r/Buttcoin • u/dyzo-blue Millions of believers on 4 continents! • 5d ago
LeBron James has a $15m per year deal to promote crypto gambling company, Polymarket. Far more than his $4m per year deal to play with the 76ers.
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/25506865-how-lebrons-polymarket-deal-compares-76ers-contract-uncovered-rumors-nba-season87
u/ketoaholic 5d ago
The dumbest thing ever is expecting professional athletes (or any kind of celebrity, really) to be role models or do the right thing. Let us not forget that Stephen Curry blocked affordable housing being built near his mansion because it would bring the poors too close for comfort.
With that said, in Wemby we trust. He's French, but I'll forgive him that.
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u/highorderdetonation 5d ago
When selling/cashing out became a full-on career goal, this in particular was probably inevitable. The current political/ethical climate really did just make it worse.
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u/FrostLight14 4d ago
I feel like it's less of the career goal and more of I'm going to do what I can get away with so I don't leave money on the table. I'd like to think many of these people wouldn't nearly be as bold if they knew there were stronger consequences. It's the same as how most fraudsters don't immediately go from zero to Madoff, they slowly push and push when they see they can do it without punishment.
If voters actually punished politicians that ran crypto scams and blatantly committed insider trading, media/viewers started calling out athletes and celebrities on hypocritical stances, etc., you'd see this a lot less. Hell, you could have stuck with a Lebron example and mentioned how he flipped out on a GM when they called out China on their horrific abuse of the Uyghurs because "it might hurt his future salary and Chinese deals", but this one has already largely been forgotten.
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u/Gnardude 5d ago
Back in the day there were different expectations for pro athletes and there were a lot of standards to live up to that were considered good at the time. Those days are long gone and as such you are correct.
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u/FoldHeavy4201 5d ago edited 5d ago
Yall could stop watching people get paid a kings ransom to play a child's game, precluding this conundrum altogether, but the expectation of that level of self control and reorienting of time and resources to more consequental aspects of life is interpreted as a life threatening attack. This sort of consumption has been raised to a personal affect, identity and, I sympathize, one of the last forms of sociality, however inconsequential. A critique of that expression of freedom, choice and utilization of time wont be acceptable until theres no clean water and the lights go out, but eventually, you'll agree.
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u/FormComprehensive608 10h ago
You speak well but what you're saying is dumb af. Fascinating lol Edit: actually on second read, you just sound dumb af, you're trying to come off as intellectual with your way of words but none of it actually makes sense.
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u/WeBegged2Xplode 5d ago
Fuck that unsportsmanlike pussy. Lost so much respect for him in the finals, never once giving Knicks any credit for handling them, celebrating the conference finals like he already won it all, underestimating his opponent then not shaking a single hand after being handled in 5 and not winning a single game on his own home court. All the flagrants, and ones not called cause the league couldn’t afford to suspend him.
Great, he’s against sports betting, call me when he behaves like an adult making his kind of generational wealth and can take ownership when you’re bested by the better team when it’s all said and done.
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u/EmptyCan4554 5d ago
I mean to be fair, polymarket definitely isn't as specialized in crypto as many of the other companies we've seen come and go over the years. Still problematic, but it seems to be attempting to corner the sports and 'predictive market' angles. Coincidentally enough, this is also where many of the crypto trading platforms are trying to expand as they see the writing on the wall for crypto's future.
That being said, this was still sad news to see as a LeBron fan.
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u/Sussy_Riot 5d ago
Polymarket is bad for so many other reasons. Remember the heat sensor incident at CDG? We’re just gonna get more like those.
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u/dyzo-blue Millions of believers on 4 continents! 5d ago
You have to use crypto to use polymarket. It runs on crypto, not USD or any other fiat.
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u/EmptyCan4554 5d ago
Ahhh I was unaware. So you have to have a crypto wallet and everything to use it? Seems like that would be bad business for a company trying to attract the most market share? Are they avoiding some legal boundaries by not using dollars?
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u/dyzo-blue Millions of believers on 4 continents! 5d ago edited 5d ago
I think originally they thought that it would be a loophole around various countries' gambling laws. But then Kalshi showed there was no need for that.
But then they were sort of stuck with it, because they built their company around the idea that blockchain made it work.
You could argue that if the government starts to regulate these things, they will be better situated to circumvent laws than Kalshi is. Keep in mind that both companies are largely owned by the same people (Don Jr basically sits on both boards,) so whichever one survives the regulatory regime of the next D Presidency, the investors win.
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u/NenAlienGeenKonijn 5d ago
I don't know who that is, but anyone promoting gambling belongs in a gutter.
