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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 5, 2022

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I can go into google images and 'save as' the Mona Lisa - yet this isn't a devastating blow to fine art. The Louvre isn't going to shut down because of me. Nobody can stop you right clicking anything, NFT or not. The whole point is that it's clear who owns the product, not that it's somehow kept obscured from mortal eyes so only the owner can see it.

For some reason people like first editions of important books and will pay more for them. Nobody considers this a grave injustice, nobody clowns on these people by saying "I bought the same book for cheaper". People just popularized this bizarre notion of 'right click save as = you're an idiot' when there's no logical connection to how this is good or bad. For several months the right-click NFT meme was plaguing twitter and the internet and nobody seemed to justify how this is a coherent concept.

At the same time, I think there's still a qualitative difference. You're comparing physical things to digital: sure, I can download an image of the Mona Lisa, but there's no confusion as to who owns what. With books (and especially comic books!), there's also a meaningful difference with special editions or rare versions. NFT art doesn't entirely have this; at best, people are really buying the receipt/deed of ownership, which could count for something, but the technology remains speculative even now, and it's hard to see what difference owning an NFT actually makes beyond being useful for entry into clubs and the like.

I think NFTs could potentially make a comeback, but they need to have a serious use case, and shed the baggage on top of that.

I can go into google images and 'save as' the Mona Lisa - yet this isn't a devastating blow to fine art

It was, actually? A hundred thousand hours are spent looking at cute anime girl faces for every hour spent staring at something in the Louvre. Traditional physical art is much less important than it was pre-industrial revolution.