Fans of the metaverse are crazy

Two weeks ago, I broke down why the metaverse is just a fad, but in describing it as such, I am also saying that there are people out there who are enthusiastic about it and find value in its existence. These people, nay, these trailblazers, are some of the most interestingly brainwashed people in the world. 

In turn, following from my previous discussion of the metaverse, I wanted to talk about metaverse fanatics and dissect some of their more fascinating qualities and beliefs. 

Now, it’s important to understand that a lot of the same people who now infect the metaverse space are holdovers from the cryptocurrency space. Many of them are trying to get in on the next big thing, regardless of whether that thing is an open scam like crypto or a science fiction pipe dream like the metaverse. 

Both spaces are dominated by similar, hyper-defensive fanatics who recognize, whether it be explicitly or not, that the prized innovation they peddle is entirely reliant on mass adoption. 

If there’s no one in the metaverse, then it isn’t a place distinct from our own. If there’s no one to buy my pump-and-dump coin, then how am I supposed to make a profit? 

Where these two spaces slightly diverge is in the ideologies that they bring with them. Although many cryptocurrency enthusiasts are in it for the financial benefits, metaverse, as well as blockchain enthusiasts, are trying to fundamentally rewrite society. 

Reading white papers about blockchain reveals that the primary purpose is to avoid institutional middlemen and regulation. For blockchain, there’s no easier way to redefine how society works than to change how business is done through a peer-to-peer network. 

For the metaverse, the easiest way is to simply recreate society in a virtual space, writing the rules of the world in a way that isn’t affected by modern society. In short, metaverse fanatics are idealogues, hoping to create their vision of the perfect society. 

As people already in the space of cryptocurrency and metaverse, these fanatics already blur the lines of reality through their grandiose visions of the future. Such an outlook is common among innovators looking to change the world around them by envisioning a better tomorrow. 

However, these people are basing this vision on an expansion of the virtual world. They’re investing in a world that isn’t our own because it’s deemed superior. In other words, a solid portion of them is disconnected from how the real world works because they’re chronically online. 

These people’s social skills and general ideologies are crafted and honed by the forums and comment sections they peruse. 

Retreating to the safe space that social media algorithms have designed for them, metaverse and crypto fanatics are trained to hate the current system. They want something that’s freer, something that doesn’t trap them inside the metaphorical cage they’ve thought into existence. 

It’s because of this isolation that these socially inept individuals want to add value to their lives through the creation of the metaverse, implementing their idealized views of democracy and governance into such a society. 

However, it’s at this point that these, to put it frankly, uneducated buffoons are struck with a reality they simply refuse to accept: The real world won’t work under their system. 

The result is insane levels of bureaucracy and inefficiency as these people can’t govern themselves because they don’t know what they’re doing. They haven’t thought it all through. 

They’re like an author who tries writing an entire novel around one cool scene they thought of without any other planning, but in this example, the author only has one draft because it’s boom or bust. 

The culture around this technology being as toxically deflective as it is means that mistakes are expounded on because no one wants to admit they are wrong. They keep building upon their science fiction dream that some Redditor said was possible with today’s technology. 

In turn, metaverse projects organized and governed by their users are ripe with corruption because incentives are a powerful thing when there isn’t an institutional middleman or regulation to rein them in. 

When the only enforcer of rules is a committee of anti-social individuals with a high school level understanding of governance, chaos erupts, but no one will admit it. 

As a result, most metaverse projects are headed by some larger group or corporation, a group more connected with reality. 

While the occupants of these projects simulate society building, the ring leaders push for stuff to get done, like signing contracts with companies trying to cash in on the craze - similar to how the ring leaders of crypto coins are the only ones making a profit. 

To attract these ideologues, the owners pitch the metaverse as that redefining of society where the members decide its path forward. 

In reality, the owners are the only true authority, and in an environment where regulation is nonexistent, there isn’t much reason to play nice. 

It’s in this way that metaverse fanatics and crypto fanatics are one in the same. They blindly trust others without realizing they’re pawns whose vulnerabilities are being preyed upon. 

Fully trusting technology that relies on speculation and the inevitability of the future to gain its validity, these unfortunate souls are unable to see what could go wrong. In short, they are the modern equivalent of those poor fools who fall for the Nigerian prince scam.