Cryptocurrency's popularity in the U.S. tied to conservative moral foundations (www.psypost.org)
from ooli@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world on 22 Oct 2023 07:56
https://lemmy.world/post/7153605

#technology

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StalksEveryone@futurology.today on 22 Oct 2023 08:50 next collapse

i thought i was getting my bumps from mexico wtf mccarthy

Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world on 22 Oct 2023 08:56 next collapse

DeFi was supposed to be a rad lefty thing in its conception. Conservatives can truly ruin anything.

BigBlackCockroach@lemmy.world on 22 Oct 2023 10:59 next collapse

reverse midas-touch 🤣

captainlezbian@lemmy.world on 22 Oct 2023 14:22 collapse

Everything they touch turns to the gold standard

InvertedParallax@lemm.ee on 22 Oct 2023 16:48 next collapse

Rad-lefty?

Rich people can hoard their money without the government?

How much further right can you get?

Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world on 22 Oct 2023 17:52 collapse

That’s a very small frame you’re prompting me to respond within. Fiat currency is a big complex issue and every attempt to subvert it is also necessarily complex

InvertedParallax@lemm.ee on 22 Oct 2023 18:25 collapse

Yes, but rich people have, at the end of the day, been at the mercy of the state for currency and protection, and the state can shift left and right.

Once they are free from the state for currency, there is only protection left, and they can buy that, with their currency.

I’m on crypto because I see which way the wind is blowing, and it’s blowing away from anyone with less than $50m by the end of the decade.

yata@sh.itjust.works on 23 Oct 2023 07:20 collapse

It was never a “lefty thing”. It was a right wing libertarian thing from its inception, and that hasn’t changed at all.

trash80@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 22 Oct 2023 11:29 next collapse

Then, researchers compared the alignment of crypto enthusiasts with what are known as “binding moral foundations” (Authority, Purity, and Loyalty) – typically associated with political conservatives – to “individualizing foundations” (Fairness and Care) which are often linked to liberals.

IMHO, that is a really strange set of “moral foundations”.

WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world on 22 Oct 2023 11:38 next collapse

Yeah… Almost like those “moral foundations” are what you would expect of the third reich.

Probably just a coincidence, though.

trash80@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 22 Oct 2023 14:26 collapse

I don’t see how cryptocurrency exemplifies loyalty or authority.

realitista@lemm.ee on 22 Oct 2023 12:07 next collapse

But does it really surprise you? Sounds spot on to me.

trash80@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 22 Oct 2023 15:41 collapse

Yes. I think people like bitcoin because it is decentralized. There aren’t banks or government that control the currency. There is no authority. I don’t see anything unfair about it. On top of that, I don’t understand how loyalty, care, or purity relate to bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency.

realitista@lemm.ee on 22 Oct 2023 17:12 next collapse

It’s related because according to the study, those are the core beliefs of the people who like crypto.

trash80@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 22 Oct 2023 17:58 next collapse

The purpose of the study was not to determine the core beliefs of the people who like crypto, it was to compare how crypto enthusiasts aligned with selected moral foundations.

realitista@lemm.ee on 22 Oct 2023 18:51 collapse

Okay fair enough, it’s a better description but I think a bit splitting hairs.

trash80@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 23 Oct 2023 15:59 collapse

I think a bit splitting hairs

Maybe so. I wonder if there is some sort of class I can take that would help me to not do that.

wtfeweguys@lemmy.whynotdrs.org on 22 Oct 2023 20:34 collapse

Not sure who they surveyed. Sure as hell didn’t ask me.

[deleted] on 22 Oct 2023 20:33 collapse

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TenderfootGungi@lemmy.world on 22 Oct 2023 13:22 next collapse

Sounds correct to me.

treadful@lemmy.zip on 22 Oct 2023 18:35 next collapse

Our analyses of a large set of Bitcoin tweets and a controlled survey indicate that binding moral foundations (Authority, Purity, and Loyalty) that are more closely associated with political conservatives better reflect one’s interest in cryptocurrency than individualizing foundations (Fairness and Care).”

