CT is dead… but is it coming back?

From the forum:i

NFTier: I love these summary blogs because they tie so many of your experiences together. But I must admit I have been slacking on the blogs for the last month or so. And it’s not because of the blogs but because I really am not active on Twitter anymore. Twitter used to be a huge part of my routine even as a trader but I find it’s increasingly become filled with too many trivial things/topics that I’d rather just avoid.

Pete D: Ya it’s funny how Twitter is so NOT the place to be this cycle eh? Reminds me of 2017 tbh, whereas 2013 Twitter was popping off… much like 2021… I guess it’ll be Twitter’s time again in 203X!

NFTier: What was 2017 Twitter like? The reason I’ve distanced myself is because I find it’s become an outlet for people to fight and just bring the worse out of each other. Quite the opposite from all the value and knowledge I used to get from it a year ago.

Pete: My man funny you should ask because I was on Twitter from 2009-2015, had a few thousand followers and solid engagement back then, but it became such a cesspool in that bear market that I literally deleted the whole account and restarted this new one in late 2019. From 2015-2019 I was quite happy to just read books, blogs, etc. but in many ways this cycle feels like the 2017 cycle not just in the information landscape way but also in the “ICO 2.0” way which is in many ways what memecoins are.

NFTier: Ohhh didn’t know you had a previous Twitter. You would’ve been a proper influencer by now if you had kept it haha. But what do you mean by “information landscape?” If 2017 was a lot of vapor coin launches then yep that’s what he have today.

Pete: Basically that there’s no real crypto innovation or new energy in the space so it’s all just recycled noise. Not enough new blood so the same influencers just turn increasingly into grifters or just get plain annoying

NFTier: Oh wow that perfectly encapsulates the current mode. Funny how history repeats, reminds me of the lesson from your recent blog – The only thing new in the world is still the history we don’t know yet!

So yes, CT is DOA. Dead at the alter of the Tiktokification Of Society,ii in which each sovereign able and willing to call itself such creates its own social media blackhole with which to craft consensus, first at the elite leveliii and down on from there, just like we predicted on these very pages way back in 2016!

But will we one day see a “CX” emerge from the ashes like a Phoenix reborn? Will [our bags] get a second lease on life? That depends on whether you think Elon’s mandate (from heaven) is to stimulate another wave of post-pandemic casino-like speculation on cartoon monkey pictures that make you blind in more ways than one, or to stimulate a political vibe shiftiv and manufacturing/war-machine renaissance in America.

Perhaps the strength of our online cultures is just a sacrifice we’ll have to make for in-person Aristotelean civilisation to resolidify itself, that we may reach once again towards the stars.

Maybe that’s a sacrifice we’ll all gladly make — one that our grandchildren will thank us for.

 

  1. Lightly edited for clarity. ↩
  2. Much to the chagrin and possibly even the surprise of “leading social media influencers/intellectuals” like 6529 (who I still have respect for):

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  3. Because yes, all society is a pyramid, a fractal of our neurons, which is why getting the Bill Ackmans of the world to invest their time and energy into your platform is the winning strategy. ↩
  4. Tyler Cowen hits the nail on the head vis-a-vis the recent pro-law-and-order (ie. Trumpian) vibe shift (archived). ↩