Share this page!

Demetri Kofinas Profile picture
Twitter logo
19 Apr, 4 tweets, 2 min read
1/ As someone who cares deeply about our environment, I've become increasingly turned off from engaging in conversations about climate change, in part because of how dogmatic and unscientific they have become.
2/ I did this episode of @HiddenForcesPod in order to become better informed about what the science says and what it doesn't.

What I learned surprised me.
3/ This isn't to say that anthropogenic warming isn't real or that we shouldn't take measures to curb emissions, but the hysteria around climate change is extreme & not supported by the data that we point to when making definitive statements about an impending climate apocalypse.
4/ Further to the point, I think that this type of catastrophizing is debilitating and counterproductive when it comes to actually addressing the problem.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Demetri Kofinas

Demetri Kofinas Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @kofinas

Demetri Kofinas Profile picture
28 Feb
1/ While I don't agree with everything @nntaleb tweets, I do think he's onto something when he says that there is a "destructive urge to reinvent Utopianism under unrecognized forms."

This is the natural evolution of an unqualified culture of "disruption."
2/ Unfortunately, not every aspect of society is an ideal laboratory for the "move fast & break things; fake it till you make it" ethos of Silicon Valley.

And yet, the principles associated w/this mindset are spreading far beyond the commercial realms in which they were birthed.
3/ Indeed, Silicon Valley culture and the disruptive dynamics associated with social networks, mobile devices, automation, A.I., and now crypto, are increasingly encroaching upon the traditional assignments and obligations of government and the state.
Read 7 tweets
Demetri Kofinas Profile picture
18 Feb
1/ Crypto is the only industry or intellectual realm I've ever waded into in my life where a non-consensus view about something as important as money and the public good is regularly dismissed as some form of piggish envy, resentment, and greed.
2/ What's most dispiriting about this reading and line of attack is that it elevates money & profits above integrity & epistemology.

It embraces cynicism in its highest form by presuming that everyone is playing the same game. That no one cares about truth or is acting honestly.
3/ Of course, this is not true. It's a transitory function of the modern world.

Much of today's pop culture is about giving individuals permission to live selfishly & celebrate their riches at the expense of the broader society in which they live & upon which their lives depend.
Read 15 tweets
Demetri Kofinas Profile picture
31 Jan
1/ The evolving r/WSBs story is tailor-made for @HiddenForcesPod.

It combines memes, options, corruption, generational conflict, systemic imbalances of money & power, financial warfare, and social disillusionment.

We've done episodes on ALL OF THESE.

cnet.com/personal-finan…
2/ To the best of my knowledge, we were first in describing this phenomenon as a form of "market nihilism" and we've devoted many episodes to understanding the millennial revolt & mechanics of "the pump."

Of course, our subscribers know this already...

patreon.com/hiddenforces
3/ My next episode on this story will focus on (1) the structural dynamics of the options market that made this latest pump possible and (2) the role played by memes and viral story-telling in helping to incite and coordinate a retail insurgency against Wall Street in real-time.
Read 5 tweets
Demetri Kofinas Profile picture
25 Jan
1/ If you’ve been listening to @HiddenForcesPod over the last few months, you will know that I’ve been wrestling with many emotions as we’ve moved through the 2020 election, past the inauguration and towards the start of a new presidential administration. bit.ly/HF_176
2/ I’ve felt some combination of anxiety, nervousness, distress and sometimes even, anger.

I think these result from the threat I feel emanating from our broken society, as evidenced by not only the assault on the Capitol but by the larger forces that have led us to this moment.
3/ Rather than make an effort to bring our country together, our partisan media and talking heads on cable news outlets find every opportunity to tear it apart.

Likewise, our regulators continue to turn a blind eye to the systemic build-up of risk happening in financial markets.
Read 24 tweets
Demetri Kofinas Profile picture
21 Jan
1/ In other words, there we were confronted not with a whole series of crises and problems, but with one crisis, amounting to a death wish – an urge to self-destruction – seeping into every aspect of our way of life.
2/ A touch of irony is added by virtue of the fact that this Gadarene course is associated with ostensibly optimistic views whereupon the State may be expected to whither away and mankind to live happily ever after.
3/ [...] Searching about in their minds for some explanation of this pursuit of happiness that became a death wish, the archaeologists ... would be bound to hit upon the doctrine of “Progress”: probably the most deleterious fancy to ever take possession of the human heart."
Read 4 tweets
Demetri Kofinas Profile picture
8 Jan
1/ I cannot put into words the heartbreak I feel when I look at what’s unfolding in our country.

We're approaching a precipice. If we don’t find a way to reach some sort of working consensus the situation is only going to become more intractable and quite frankly more dangerous.
2/ The behavior of risk assets in the face of all this uncertainty is perhaps the most alarming data point in a sea of bad news.

There simply is no discernible relationship between value metrics and price. The signaling mechanism sending information between the two is broken.
3/ The French philosopher Jean Baudrillard would have described what we are living through today as "hyperreality," a condition in which what is real and what is fiction or narrative are so entangled that there is no clear distinction between where one ends and the other begins.
Read 9 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @kofinas has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @kofinas!

Read all threads by @kofinas