No lights. No camera. No Action.
I see a new wave emerging. One where people on social media that want to “engage” their audience, turn to automated video production solutions in order to get more moving pictures into their social feeds.
VPRO – Vrijzinnig Protestantse Radio Omroep
VPRO has many great documentaries available on their various YouTube channels, check them out for yourself if you enjoy creative and somewhat futuristic programs.
How to tell if you’re a Libtard Snowflake
New terms of endearment pop up rather frequently across the internet, one such term is a portmanteau of Liberal and Retard – Libtard, you likely would have heard all about it by now, but have you asked yourself – am i a Libtard Snowflake? Chances are yes, yes you are! at least by certain peoples standards, which it can be fair to say are often way way off.
Putting the Snowflake in your Libtard
When one first hears or sees the word Libtard it is often coupled together with the word snowflake, after some searching online it appears this occurs because of it’s connection to something called the Special Snowflake Syndrome, described as the following in the Urban Dictionary:
“A malady affecting a significant portion of the world’s population wherein the afflicted will demand special treatment, conduct themselves with a ludicrous, unfounded sense of entitlement, and generally make the lives of everyone around them that much more miserable”
The Needs and Wants of Libtards
Libtard snowflakes according to some, are in the need of “safe spaces”, as places isolated from the political noise of people and ideas they disagree with. They are quick to the labeling of some people they disagree with as sexist, racist, bigots. They are prominent in the shutting down of “hate speech” as some form of free speech they see as divisive.
Safe Spaces
The idea that you are entitled to a safe space in which you will be isolated from your beliefs being challenged is not a new idea, the people demanding such things are surely navigating a similar path religious leaders would have had when setting up new religious dwellings in foreign countries. Isolating oneself in their beliefs, safe in “my space” where i can rest safe in the knowledge that i wont have to have “my beliefs” challenged. How is the requests of the Libtards different from what religious followers have been privy to for millennia?
If you are in need of others to always agree with you politically, (even religiously) – and get emotionally hurt when they don’t agree with your worldview; you sir/madam are considered a Libtard Snowflake – i belive the term is gender neutral.
Labeling
All people love to label stuff, things, other people. It’s Very much how we make sense of the world. To often though, we default to these labels on mere observation – quickly placing people in ever more categorised boxes until we feel we know them and are either happy or unhappy to continue the relationship. Snowflakes are no different, if you are quick to call something or someone out that you disagree with by labeling it/them something super derogatory in an instant, you sir/madam are considered a Libtard Snowflake.
Hate Speech
Arguing either side on hate speech can be a particular fine line to walk as legally defining what is meant by an individual person’s speech can lead society down a very dark path, potentially leading to the policing and enforcement of some kinds of speech, it can be argued Britain already has this to some degree. Does that make Britain a Libtard Snowflake?
Did you find yourself opposing this short dissection above? Did you get “triggered”? well done, you are widely considered to be a Libtard Snowflake.
Outro
Although i detest the values of what is currently called the Alt-right, i do think that the aspects of being liberally retarded are equally concerning, safe spaces are fine, it’s your choice to insulate yourself – but these spaces can also act as echo-chambers, in which you only hear voices that reinforce your world view, leaving you with less diversity when it comes to information inputted. Wouldn’t you rather have the widest informed perspective possible? That means speaking to people you disagree with, i should emphasise here, the right tend to shout rather than speak, and that can become quite annoying if you are not used to it – hence perhaps retreating to safe spaces.
Labels and Hate speech will always exist to some extent, although i do see a slow decline in many of the terms in the future; as we get to know one another better… by you guessed it… Speaking to one another! not shouting over the internet like many politically engaged persons seem to do currently.
I write about stuff that interests me, and stuff i am working on – subscribe if you wish to be notified next time i post. Or dont – either way you know where i am.
Impossible Receptivity (2min Read)
There exists a super interesting and all encompassing view-forming time of the day for me i have discovered.
WATCH: I’m a digital asset (54sec – CrossPost from bitjoin.me)
Production Fund Information: https://bitjoin.me/bitjoin-documentary-fund/
Film – Founded: https://bitjoin.me/founded/
Pictivism. An Oh Dearism Solution?
