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Culture War Roundup for the week of June 8, 2026

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Add on "Prediction markets are going to change EVERYTHING" (mostly used for sports gambling, unfortunately), the Internet of Things is going to change EVERYTHING (I will now spend EXTRA money for a toaster that isn't wifi connected), OMG we might have found a room-temperature superconductor, VR/AR tech is going to blow your mind, Crypto hype moved from Blockchain hype, to DApp Hype, to DAO Hype, to NFT Hype, to Stablecoin Hype, and it was all illusory.

WHAT THE FUCK WAS WEB3?

Its funny, I MOSTLY could spot when a trend was more hype than real.

I sold all my crypto in 2019. Never bought an NFT. I thought Metaverse would become something but nobody had a good vision for it, 3D printing is indeed a cool, useful tech but don't bet the farm on it.

But I feel sketchy now because all those hype cycles leave you suspicious if the next big thing is actually arriving or there's just people who make a lot of money if you believe it is.

SpaceX seems to be real, but maybe still overhyped.

GLPs ARE the real deal, and there's some other neat drugs in the pipeline.

Smartphones continue to be a boon... if you can avoid all the gamified apps designed to suck your attention and money.

Quadcopter tech is pretty damn mature now, and is finally achieving some market penetration.

Right now, I'm still contributing to my 401(k), Roth IRA, and HSA investments for the tax advantage, but I'm being more conservative in my taxable brokerage.

It feels absurd to focus on that right now, when the way things are going we're either going to get crash and hyperinflation wiping out a ton of that nest egg, or a new industrial revolution that goes exponential and so even modest market holdings will make you wealthy over the next 10 years.

The ONE thing that doesn't seem likely to happen is just steady 7% growth in the market (on average) over the next 25 years.

It feels absurd to focus on that right now

What else am I going to do with it? My house is just about paid off. I've got several months worth of food and water. My car is in good shape. I'm pretty well set for guns and guitars.

Hookers and blow aren't really an option either. I don't do drugs, and I live out in the sticks where the quality of prostitute is so low that I'd pay them to not fuck me.

Solid question, in that case.

Could do what I did. Buy a classic muscle car. Gives you something to work and fun as hell to drive, especially on backroads.

LARP as a moonshiner.