So it’s sentiment analysis of a specific community (Bitcoin). The Bitcoin community has been more libertarian and toxic than others, in my experience. But I wouldn’t ascribe those attributes to the wider crypto community.

meh

joel_feila@lemmy.world on 23 Oct 2023 15:22 next collapse

That sounds like “the righteous mind” bs. It included purity as a core value.

Cethin@lemmy.zip on 23 Oct 2023 23:45 collapse

It’s basically properties of fascism vs egalitarianism. They’re not pulling them from nothing.

Companion1666@lemmy.world on 22 Oct 2023 11:39 next collapse

FFS, make SHIB’s value to $0.01!

realitista@lemm.ee on 22 Oct 2023 12:06 next collapse

That explains a lot actually.

Sethayy@sh.itjust.works on 22 Oct 2023 13:50 next collapse

Idk feels a bit like propaganda to me, crypto is the closest to a socialist currency you can get; instead of one or 2 super banks controlling all the money its divided throughout the people.

but then again this study has no (and obviously couldn’t easily) bias control for such a factor

[deleted] on 22 Oct 2023 14:06 next collapse

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Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works on 22 Oct 2023 18:22 next collapse

Crypto is a pyramid scheme. It’s not currency.

Sethayy@sh.itjust.works on 22 Oct 2023 19:18 collapse

Anything under capitalism is a pyramid scheme, its just most noticeable when its more sharp of a pyramid

uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 22 Oct 2023 20:30 collapse

To be fair, the currency is a collectively managed element. But currency trading is prospective investing, id est majorly doing a capitalism which is quite conservatve.

If we just bought stuff with crypto and tried to stabilize prices that would be a public-service driven effort, ergo socialist

shortwavesurfer@monero.town on 22 Oct 2023 15:26 next collapse

Not super shocking. The circles i see lean quite libertarian to anarchist and they love crypto, gold, and silver because “fuck the government”. I find myself mostly in agreement as i think the governmyth attracts psychos who get off on telling others how to live their lives. If we stopped using their money they could not afford to fund more wars and i would be willing to go out on a limb and say that state government is as big as it should get. With clauses that anyone can enter or leave their jurisdiction at any time for any reason at all or no reason.

aodhsishaj@lemmy.world on 22 Oct 2023 15:43 next collapse

Anarchists are by definition not conservative

ComradeKhoumrag@infosec.pub on 22 Oct 2023 16:15 collapse

I would consider cypher punk crypto anarchy the first left libertarian form of governance (edit: that could function on a global scale), an interesting hybrid of communism and capitalism.

Communism today is incompatible with democracy, it needs authoritarianism to have the level of control needed to redistribute all resources.

Right authoritarianism creates social hierarchies

Right libertarianism tries to be decentralized but just recreates feudalism

Left libertarianism is typically impractical. If the government doesn’t have authority to tax, how can you redistribute wealth? If the government doesn’t have weapons, how can it tax? If the social organization is decentralized, how do you maintain cohesion? If anarchy is rules without rules, how do you create rules without rulers?

Blockchain solves some of these problems. Maintaining an identity system is the main hurdle. In a crypto currency like Bitcoin, your private keys which prove ownership of money is your identity. But if it was just your computer was your identity, people could just spin up multiple computers and vote 10 times.

So unfortunately, the “rules of governance” are limited to network rules about the Blockchain. If you can implement a decentralized ID, you can securely automate parts of the government that have to do with things like voting or proposing policy.

wtfeweguys@lemmy.whynotdrs.org on 22 Oct 2023 20:37 next collapse

Most informed comment ITT. Thank you for sharing it.

supert@lemmy.sdfeu.org on 23 Oct 2023 18:56 collapse

Left libertarian has a long tradition. Otherwise I somewhat agree.

alienanimals@lemmy.world on 22 Oct 2023 16:13 next collapse

This article was written by a centralized bank that received huge tax payer bailouts in 2008 because their executives were too busy fucking over the average American.

Fades@lemmy.world on 22 Oct 2023 16:14 next collapse

Sounds like nothing’s changed

idunnololz@lemmy.world on 22 Oct 2023 16:27 collapse

Well something did change. It is no longer 2008.

shortwavesurfer@monero.town on 22 Oct 2023 17:19 collapse

And banks are no longer required to hold your money. Thank god.

Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works on 22 Oct 2023 18:21 next collapse

People who invest in bitcoin aren’t much better.

ZombieTheZombieCat@lemmy.world on 22 Oct 2023 19:50 collapse

Obligatory fuck psypost. The most click bait, sensationalized headlines for small sample correlational studies that almost always have a divisive basis, like “democrats are better at x than republicans,” or “men are better at x than women” or some shit. I got so sick of seeing it on the front page of reddit every single day because there were ten different subs reposting the same articles.

Kit@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 22 Oct 2023 19:03 next collapse

This is surprising to me tbh. I always assumed crypto bros were left leaning.

AnarchoDakosaurus@toast.ooo on 22 Oct 2023 19:46 next collapse

Must not have spent much time in crypto spaces. I would say they trend along the lines of Joe Rogan fans, but they are definitely more " bro libertarian " then leftist if anything.

There are some leftists who are into crypto currencies, but by and large most of the crypto space is dominated by anti game stop bois,investors, business moguls, drug dealers and small business owners.

Not exactly a huge overlap with leftist ideals there.

tony@lemmy.hoyle.me.uk on 22 Oct 2023 20:17 collapse

Back in the day when I was briefly into bitcoin (for the mining, which was still possible back then using GPUs) the bitcoin.org forums were mostly populated by americans who were sticking it to ‘the fed’ and had a deep distrust of authority. Some of them were seriously unhinged… I didn’t hang around there for long - only so much crazy I can cope with.

When I saw the people in silly costumes storming the whitehouse on TV that’s exactly the kind of person I can imagine was posting on the bitcoin forums.

hark@lemmy.world on 22 Oct 2023 22:56 next collapse

Crypto bros are likely overwhelmingly libertarian since a lot of crypto bro mentality gels with that ideology, particularly that it makes currency decentralized and more controlled by private entities. Cryptocurrencies as a whole will have various aspects that may appeal to other groups, however. Like yeah, it’d be great if we could reduce the power that banks have over us, but cryptocurrency often devolves into whoever has the most coins controls everything, critically with proof of stake systems. I’m convinced that bitcoin is only as valued now because rich people (who got their riches outside of bitcoin) have controlled it and are playing games with it.

SquishMallow@lemmy.world on 23 Oct 2023 00:02 next collapse

I would it expect to be bi-partisan. What reasons do we have for crypto? Security, faster transaction time, independent of government (more of a global currency), taxes too high, transparency, etc.

realharo@lemm.ee on 23 Oct 2023 06:23 next collapse

Let’s be real, the only reason why the vast majority of people are in it is wanting to get rich by selling it at a higher price to someone in the future.

The term currency is kinda misleading, it’s really more like a commodity whose only purpose is price speculation on exchanges.

Amir@lemmy.ml on 23 Oct 2023 10:19 collapse

Faster transaction times? Do we really need that, and is that actually the case? I thought bitcoin could have transaction times of double digit minutes, while normal banking transactions here in Europe take 2 seconds

SquishMallow@lemmy.world on 24 Oct 2023 06:17 collapse

Bitcoin is not the only currency. I’m not saying faster transactions are active, but that is a goal for some currencies no? Wasn’t aware if that first Europe. What about settle time then? That is, time it takes to verify a major transaction is legit?

Honytawk@lemmy.zip on 23 Oct 2023 10:51 collapse

The only people currently using crypto do so in order to get rich.

Don’t see many left leaning people worshipping money and throwing everyone they can under the bus in order to make capital.

febra@lemmy.world on 23 Oct 2023 07:07 next collapse

The most obnoxious people I’ve ever met were all conspiracy loonie right wing crypto bros

endhits@lemmy.world on 23 Oct 2023 11:08 collapse

Crypto itself isn’t an issue. My view has always been that it wasn’t meant to be an investment, but a currency. The issues are the grifters and loons that promote this as an investment.

bitsplease@lemmy.ml on 23 Oct 2023 22:56 collapse

And incidentally, the rampant speculation around them has rendered them mostly worthless as a currency due to the high fluctuations in price