical bulbs were actually changing hands, so the fitness of the bulbs was actually immaterial.
posted by oneirodynia at 12:14 PM on December 11, 2024 [1 favorite]
This is certainly true about Tulip Breaking Virus- that the bulbs become weaker and weaker, leading to varieties with this disease to go extinct- but that's not what caused the economic crash. "Unbroken", that is, non-virused bulbs, also had wild price increases due to speculation. At the time of the crash, no physical bulbs were actually changing hands, so the fitness of the bulbs was actually immaterial.
posted by oneirodynia at 12:14 PM on December 11, 2024 [1 favorite]
Let's not conflate the fact that Welch capitalized on her fame with a YouTube, a podcast, etc. with this crypto scheme. The former is fine with me and I have been cheering her on for taking the bull by the horns. But the crypto could very well be a underhanded scam, though who knows the degree to which she wanted to pull a fast one or simply went along with it. Anyway, two different things to consider.
posted by zardoz at 1:02 PM on December 11, 2024
posted by zardoz at 1:02 PM on December 11, 2024
just woke up in a cold sweat screaming “WHY DIDN’T HAWK TUAH GIRL CALL IT SPITCOIN”
I hope her inevitable memoir will be titled Spit Takes.
posted by Lemkin at 8:00 AM on December 11 [4 favorites]
And then releases an album of her songs on Spotify called "Spit Tunes".
posted by Kibbutz at 1:02 PM on December 11, 2024 [1 favorite]
I hope her inevitable memoir will be titled Spit Takes.
posted by Lemkin at 8:00 AM on December 11 [4 favorites]
And then releases an album of her songs on Spotify called "Spit Tunes".
posted by Kibbutz at 1:02 PM on December 11, 2024 [1 favorite]
Charlie Warzel in The Atlantic: Crypto’s Legacy Is Finally Clear: An anti-establishment technology for an anti-establishment age (archive)
posted by scruss at 1:59 PM on December 11, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by scruss at 1:59 PM on December 11, 2024 [1 favorite]
Is this headline the final indicator of my brain melting and starting to trickle down my neck? Please give me some sign my brain stem can process on its own.
It's not just you, Inspector. I woke up, read that headline and thought, "I can't do this with you today, 2024."
posted by Ursula Hitler at 2:27 PM on December 11, 2024 [1 favorite]
It's not just you, Inspector. I woke up, read that headline and thought, "I can't do this with you today, 2024."
posted by Ursula Hitler at 2:27 PM on December 11, 2024 [1 favorite]
So I read the article in barebones HTML and I am still unsure what Bag Culture is, and how it differs from opportunistic Capitalism, or, as I like to call it, Capitalism.
posted by Sparx at 2:40 PM on December 11, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by Sparx at 2:40 PM on December 11, 2024 [2 favorites]
bag culture is just hustle culture, it’s about “getting that bag” (of money)
posted by dis_integration at 3:45 PM on December 11, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by dis_integration at 3:45 PM on December 11, 2024 [1 favorite]
bag culture is just hustle culture, it’s about “getting that bag” (of money)I don't think that's quite right, for this context. Here, it's referring to the phrase "left holding the bag" - a kind of hot-potato capitalism where the idea is that there's a lot of money to be made if you get into a meme stock or cryptocurrency early enough, but it's recognized that the value of the asset will collapse sooner than later, and the goal is not to be the last person in the chain when the music stops.
posted by kickingtheground at 4:45 PM on December 11, 2024 [2 favorites]
Isn't "predatory memecoin" redundant? I find it hard to believe that anyone who spent actual money to buy HAWK was expecting any more than a crazy slobber-filled ride. I'm not perplexed by the nihilism of the gesture but the upside for a buyer is pretty small - unless you are doing it for the yuks.
posted by Word_Salad at 9:50 PM on December 11, 2024
posted by Word_Salad at 9:50 PM on December 11, 2024
So I read the article in barebones HTML and I am still unsure what Bag Culture is
I asked ChatGPT and it said it’s about handbags.
True story.
posted by Lemkin at 6:07 AM on December 12, 2024
I asked ChatGPT and it said it’s about handbags.
True story.
posted by Lemkin at 6:07 AM on December 12, 2024
Charlie Warzel in The Atlantic: Crypto’s Legacy Is Finally Clear: An anti-establishment technology for an anti-establishment age (archive)
As usual, Molly White's perspective (found within the article) is extremely useful.
One of Trump's main goals is to allow himself and his wealthy backers to loot America down to the last copper wire in its walls. Deregulate everything, remove all oversight, depower anyone who opposes the process, bring back the age of robber barons on heavy horse steroids. Trump's cozying up to crypto makes perfect sense in that regard; it enables and invites economic corruption and naked bribery on a massive scale, and gives Yarvin-ite warlords the backdoor they desire for unelected domination.
