{"id":11934,"date":"2022-06-29T22:39:56","date_gmt":"2022-06-29T22:39:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nftandcrypto-news.com\/nft\/its-time-to-talk-about-the-baseless-bayc-nazi-claims\/"},"modified":"2022-06-29T22:39:58","modified_gmt":"2022-06-29T22:39:58","slug":"its-time-to-talk-about-the-baseless-bayc-nazi-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nftandcrypto-news.com\/nft\/its-time-to-talk-about-the-baseless-bayc-nazi-claims\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s Time to Talk About the Baseless BAYC Nazi Claims"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

On October 2, 1984, author and media theorist Neil Postman gave the keynote address at the Frankfurt Book Fair.\u00a0In that address, Postman presented an essay entitled \u201cAmusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Showbusiness.\u201d During his talk, he surprised the crowd by saying he thought the fair\u2019s theme, which was focused on George Orwell, was a mistake. <\/p>\n

Of the two defining dystopian novels of the 20th century, Postman argued that Aldous Huxley\u2019s Brave New World<\/em> got it right, not Orwell\u2019s 1984<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOrwell missed the mark completely,\u201d he explained in a statement that remains, for some, as startling today as it was almost 40 years ago.\u00a0Why was Orwell off base? According to Postman, he failed to accurately identify the thing that truly plagues humanity. \u201cAs Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited<\/em>, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny \u2018failed to take into account man\u2019s almost infinite appetite for distractions,\u2019\u201d Postman explained in the essay.<\/p>\n

Yes, distractions. <\/p>\n

And the NFT community is now dealing with one such distraction \u2014 possibly the biggest distraction it has ever seen, given the financial and cultural significance of the individuals and entities involved. And we have to talk about it, as we\u2019ve all fallen for the very trap Postman so eloquently described in his keynote speech. And we must do better.\u00a0<\/p>\n

BAYC Nazi allegations\u00a0<\/h2>\n

As you undoubtedly have heard by now, Yuga Labs, the founders of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), have been accused of being racist nazis. The main proponent of this theory is an individual by the name of Ryder Ripps, a creative director who has worked with world-famous brands and stars as big as Kanye West.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ripps, who was raised in a Jewish family, has been assembling his case for months, periodically pumping out what he views as evidence on Twitter and YouTube. His claims are obscure, tenuous, and (most importantly) have been largely discredited by experts from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an organization devoted to stopping the defamation of the Jewish people. <\/p>\n

Just as an example, Ripps argues that BAYC\u2019s symbol, a white ape skull bordered by white text on all sides, is a reference to the Nazi Totenkopf<\/em> symbol.\u00a0Except that, along with the other allegations that Ripps has made, the claim is baseless. In this particular case, the ADL Center on Extremism analyzed the logo claims, and they said they find nothing that backs up Ripps\u2019 assertion.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We aren\u2019t going to go through and debunk all the claims, as there are many articles and organizations that have already done so. And they are all easily discoverable via common search methods. <\/p>\n

Either way, on June 24, after being at the receiving end of months of Nazi accusations, Gordon Goner (Wylie Aronow), one of BAYC\u2019s co-founders, took to Medium to put to rest the rumors and set the record straight once and for all. The post, which you can make up your own mind about, is relatively short and directly addresses the four main assertions brought against them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

As you may have heard, we\u2019ve become the target of a crazy disinformation campaign accusing us \u2013 a group of Jewish, Turkish, Pakistani, and Cuban friends \u2013 of being super-secret Nazis. \ud83e\uddf5<\/p>\n

\u2014 GordonGoner.eth (@GordonGoner) June 24, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

The most recent development in this sorry saga came on June 25, when the founders of BAYC announced a lawsuit against Ripps<\/a>, claiming that he has made deliberate efforts to devalue the original BAYC collection. We will have to see how that plays out, but whatever the outcome of the trial, it\u2019s largely beside the point.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The point is that the Bored Ape Yacht Club accusations and the noises surrounding them are a distraction and a smokescreen. Perhaps not an intentionally engineered one (we don\u2019t pretend to know exactly what Ripps\u2019 intent is) but one that exists nonetheless. And you should pay it the little amount of attention it deserves.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Because here\u2019s the thing: We\u2019re having the wrong discussion<\/em>. Spectacles like these feed into our Huxleyian desire for distraction. And the fact is that scandals like this are a complete waste of everyone\u2019s time \u2014 the founders\u2019, Ripps\u2019, the legal systems\u2019, and yours and mine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are legitimate criticisms that can and should be levied against the Bored Ape Yacht Club and Yuga Labs, like how the company is exceptionally centralized and recreating many of the problems we see with Big Tech companies in Web 2.0.\u00a0Also, of course, there are other issues in the NFT space that are systemic in nature and cause individuals (particularly people of color) actual, objective harm<\/em>. And that\u2019s just the start of the laundry list of issues we have to tackle. The crypto bear market has sent NFT creators into a descending spiral of mental health, anonymity in Web3 has some frightening drawbacks, and the list goes on and on. <\/p>\n

Issues like these require (and 100 percent deserve) the attention of everyone involved or interested in Web3, and nonsense like conspiracy theories detract from these crucial conversations.\u00a0The most upsetting thing about all of this is how such a vacant affair steals our attention from the very real problems and issues affecting the NFT community as a whole, which are numerous.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t have time for tabloid fodder. We all have work to do, and the NFT community needs to do better. But of course, this isn\u2019t a finger-pointing game. nft now also has some lessons to learn and improvements to make. <\/p>\n

We need to do better<\/h2>\n

When the news initially started making the rounds, we opted to cover it with a post on Instagram. We did so because we didn\u2019t want to devote too many editorial resources to a story that is, at best, a tabloid conspiracy theory. <\/p>\n

That was a mistake. We shouldn\u2019t have covered it at all. <\/p>\n

Instead, we should have used that space to uplift an artist, highlight an innovative project, or even just post something that makes people smile. Or even better, we could have used the space to highlight real inequities that plague the community. <\/p>\n

We are a news publisher, and we owe it to ourselves and our readers to carefully select what news is worthy of coverage. We owe it to ourselves and our readers to focus our attention on the news that matters \u2014 on the stories that uplift, inspire, or highlight legitimate concerns and real-world harms. So today, we are rolling out new editorial policies to help guide better decision-making in the future.<\/p>\n

Moving forward, we aren\u2019t going to cover conspiracy theories or gossip \u2014 not in articles, social posts, videos, or any other medium. How do we determine what is and is not a conspiracy theory or gossip? <\/p>\n

The most critical thing is that experts from the industry or community in question (like the ADL) should be active in discussing the topic or, at the very least, have not dismissed the claims. The broader policy is the following: If any claims being made are overly tenuous and rely on obscure references and puzzles, aren\u2019t endorsed by relevant experts, are only backed by an exceptionally niche subset of the community, or lack what is widely understood to be \u201cobjective evidence\u201d we will not give them our attention. <\/p>\n

In such instances, please know that it\u2019s not that we aren\u2019t aware of breaking stories or don\u2019t have our finger on the pulse. Rather, it\u2019s that we are working to bring attention to the stories that truly matter. We encourage others in the community to adopt similar policies in relation to their channels and communications. And as always, we welcome feedback. Please head to our \u201cCommunity\u201d page to reach out. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n