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u/AmericanScream 5d ago edited 5d ago
Sports has always been a way to distract people who should be paying more attention to more important things happening in society.
Read Noam Chomsky's "Manufacturing Consent" and you'll understand what's going on.
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u/Desperate_Teal_1493 5d ago
Chomsky was a hack and he had a relationship with Epstein. His main politics were nothing more than just being a contrarian. Manufacturing Consent is simplistic and full of circular logic. https://strangematters.coop/noam-chomsky-jeffrey-epstein-campist-foreign-policy/
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u/AmericanScream 5d ago edited 5d ago
His main politics were nothing more than just being a contrarian. Manufacturing Consent is simplistic and full of circular logic. https://strangematters.coop/noam-chomsky-jeffrey-epstein-campist-foreign-policy/
You make specific claims, but as citations you bring up an editorial piece that digs into his personal life, not professional life, as a way to discredit his professional work.
That's really not a good argument.
I get that in the age of the Internet, no recognized person's body of work is any more legit than whatever the current scandal may be surrounding him, but it's not a standard I suspect most people could live up to without being similarly wholesale condemned.
Again, I'm not defending Chomsky or his personal life choices. But I am daring to talk about a particular piece of work he did, that stands on its own - and should be critiqued on its own. This is what good faith engagement (rule 5) is all about.
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u/Desperate_Teal_1493 5d ago
The article discusses his politics and his thinking for 10+ paragraphs.
Here's an example:
"While a worldview that precludes any possibility for activists and dissidents to cooperate across geopolitical borders might be considered a problem for a purported anarchist, Chomsky’s actual relationship to anarchist thought and tradition has, by his own admission, been rather tenuous.[6](javascript:void(0)) With little patience for radical theoretical and class-based critiques of social concepts such as authority or justice, the professor has instead approached politics from a “practical” perspective much more reminiscent of classical liberalism – a tradition he has also identified with.[7](javascript:void(0)) Thus, while expressing a distaste for centralized authority in theory, Chomsky’s concrete politics always treat the state – and the interests of individual states – as a given in practice. This explains why he draws more on “realist” international relations theory than radical models of communal self-organization, why he is more likely to cite Mearsheimer than Makhno when weighing in on Ukraine, and why he so often ends up overlapping with authoritarians in having a greater concern for the international reputation and “legitimate security interests” of state regimes than the testimonies and experiences of their inhabitants.[8](javascript:void(0)) Accordingly, the masses are seen not as equals to be sincerely engaged with, but as predictably manipulable subjects that “responsible intellectuals” like himself must reprogram with perspectives carefully calibrated to counterbalance the establishment narratives they have passively absorbed."
Yeah, totally just a character assassination based on his association w/Epstein. Definitely not an exploration of his politics and theories.
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u/AmericanScream 4d ago edited 4d ago
I see nothing there that has anything to do with "Manufacturing Consent."
I also see a bunch of sweeping generalizations without much explanation, just "argument by URL" which is poor form, and off-topic.
As I said before, one can point out "Thriller" is a good album without endorsing Michael Jackson's entire life.
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u/AmericanScream 5d ago edited 5d ago
Attacking the messenger is bad faith engagement. I was talking about some specific work of his, not whether he lives up to yours or anybody else's personal expectations.
Also this notion that everybody who knew Epstein was involved in fucking young girls and human trafficking is pretty stupid. I get that maybe after he was busted, he should have lost his entire array of friends, but the real world doesn't always work like that. I'm not making excuses. I'm just not going to dismiss Chomsky's entire body of work because of unrelated personal things. If we impose those standards, there's probably nothing worthy of respect in the history of humanity.
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u/Desperate_Teal_1493 5d ago
It's not attacking the messenger. If you read the article you'd find a good dissection of Chomsky's thinking and writings.
He was so balls deep in the concept of manufacturing consent that he was totally oblivious to the facts on a lot of issues. For example, he defended the Khmer Rough even when hard evidence was found of the killing fields after they left power. He was so intent on dismissing criticism of them as Western propaganda that he was blind to their crimes.
The logical conclusion of Chomsky's messaging on mass media is akin to the climate debate, except he's the guy who is defending the 1% of crackpot "scientists" who say climate change isn't real and/or caused by human action.
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u/AmericanScream 4d ago edited 4d ago
Again, attacking the messenger to ignore the message is bad faith engagement.
I get that some of you guys get triggered at the mention of this guy's name. And you freak out, but if you can't stay on point, we're not going to be a vector for your weird vendetta. If you have any actual critiques with the content of "Manufacturing Consent" it would be relevant, but you don't apparently. Just because he was "oblivious to the facts on a lot of issues" - well that's not specific, nor is it even relevant to the subject at hand.
