Explained (netflix series): Could be interesting but too opinionated
I first started watching this because they had an episode about Bitcoin and I wanted to see if it was explained in a simplistic manor so that when people ask "how does crypto work" i can direct them to an episode of something that can save me some time. However, while the episode was informative it was filled with scaremongering and half-truths that kind of takes away from any sort of credibility that I could possibly assign this series.
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Now the series doesn't just talk about crypto, this is merely one episode of it but this was one of only two episodes I bothered to watch (I watched another one about "why women are paid less" and that one was filled with the usual half-truths that this topic inspires.) Both of these episodes did focus on some level of unbiased facts but for a lot of it there were the usual pundits who were presenting what "they believe to be true" rather than just presenting the facts and letting the viewers decide for themselves.
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When the credits rolled I saw that it was produced by VOX and it all became clear to me. I don't know if you know anything about VOX, but they are at the forefront of providing viewers of a particular political lean with stories that suits their already existing beliefs. The show reinforces their beliefst by presenting only the part of the picture that helps them to continue feeling that way. This is definitely the case with the gender wage gap myth that I can't believe people are still talking about.
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When they were talking about BTC they kind of glanced over how wonderful blockchain is as opposed to a central verification system and then talked for ages about how "almost all bitcoin transactions are for illegal drugs and guns" and how the system is only capable of performing "7 transactions per second".... huh?
They also focused on major hacks of exchanges and wallets and also on how badly it crashed in early 2018 and then featured a few stories about people that lost tons of money by losing their keys on discarded drives. This was purely propaganda and was definitely created to keep people stupid and afraid. But now that I know it was made by VOX, this is not at all surprising.
I feel as though this show all but embodies everything that is wrong with major news networks in the world today and now it is infiltrating Netflix to inspire people to remain biased while only knowing a part of the story. It would be like a special produced by Breitbart showcasing U.S. military occupation overseas - I don't even need to watch it to know what the conclusion is going to be.
In the age of misinformation and heightened outrage by people who are completely unwilling to investigate a topic on their own despite having all the world's knowledge accessible from something that fits into their pockets, shows like this simply piss me off. I almost want to create a new category called GTFOH for this one. Is it really just impossible for organizations like this one to be honest, i mean, just for a little while? Is it really not possible to just present us with information rather than needing to convince your audience to behave a certain way?
On a scale of "Urgh!" to "Wowsers!" I give Explained the well-deserved shameful rating of....
I don't hand out "Urgh!'s very often. I have only ever awarded this to this show, one other one, and of course most anything that has Amy Schumer in it
I actually enjoyed the series, as it still gave basic information on interesting topics! It might not be 100 percent objective, but still I found the episode about the stock market and so to be interesting and I actually learned a lot. In other words, I really enjoyed this as an easy to watch documentar, and informative series on Netflix!
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i might have felt differently if i had watched something that isn't so open to subjective information. I think that in regards to crypto I am particularly likely to lash out when someone presents wrong information. I don't know what Vox's objective is when attempting to badmouth anything that isn't traditional banking, but it got under my skin.
At least the episodes are short as all of them are under 20 minutes or so.
I haven't watched this but it sounds like they are scaring people about the wrong things. As far as I'm concerned you can't scare people too much about protecting their keys and keeping backups...because if you lose that, your Bitcoin is gone forever. It's not like a bank or credit card where you have some protection. As far as what some transactions may be used for, that's irrelevant. Cash is used for some pretty horrible things too after all.
that's actually a great point. Can counter the "bitcoins are used for drugs!" argument by saying "ok, but 98% of all drug and illegal gun sales happen in cash, do you think cash is a bad idea too?"
And that's exactly the argument governments will eventually use to force us into a cashless society...
i have several credit cards but use them sparingly and for online stuff for the most part. I was in some stores last year in NYC where you had to use credit, cash was not accepted. I coudn't understand why unless they are worried about their employees stealing or perhaps want to keep the riff raff out.
They might have just been worried about being robbed.
I actually use a credit card for the vast majority of my purchases. I have one that gives you cash back so it's like free money (as long as you pay it off in time to avoid interest which I do). I don't have a problem using credit/debit cards but I never want to be forced to. I look forward to the day when spending crypto is just as easy.
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This sounds a lot like the show my wife DVR'd for me a short time back about BTC and the crypto boom. It was on MSNBC or something like that and by the time I got around to watching it, I just found it pretty annoying. It was one long interview with "The Crypto Kid" and then a bunch of fluff in between that. They seriously had no clue about any of it.
I'm sometimes on the fence about whether or not mass adoption would be a good thing or not. BTC is too complicated for the average person and yes, there are plenty of ways to lose it because it isn't just a piece of plastic in your wallet... there's a lot more to it than that. However, once you get over the knowledge hump, it isn't difficult and certainly more secure than a credit card that just anyone can use if they find it or a carbon copy of it.
I've been saying for a long time that they need to find a way to integrate it with apple Ids or the Google play store like a single sign on thing. People don't want to have to deal with keys and separate wallets. I think a lot more people would be using dapps if they had something like that.
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That for me is interesting. Could you please share the title? The connotation is the same in our country. For me, the reason was because btc was introduced as a tool for money transfer in investment deals. Deals that are too good to be true and they used btc to hide their identity.
It was also my first impression but when I was able to read a few articles and conversation from friends, I understood its importance.
it's called "Explained"
lol
It's sad that an episode or an entire series could maintain the population misinformed, specially outside the traditional broadcast tv