Subject of interest #191301 – Oh Dearism
“A Short film about how mainstream media simplify complex events and present them as “scattered terrible things happening everywhere, Oh Dear”, leaving the public feeling powerless to do anything about them”
In this post i would like to begin to explore the concept and relationship between the short film by Adam Curtis titled Oh Dearism, (first broadcast in 2009 on Charlie Brooker’s Newswipe, in the third episode of the first series) and how todays customers (News Producers) and users (Jo-Publicq) of Social Media companies experience similar techniques.
At the heart of the concept of Oh Dearism is powerlessness, it’s something we all feel when we watch/read/hear a news item on some terrible occurrence. I have felt it and i have seen it in others discomfort, and utter confusion in their powerlessness to do anything about the disaster unfolding in front of them, it’s as if they were right there at the scene of the tragedy but are somehow being pinned down by a great weight – unable to take action, the resulting emotion is dread mixed with defeat.
“Well, what can i do?” …best just switch over the channel – “ah! look Grand Designs!” …aaaand escape.
Our Mirror neurons allow us to transcend time and space through our screens, it’s part of what makes the visual format so stimulating; and why as humans we often spend way too much time transcending time and space, when we ought to perhaps be spending more quality time with loved ones and exploring outside our comfort zone.
Oh Dearism hinges on the premise that i see something… i feel something… i feel i can do… nothing. This is understandable when applied to the one-directional TV format of yesteryear but what about the format of todays… er, year? Social Media, it could be argued is the opposite – all empowering, engaging, all encompassing even! I see something… i feel something… i feel i can do… something. Furthermore it lets us get completely wrapped up in the something we want to do something about, so we do something right?
Subject of interest #1357301 – Pictivism
We’ve all seen it by now, something happens somewhere in the world that reaches the top of the world news agenda for days, sometimes weeks. People feel an emotional reaction and look for solutions on how to signal they care, they see some friends on social media have changed their profile pics to highlight they are thinking about said news item – people join in, resulting in sometimes millions of profile pictures turning a certain color or national flag for a brief time.
The resulting feeling; i did something! – no more Oh Dearism, i can rest easy – i made a change, a contribution, and now all my friends know it – maybe they will also change their profile pictures too and then we can all feel part of this change movement. Result!
Have you changed your profile picture to support a cause? How did it make you feel? Have you done it again since? I am keen to understand the resulting emotion you felt immediately after, 24 hours after, 7 days after etc – did the feeling diminish? When did you change your profile back again? How did you know when you had gotten the change you desired?
Feel free to leave your comment below or tweet me @richtella
WATCH: Linus Dunkers Teaser (BitJoin cross post)
A short preview of our second interview that we conducted recently with SCRYPT Miner Linus Dunkers. Learn more about the film project at https://bitjoin.me/
Contribute to the bitjoin film fund by scanning any address below.
Blockchain Based Bowie Bonds (1 min read)
Being well and truly wrapped up in the madness that is digital currency, i am often coming across what appear to be rather interesting projects, indeed i have even in the past tried to help others understand some of these unique adaptations of Blockchain technology. Check out the video i made on how to get hold of DAO tokens back in May 2016.
Although its next to impossible to vet all these individual projects unless you can commit full time or manage some sort of team, this latest catch SingularDTV – striked me as quite interesting indeed. What hooked me about the project – is mostly due to my search for a sustainable revenue model for video content that i am in the middle of producing, i would really like to monetise the distribution in a new way, and a way in which all those persons contributing in the production are satisfied with their compensation.
Another reason i was attracted by SingularDTV was the fact Zach LeBeau
the CEO shows up in all their PR materials, and appears to come across very genuine and engaged. He also shares his back story – which for me is super important to understand quickly – why is this guy doing this? – whats the motivation? To be clear this post is not to serve as an endorsement for SingularDTV as so far they are yet to launch anything however, i understand that will happen very soon, do your own due diligence, do not rely on others to do it for you.
For me owning some SNGLS (price at writing: 0.00009879) means i feel like i am contributing to something that is being built with which i can align some of my values, i appreciate and respect the people trying to build this platform however, that does not mean it will succeed no matter how good their intentions.
So this brings me to the main reason why i am excited by the idea of Singular DTV, and why i think this model could be helpful to other startups in the future. Zach LeBeau clearly presents his back story and inspiration, and most importantly – it’s simple to understand.
