Some far-right activists and conspiracy theories are advocating against card-payments and for cash, and it's pissing me off
It's discrediting valid concerns against card-payments. It's invalidating how great cash is.
It's when the worst person you know makes a good point.
And things now are so Culture-Wars-y, nobody makes solid analyses any more, that when the far-right say cards are bad, everybody jumps to thinking cards are good.
I don’t agree that the reaction to what rightwingers say is so thoughtlessly contrary. In my experience, the reaction is usually “…huh, not what I expected, but okay. Oh, wait, THAT’S the reason they hate it? Nevermind…”
Why is it a bad thing if someone you don't like says something sensible?
There's a lot of natural alliance between the anti-establishment on the right and the left... that's why the establishment spends so much money and effort making propaganda, trying to make sure that the natural rage of the screwed-over gets channeled to the far right. The rage gets aimed at the left, instead of being properly directed at the people who are screwing them.
I don't feel like it's helping if someone who's a victim of that propaganda makes a good decision, and people on the left don't want to acknowledge it.
The lack of privacy is kind of the point. I can never go back to cash. Yes, there's a ton of problems with credit cards and definitely censorship issues, but the pros still heavily outweigh the cons. Money is dirty, messy to deal with, change is a nightmare, can get lost, can get stolen, can't really carry around large amounts, and is generally really bulky to carry around.
It's part of the far-right's playbook to co-opt left-leaning criticism of the system to twist it for their own means and losing the essence of the argument.
We have several stores that refuse to accept cash. A few weeks ago, we had a pretty harsh storm that knocked out power to major parts of the city for a little over a week. The area where these stores are was affected. All the stores next to them have always accepted cash. The surrounding stores continued to have business for that week, while those cash-deterrent stores had no business, and lost their edge (niche market, but they opened first in the area, so people knew them best). It's been weeks, and those stores still have not picked up foot traffic to levels before the blackout, and one just had a liquidation sale and will likely close soon. Cash should always be an option. Otherwise, we give up our independence from the supporting systems (electricity, internet, payment processors, etc.). On a side note, cash is a lot more private than card.
This is a non-post, as it doesn't even bring its own analysis to the table. What are the valid concerns against card payments? What is so great about cash?
The convenience of card payments heavily outweighs the (i assume privacy) concerns. So what if anyone knows I stuffed myself with an unhealthy amount of chips? I keep my cash for things that don't accept other ways of payment, like bus fare and my drug dealer.
I see your point, though. It isn't solely applicable to this issue; any discussion is mudded by disagreeing just for the sake of rejecting anything anyone with an opposing view on a distinct and unrelated subject.
Sane and reasonable people spent several decades advocating the use of cash instead of cards since at least the 1970s, until we mostly gave up. Who knows, maybe the newly invigorated crazy people will do better. They can't do much worse.
There's a ton of far right wing privacy advocates. For me personally, a social libertarian / anarcho communist, it seems like theyre drawing the same conclusions about privacy advocacy and open source from a completely different set of premises. For me, I view privacy as a right that's been eroded ever since the advent of the concept of total war, to the point now that capitalists engage in surveillance espionage casually to sell collected data not even to the highest bidder, but instead at commodity prices. What's the inflection point of supply and demand, basically
Meanwhile a lot of people on the right wing don't view open source as a great equalizer, benefiting all of society, but rather as a tool for themselves for personal benefit. I honestly never fully find myself understanding their premises to be honest. But I've for sure seen antisemitism and racism arguments bandied about, which is a Y I K E S.
As far as public perception goes, I don't really know what to say there. Yeah, I guess, it is indeed frustrating to have your average John or Jane assuming anyone using an encrypted messenger is probably a terrorist. I don't think the solution is give up, but instead explain your stance and premises
I'm as dead centre as it gets. On some topics, I'll gently lean left or right, but try to be balanced in my analysis of things.
I advocate for cash, as I also advocate for privacy. It doesn't make me far right.
There are plenty of reasons for cash. For me, it's privacy. For others, I'm sure there are some solid, and some whacky reasons also.
The real issue for me will be the digital dollar. Every dollar will be tracked through every transaction it's ever involved in. From inception into eternity. The ability for that data to be abused is terrifying.
I'll keep using cash as long as it exists compared to what's coming with the digital dollar.
I remember as a kid, seeing a commercial for a credit card where the clown of the ad tried to use cash, inconveniencing the mob behind him and it really stuck with me how unapologetic credit companies were when training their consumers and debt carriers.
Personally I never use cash anymore, because cards are just more convenient. That being said, I agree with the conspiracy nuts that cash should always stay a viable alternative. I trust the current government and banks enough, but if all goes to shit I want to be able to pay with cash to keep my data safe.
„ppl i don’t agree with have the same stance on privacy for basically the same reasons as I do and because the media is trained like pawlow‘s dogs they will now frame the exact opposite as sane and now I’m mad at the ppl I don’t agree with“ - the post.
I actually saw a sticker recently placed on a bus stop saying "save Poland, use cash" and I was very perplexed by it. I suspected it was some far-right/alt-right bs, but wasn't sure.
I don't see how conspiracy theories would discredit cash over card. They often cite the same reasons any other anti-card payment people have. They just have weird reasons to need those features. If they're paranoid about being "got" by "them," they're usually into the private nature of cash and all that goes along with it, same as any other privacy concerned person.
They certainly don't hurt it as much as drug dealers and money launderers.
Oh so it's not just my country where for some reason the right suddenly is super fussed about cash. I just assumed they made some supid press conferences again to distract from some scandal, as they do.
Having the option to pay cash is super important for privacy, but those people do not have our best interest in mind.
Great, so they get payment processors to refuse "dirty" merchants (aka porn) and then jump ship from them anyways? Why do they try to make everything suck
Privacy matters the most to people who have something material to lose with it, this unfortunately for pr reasons (but fortunately for many other reasons) includes bigots
I already see where this is going. The far-right is going to fuck up their credit scores even worse and then blame the NWO or wokeness or socialism or anything but their own stupidity when they cant get a car loan in 3 years.
Are there reasonably okay options to paying digitally without the surveillance part (or at least less of it as compared to credit cards?)
Blockchain is a nonstarter due to the practical limitations in sustaining proof of work and stake.
Covid made this really hard and somewhat political. A lot of businesses stopped taking cash. Some still don't take cash. Covid was never spread much in surfaces but I wasn't trying to argue and look like some whack job antivax person.
Who cares. When you're right, your right. I am sure many "far right people" are against stealing from your grandma. Agreeing to this common sense moral is bad?