On October 2 1984, writer and theorist of media Neil Postman gave the keynote speech at the Frankfurt Book Fair. In his address, Postman presented an essay called "Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Showbusiness." In his speech, he wowed the crowd by stating that the theme of the fair, centred around George Orwell, was a mistake.
Of the two most influential dystopian novels in the 20th century, Postman suggested the author of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World was the right one and not Orwell's 1984.
"Orwell missed the mark completely," He said in a speech that is, to some of the worlds, as shocking today as it was nearly four decades ago. What made Orwell, not on the mark? According to Postman Postman, the writer failed to pinpoint the issue causing the most harm to humanity. "As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny 'failed to consider man's almost infinite appetite for distractions,'" Postman wrote in his essay.
Yes, distractions.
The NFT community is currently confronting a major problem -- perhaps the biggest disruption it's ever witnessed, considering the cultural and financial significance of the people and organizations in the mix. We need to speak about it because we've all fallen into the same trap Postman has so succinctly described in his keynote address. We must be better than this.
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BAYC Nazi allegations
You've probably seen by now that Yuga Labs, the genesis of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), are being called racist nazis. The principal person who is the leading proponent of this claim is a person known as Ryder Ripps, a creative director who has worked for world-renowned brands and celebrities as famous as Kanye West.
Ripps, born in the context of a Jewish family Ripps has been working on his argument for months, regularly broadcasting what he considers proof via Twitter and YouTube. His claims are ambiguous, weak, flimsy, and (most importantly) have been largely dismissed by scholars from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a non-profit organization dedicated to stopping defamation against Jews. Jewish people.
For instance, Ripps argues that BAYC's symbol, a white ape skull surrounded by white text, refers to The Nazi Totenkopf symbol. But, like other claims, Ripps has made this claim untrue. In this particular instance, Ripps' ADL Center on Extremism analyzed the logo's allegations and concluded that they found no evidence to support Ripps claim.
We won't review and disprove all claims because numerous articles and organizations have completed this. They are all easily accessible via standard search techniques.
Or not. On June 24, following being at the centre of months of Nazi allegations, Gordon Goner (Wylie Aronow), one of the BAYC's cofounders, posted on Medium to end the myths and clarify the situation once and for all. The article you can read and decide about is fairly concise and directly responds to the four major allegations against them.
The most recent developments in this sad saga occurred on June 25, the day that the founders of BAYC filed an action against Ripps and claimed Ripps had deliberately attempted to lower the value of his initial BAYC collection. We'll need to watch how this plays out; however, regardless of the trial's outcome, it's not a big deal.
The NFT community must be better.
The fact lies in that Bored Ape Yacht Club accusations, and the rumours surrounding the matter are distractions and smokescreens.
Maybe not a deliberately engineered one (we do not pretend to know for sure the nature of Ripps intends to do); however, it is there. It's worth paying the tiniest amount of attention it merits.
Here's the problem: We're having the incorrect conversation. These spectacles feed our Huxleyian need to be distracted. Such scandals are indeed just an unnecessary waste of time for everyone -- - the founders of ', Ripps', the legal system, and you and I.
There are valid criticisms which can and ought to be aired at Yuga Labs and the Bored Ape Yacht Club and Yuga Labs, like how the business is highly centralized and re-creating some of the issues we have seen in Big Tech companies in Web 2.0. Of course, other problems exist in the NFT sector that is systemic and can cause people ( particularly people of colour) actual harm.
It's only the beginning of the long list of issues to address. The bear market in crypto has thrown NFT makers into a downward spiral of mental health privacy in Web3 comes with some apprehensive disadvantages, and the list goes without stopping.
Problems like this need (and need) to be the focus of anyone involved with or involved in Web3 and other related issues.
Moreover, nonsense such as conspiracy theories distracts from these critical discussions. The most disturbing aspect of the whole situation is how the obfuscation of such a topic diverts our attention away from the actual issues and problems that affect the NFT community in general, which are many.
We're not in the mood for tabloid fads. There is a lot of work to do; the NFT community must be better. Of course, this isn't just an ad-hoc game. The nft has lessons to be learned and improvements to implement.
We have to be better.
The news started being discussed. We decided to report it via an article on Instagram. We chose this route since we didn't want to dedicate too many editorial resources to an article that's most likely to be a conspiracy theory in tabloids.
It was a mistake. It shouldn't have been covered in any way.
Instead, we could use this space to praise an artist's work, showcase an innovative idea or perhaps publish things that make people smile. Even better, you could have used the space to expose some real injustices that affect society.
We are a news publication as such, and we have a responsibility ourselves as well as our customers to take care to decide which stories are worthy of our attention. We are obligated to ourselves and our readers to pay focus on the critical news -- the stories that lift, encourage or draw attention to legitimate issues and real-world harms. Today, we're unveiling new editorial guidelines to aid in making better decisions in the coming years.
In the future, we're not going to discuss conspiracy theories or gossip, at least not in articles, social media posts or videos, nor in any other media. What do we know is and what isn't an untruth or a lie?
The most crucial aspect is that experts from the community or industry (like those from the ADL) are involved in the discussion of the subject or, at minimum, haven't denied the assertions.
The general policy is following: If the claims are considered to be weak and rely upon obscure sources or puzzles, don't have the support of experts, aren't supported by a small segment of the community or don't have what is commonly believed to constitute "objective evidence" we will not pay attention to them.
In these instances, remember that it isn't that we're not aware of breaking stories or that we don't keep our fingers in the air. It's more that we're trying to draw attention to stories that matter. We also encourage other community members to implement similar guidelines regarding their media and communications. We appreciate the feedback. Visit the "Community" page to reach out.
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