The concept for SingularDTV is rooted in a spectacular but lest remembered moment in history where in 1997 along with David Pullman, the person responsible for “Bowie Bonds – David Bowie tokenize himself using an asset-backed security which uses the current and future revenue from albums recorded by the musician as collateral, he then put out these bonds on Wall Street raising some 55 million USD. Bowie bonds represented one of the first instances of a bond that used intellectual property as the underlying collateral. Billboard have a great post on the story of Bowie bonds here.
As i have understood the Singular DTV platform so far, Zach LeBeau now suggests that soon this type of operation of issuing asset-backed securities for your creative endeavours will be available in an easy to use format through the Singular DTV platform. Being a wannabe filmmaker – this platform model comes across as very attractive to me.
What are your thoughts? Feel free to reach out to me on twitter @richtella
What’s the format Rich?
ANSWER: Just like the Pizza Burger BBQ Chicken, the format is not any one thing in particular, but instead all things all at the same time.
Its common knowledge that one is typically recommended to blog about a single particular subject of interest, but why? One of the top reasons as i understand it, is so that you can align yourself as a blogger/authority on your chosen subject matter. Another is so that you may have a way to monetise your content as you develop your voice within your chosen space i.e “influencer marketing”.
But what are the potential drawbacks of such narrowing down of ones blog? what if you simply do not want to narrow down your online content offering to just one single topic or subject?
From my observations it seems the bloggers that get away without zooming in on a single subject, typically themselves become the subject matter – think youtube celebrity types such as Casey Neistat. Perhaps they started out with a niche subject but eventually they themselves became bigger than the subject they set out to cover, when this happens, the audience has indicated to the blogger – or in the case of Casey Neistat ‘vlogger’ – and likely due to their interpretation of their channels youtube or facebook analytics, that they (the blogger) should share more of their personal life.
Those who typically enter down that path become very much a celebrity, and begin to develop their personal brand within that space. In doing this they are able to branch out in to almost any sub-genre they like, as they themself are now the reason people watch – no longer are people watching because the blogger is an authority on a specific subject.
A problem i have had, and as you can tell; continue to have, is that i have many interests, and they all tend to overlap. My very first blog was the MMMDo blog, where i would simply make things (typically furniture) film or photograph what i made, then attempt to stitch some sort of useful blog post together, i was surprised recently when i checked up on my blogs associated youtube channel to find one of my videos has nearly 25K views. to bad i had not monetised the video as i had used some third party content which i had forgotten to remove.
My second blog was bitjoin.me where i took what i had learned about video production on the MMMDo blog and attempted to apply it to the subject of digital currency, i stuck mainly to interviews with people working in the space and also some ‘How To’ videos this blog helped me learn more about the technology used in digital currencies as well as improving my video production skills. From the very start my mind was on producing a documentary in this space, due to the unique and fascinating subject matter and the fact that those early days were so all over the place (thanks to the ongoing scaling debate, to some extent they still are)
As part of thebitjoin.me blog i also published video diary entries from the early days of starting a company, the video series originally entitled Starting Up loosely documented my progress as an entrepreneur just when i had begun doing entrepreneurial things, the concept went through several adaptations as i tried to find the best format, but eventually i put the concept to bed on a youtube channel called Start Up Slam.
I went on to start blogging for Qwids, a startup company i founded with a group of amazing people all working to develop a service that lives at the crossroads between (old world) loyalty points and (new world) digital currency. Blogging for a corporation proved rather demanding, and i know i know – one must blog regularly; but the research involved for this subject is very demanding, and although really fun as i learned a lot about the subject matter – in a startup there is only so much time to go around. The last post i made was in March, I do intend to pick this blog up again as soon as we have made the necessary changes to our UX and gotten the traction we need in the market; hopefully by August 2017 : )
This brings us to now, and here, this blog. What’s the format Rich? What’s the niche? Who’s your target Rich? Truth is, i don’t have any of those things. I am just writing about stuff i do, linking to past blog posts and sometimes writing about stuff i am interested in, but not so knowledgeable on. That’s all.
Sergej Kotliar clip 2017 (BitJoin Cross-Post)
In April 2017 i began following up with the 6 founders featured in my first documentary short – Founded. I started by catching up with Sergej Kotliar of BitRefill. In the past i have published the full interviews on the BitJoin youtube channel, however this time i intend on publishing these interviews solely on Popchest in order to help raise funds for the production of the follow up documentary to Founded. If you know of a better way to raise funds don’t hesitate to contact me at rich@bitjoin.me
