Thread by @zooko

When trying to learn about the state of the pandemic, I try avoid paying attention to the kinds of facts and data which are vulnerable to being manipulated and misrepresented and look for "harder data":

https://twitter.com/zooko/status/1380942185030328321

I'm convinced that the most effective tools for propaganda, panic-mongering, and thought-control are data that are *true facts* and *true data*, selected and framed to support a false narrative. True facts are more powerful tools for deception than falsehoods are.

Misinfo and disinfo are rampant. Media corporations, Tech Titans, governments, and probably other actors are running successful disinfo ops. Additionally, fear and anger are "cognitive pandemics" sweeping through populations and making people deceive themselves and their friends.

(Which reminds me of one of my favorite tweets of mine ever, in terms of luckily predicting, back in Feb 2020, what subsequently happened:

https://twitter.com/zooko/status/1225813774117945344

)

In my experience, it is awfully difficult to find and use "harder data". It's laggy, it's missing a lot information that you want to use, and it's just less *fun*. You can't get frequent doses of emotional stimulation that affirm your feeling of being In The Right.

Also, of course, it isn't perfect. Harder data, too, is vulnerable to misinfo, disinfo, and bias, it is just *less* vulnerable.

When I'm trying to learn about the state of the cryptocurrency markets, I look at Messari's data set, filtered to show only coins with:

1. market cap ≥ $1 bn
2. real volume ≥ $100m / day
3. transaction volume ≥ $100m / day
4. payments ≥ 10,000 / day

messari.io/screener/bigge…

Again, it's not perfect, it's not immune to manipulation or misinterpretation, and it omits a lot of important and actionable data that I would want, but that's my current starting point.

I sometimes also look at this, which is the same columns but not filtering out any coins: messari.io/screener/cyber…

Anyway, the point of this thread is just that it is a beautiful morning here in Colorado, and I'm relaxing on my front porch with coffee, and I wanted to show you these data sets that I use. And at the same time, I wanted to noodle out loud on my growing sense of unease that …

Truth is necessary but not sufficient! The most successful propaganda, disinfo, and thought-control operations are probably built by using *true facts* and *true data*, and filtering and framing it in order to deceive and control you.

Thanks for listening. Be safe out there! No wait, don't be safe, be free (HT Snowden). Write back and tell me what you think! I'll be aggressively filtering out responses that I think aren't helpful to my readers. (Sorry if I hit yours. Nothing personal!.) ៚