DeepSummary
The podcast episode discusses the rise of crypto shills and celebrities promoting cryptocurrencies and NFTs, despite their shady and fraudulent nature. It explores why influential figures in politics, media, and entertainment endorsed these dubious assets, often driven by a desire to counter social movements and restore an establishment-friendly 1990s-style technocratic politics.
The guests analyze the roles of individuals like former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, technocratic centrists like Matthew Iglesias and David Shor, and crypto-friendly politicians in enabling and profiting from the crypto craze. They highlight how the crypto hype represented a push against the "woke" left by reactionary centrists seeking to undermine progressive movements.
The episode also examines the real-world consequences of the crypto crash, with ordinary people and institutions losing significant sums. The guests argue that the crypto mania wasted resources that could have been better invested in addressing climate change and other pressing issues, ultimately representing a societal failure with little accountability for those responsible.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- Crypto became a vehicle for prominent figures across politics, media, and entertainment to push back against progressive social movements and 'woke' culture.
- Centrist liberals like Matthew Iglesias and David Shor embraced crypto as part of a reactionary effort to counter the left and revive a 1990s-style establishment technocratic politics.
- Celebrities promoted crypto through lucrative endorsement deals and FOMO marketing tactics despite the shady and fraudulent nature of many crypto projects.
- The crypto mania wasted resources and potential investment that could have better addressed pressing issues like climate change.
- Crypto strived for legitimacy by aligning with establishment Democratic politicians and celebrities, putting a 'seal of approval' on the subculture.
- Marginalized communities were among the biggest victims left 'holding the bag' when crypto inevitably crashed, mirroring past financial scams.
- There has been a disturbing lack of accountability for powerful figures behind catastrophes like the crypto crash, enabling further 'grand mistakes'.
- The complex mathematics and 'data science' trappings of crypto helped obfuscate and lend an air of sophistication to what were essentially Ponzi schemes.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “You're seeing a sort of realization on the part of people like Sam Bankman, fried, and other people who clearly have ambitions to be billionaires with a b in the Walter white sense, that the way to do that is to gain credibility and prestige by appealing to democratic aligned forces. So you get Bill Clinton and Tony Blair on stage in the Bahamas. You get Kirsten Gillibrand, you get Larry David and LeBron James and all the other people. You mentioned, Ryan, where you're basically putting a seal of approval from the more establishment kind of part of society on this once counter cultural, anti establishment, bro Internet, bro type subculture.“ by Marshall Steinbaum
- “The last people holding the bag were going to be, and are the more marginalized. Economic people are more economically and socially marginalized, especially people of color. And one saw it in the ads that were made towards the last year or so, which pretty specifically seems to have been targeting African Americans as saying, the man doesn't want you to get crypto, but this is the way you can make money.“ by Jeet Heer
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Episode Information
Left Anchor
Ryan Cooper & Alexi the Greek
12/6/22
Today we've got Marshall Steinbaum, professor of economics at the University of Utah, and The Nation's Jeet Heer on to talk about crypto shills--who they are, how they got like that, why there are so many of them among cultural and political elites, and more. Enjoy!