I hate NFTs

     I hate NFTs. They’re the kind of thing that is so stupid it’s almost completely unfathomable. Everyone’s been talking about them, most agree they make no sense and are a threat to the very media they’re trying to conquer, but because they’re so stupid nobody takes them seriously. Because of this, I’m worried that those who pedal them will succeed in taking over the world. 

     If NFTs had become relevant back in 2016, I wouldn’t have been as scared of them as I am now. I would have made note of their stupidity, then moved onto other things, because something this stupid couldn’t possibly be a threat. Just as somebody as stupid as Donald Trump could never have become president. But of course, in spite of, or perhaps because of, his stupidity, he won the election in 2016. And now I watch in horror as NFTs do the same. I know nobody likes them; I know they aren’t popular in the mainstream at all. The problem is that those who do like them have enough wealth and connections to push them onto the rest of us whether we want them or not, and if we’re unlucky we could be forced to use them regardless of our feelings. I could absolutely be wrong about this. I so badly hope that I am. But in 2016 a stupid man won an election, in no small part due to the fact that nobody took him seriously except the people who wanted to vote for him. In 2020, a virus brought the world to its knees, and it hit the United States badly because we didn’t take it seriously, it was just a virus not to different from the flu after all, and nobody had enough money to make staying home a viable option except for those who saw no benefit from putting things on pause. What chance do we have against NFTs, in some ways stupider than both, built by people who don’t realize how out of touch with the rest of the world they are? 

    I know a lot of people are very vocal about their dislike of NFTs. But for most of them, I suspect, it’s not just about NFTs. It’s about what they represent. NFTs are the playground of those who are both wealthy and stupid. They are the domain of those who believe that if the world did whatever they said it should do, the world would be a better place. This is not a fault contained within those who bet their money on the nonexistent, it is a fault we all share, but most of us know that we have to share a world with others, they seem not to be aware of this simple fact. NFTs are the latest product of a system we all hate but that none of us could hope to change on our own. They are a reminder that all to often the best ideas that everyone wants don’t gain traction and bad ideas we hate gain prominence around the globe, to the point where we can’t fix the damage it caused. NFTs are so awful that many simply don’t want to talk about them and want to get to a point where they aren’t mentioned. They’re so stupid they couldn’t possibly hurt anyone. That isn’t true. Many people will fight, but even now I fear they’re being shouted into silence, while those who want NFTs to become mainstream will only grow louder and more demanding. 

    If there is hope, it’s that eventually NFTs and the systems that allow them to exist come crashing down to the degree that they can never be rebuilt. I realize that’s a high bar, and the truth is that so long as we have machines capable of using them, NFTs and blockchain and cryptocurrency will always exist and will forever haunt us. They came about out of human greed and blindness and so long as humans retain their old faults and fail to learn their lesson, we will always have people who shill for them. So perhaps the real hope is that people like me won’t lose the will to fight against this. We may never win, but if we keep fighting, maybe they won’t either.