$HAWK is a textbook example of the short-term scam; offer a rigged get-rich-quick crypto opportunity, pump it up, pull the rug quickly, scurry away from investors and the SEC, watch it happen again under a dozen other coin names. I look on my Google News feed right now and see reasonably serious articles about "DOGE's long-term investment potential" and "Dogecoin is surging but Coin X will outpace it" and such, and have to laugh at the concept of deliberately-designed-to-be-useless currencies drawing massive investment simply because Musk winks at them favorably. But Bitcoin and World Liberty Financial (aka TrumpCoin) and such are the long game, as they can be manipulated by government policy with transparent ease if degenerates control the government -- and the more of it that degens pour into Trump's e-wallet, the more they do.
Which is ironic in a sense, in that Trump is openly threatening BRICS nations with economic destruction if they "abandon the dollar" with one hand and openly subverting it himself with the other. But no one ever asked for narrative consistency from his end.
posted by delfin at 6:19 AM on December 12, 2024 [3 favorites]
As usual, Molly White's perspective (found within the article) is extremely useful.
One of Trump's main goals is to allow himself and his wealthy backers to loot America down to the last copper wire in its walls. Deregulate everything, remove all oversight, depower anyone who opposes the process, bring back the age of robber barons on heavy horse steroids. Trump's cozying up to crypto makes perfect sense in that regard; it enables and invites economic corruption and naked bribery on a massive scale, and gives Yarvin-ite warlords the backdoor they desire for unelected domination.
$HAWK is a textbook example of the short-term scam; offer a rigged get-rich-quick crypto opportunity, pump it up, pull the rug quickly, scurry away from investors and the SEC, watch it happen again under a dozen other coin names. I look on my Google News feed right now and see reasonably serious articles about "DOGE's long-term investment potential" and "Dogecoin is surging but Coin X will outpace it" and such, and have to laugh at the concept of deliberately-designed-to-be-useless currencies drawing massive investment simply because Musk winks at them favorably. But Bitcoin and World Liberty Financial (aka TrumpCoin) and such are the long game, as they can be manipulated by government policy with transparent ease if degenerates control the government -- and the more of it that degens pour into Trump's e-wallet, the more they do.
Which is ironic in a sense, in that Trump is openly threatening BRICS nations with economic destruction if they "abandon the dollar" with one hand and openly subverting it himself with the other. But no one ever asked for narrative consistency from his end.
posted by delfin at 6:19 AM on December 12, 2024 [3 favorites]
From Web3 is Going Just Great (also Molly White):
Other Twitter users marveled at a wallet that swapped $1.4 million worth of MOODENG (a memecoin based on the tiny hippo of the same name) only to lose it all on the $HAWK token.
The above would make no sense in 2022, makes perfect sense at the end of 2024 and will make very little sense at the end of 2026.
The incoming administration is going result in the US becoming the first country to pull a rug pull of it's own citizens.
posted by LostInUbe at 1:45 PM on December 12, 2024 [1 favorite]
Other Twitter users marveled at a wallet that swapped $1.4 million worth of MOODENG (a memecoin based on the tiny hippo of the same name) only to lose it all on the $HAWK token.
The above would make no sense in 2022, makes perfect sense at the end of 2024 and will make very little sense at the end of 2026.
The incoming administration is going result in the US becoming the first country to pull a rug pull of it's own citizens.
posted by LostInUbe at 1:45 PM on December 12, 2024 [1 favorite]
Especially since Trump is reportedly floating dismantling the FDIC (WSJ, archive link) and rolling deposit insurance into the Treasury instead, for whom Trump said of his nominee "I didn't know who he was, but he said the economy was only improving because they knew I was about to win, so I picked him." (Aaron Rupar, BSky)
Nothin' but good times ahead.
posted by delfin at 6:07 PM on December 12, 2024 [1 favorite]
Nothin' but good times ahead.
posted by delfin at 6:07 PM on December 12, 2024 [1 favorite]
→
Albania, circa 1996-97, might want a word
posted by scruss at 1:06 PM on December 13, 2024 [2 favorites]
the US becoming the first country to pull a rug pull of it's own citizens
Albania, circa 1996-97, might want a word
posted by scruss at 1:06 PM on December 13, 2024 [2 favorites]
« Older Stoner Cats | You're gonna get what you deserve. Ho ho ho! Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
Because I live here and I don’t want to be an asshole? Is this a trick question? I don’t know how to explain to the author that you should care about other people.
The world has ALWAYS been a dumpster fire of corruption, it just wasn’t as widely known before.
posted by leotrotsky at 5:36 AM on December 11, 2024 [67 favorites]