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u/Val_Fortecazzo Bitcoin. It's the hyper-loop of the financial system! 5d ago
It's not just he knew Epstein,
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u/AmericanScream 5d ago edited 5d ago
I'm only going to say this one last time: Attacking the messenger to wholesale dismiss everything they've ever written is bad faith engagement. This isn't a discussion about whether Chomsky is a decent human being and has never made mistakes. It's about a particular body of work that is quite respected in many circles.
Likewise, it's not crazy to say, "Thriller is a good album" - that doesn't mean one endorses pedophilia. Please understand this.
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u/Val_Fortecazzo Bitcoin. It's the hyper-loop of the financial system! 5d ago
Nah sports are fun and not anymore of a distraction than any other form of entertainment. It really doesn't take that much mental energy to watch a game for a couple hours a week that you can't care about anything else.
I also have a generally very low opinion of Chomsky and think he should stick to linguistics and not palling around with Epstein and denying genocides.
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u/AmericanScream 5d ago
Nah sports are fun and not anymore of a distraction than any other form of entertainment.
That's "whataboutism" - a fallacy.
What genocide is Chomsky denying? I hadn't heard that.
But Manufacturing Consent is a good read and it clearly outlines how a small minority of a population can take over everything if they distract the other 80%. It's the republican playbook: using sports and fake "enemies" to distract from who the real enemies are. Whether you like Chomsky or not, those are truths that are legit. Don't attack the messenger to ignore the message.
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u/Val_Fortecazzo Bitcoin. It's the hyper-loop of the financial system! 5d ago
Chomsky denied the Cambodian genocide and srebenrica.
It's not really a whataboutism. What's unique about sports compared to your favorite pastime that makes it uniquely a distraction? Are we capable of enjoying anything without being accused of not being dedicated enough to the cause? This is entering sportsball territory.
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u/AmericanScream 5d ago edited 5d ago
From my research he didn't necessarily deny stuff (like the holocaust but he apparently defended a holocaust deniers freedom of speech which caught him a lot of flack), but he questioned the accuracy of some of the information. In any case, this is not a subject I'm an expert on, and I bet you aren't either. Also, if you have issues with the content of Manufacturing Consent, it's relevant. If you want to dismiss everything the guy ever said because a few things you take issue with, that's bad faith engagement.
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u/Val_Fortecazzo Bitcoin. It's the hyper-loop of the financial system! 5d ago
It's relevant because he used his book and framework to justify all sorts of awful contrarianism and fecklessness from Cambodian to Ukraine.
Media definitely has political angles they want to pursue and in that sense they manufacture consent. But with Chomsky he always concludes that everything anti-west is good and pure and that when bad things happen in the world caused by a non-western power we should just plug our ears and cynically deny it.
It's no wonder he initially took Epstein's side since he has absolutely no ability to critically think and accept the media can both be out to manipulate you and can often still be correct. You just need to be able to separate out the sensationalism from the facts and often the facts support the mainstream narrative.
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u/AmericanScream 5d ago edited 5d ago
It's relevant because he used his book and framework to justify all sorts of awful contrarianism and fecklessness from Cambodian to Ukraine.
Dismissing his body of work as "contrarianism" is absurd.
For many, many years, Chomsky was one of the only voices that got picked up on mainstream media calling attention to a lot of really bad things happening around the world. Just because he didn't enumerate everything in specific ways, doesn't mean the points he did make were not worthy of consideration.
Likewise, we can single people out that we all despise, and dismiss them, but even then, it's better to argue specific issues and policies or else we become no better than those we critique.
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u/AmericanScream 5d ago
Chomsky denied the Cambodian genocide and srebenrica.
A quick dive into this subject, which I was uninformed over, shows your claim is not 100% accurate. According to Wikipedia: What he said: Chomsky did not deny that mass killings took place at Srebrenica during the Bosnian War. However, he objected to labeling the 1995 Srebrenica massacre as a "genocide," arguing that using that specific term "cheapens" the historical meaning of the Holocaust.
The dude is a LINGUIST. He is an expert about the meanings of words and the subtle nuances... this seems to be in his wheelhouse to want to differentiate the various ways the term "genocide" can and should be used. He wasn't denying atrocities.
Again, I'm not going to get into these details, and I'm not defending him, but I also don't like these binary you-have-to-love-him-or-hate-him judgements. Looking into the claim you make it's not as black or white.
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u/June-Menu1894 5d ago
gambling advertising needs to be illegal. So many people I know are hooked on taht shit Losing their whole paycheck $10 at a time