Why it is okay that I don’t care for Scarlett Johansson ( and you don’t either)

The following is a very thinly veiled feminist rant.

I don’t like a lot of things. On more than one occasion I have been compared to the old men on the muppets that sit on the balcony and bitch about how awful the show is. I understand 100% when people disagree with me; I have some pretty controversial opinions and I am not afraid to make completely unsupported declarations. Here is a very brief list of examples:

1. No one on Sex and the City deserved love except for Stanford because they were all bad people.
2. No one like Pringles and anyone that says otherwise is only saying it for attention.
3. The DIxie Chicks version of Landslide is the best version of that song.
4. The two most recent Star Trek movies are the worst movies in history because the entire cast is just doing really bad impressions of the actors in the original series.

While these opinions usually don’t get me a lot of fans, they rarely lead to any real debate. The same cannot be said about when I admit that I don’t think that Scarlett Johansson is a good actress. After expressing this opinion I am almost always accused (by dudes)  of being jealous. I’ve been called a lot worse in my lifetime but here, that accusation is wholly without merit. Moreover, it is irritating because the implication is that I am incapable of suppressing the green eyed monster long enough to develop  an informed opinion.

So, why is it that I can’t I dislike Scarlett Johansson without being jealous? The worst thing I have ever said about her is that her only role involves staring at the camera with pursed lips. I have said much worse things about male celebrities, for example, Clint Eastwood ( satchel of gumbo) and Joaquin Phoenix (real life Beetlejuice). No one ever runs to their defense.  But SOMEHOW implying that Scarlett Johansson isn’t stellar is akin to calling a baby a smashed bag of assholes. People (usually men) seem to think that it is impossible for me to have a negative opinion about an attractive woman without it coming out of my own insecurity. Why can’t I just admit that a really hot woman is talented? Short answer: I can.

My two favorite famous ladies are Beyonce and Jennifer Lawrence. Both have millions more in the bank than I do. Both are objectively more attractive than most people. Both are universally beloved, and I acknowledge that these two ladies are deserving of all the praise they get. I am not jealous; I admire them greatly and respect what they have contributed to the world and to me personally ( even that one time Beyonce purposely tried to get me to fail torts by dropping that secret album).

The longer answer is that my feelings and opinions are perfectly valid but accusing someone of being jealous  is a really good way to undercut their opinions. Furthermore,  it’s a good way of shutting down someone’s opinions without having to defend your own. If you say you hate Beyonce I would be happy to argue for hours on end about how talented she is, how she is a triple threat, and how she makes music that just genuinely makes people happy. I would love to spend my day scrolling through her catalogue until I find a song that you at least kinda like. I probably won’t waste a lot of my time implying that you have some personal failing that prevents you from appreciating her holiness.

SO yeah, I don’t think ScarJo is a good actress. That is my opinion and a lot of people probably don’t agree with me. I based that opinion on the movies that I have seen her in and my PERSONAL opinion that her performances in said movies  are often the low point. I also don’t love that she plays the exact same role in every movie. So that is why I don’t particularly care for the girl. She’s gorgeous and rich and those are beautiful things but she bugs the hell out of me. No, that doesn’t make me jealous or petty. I’m just a lady-girl with lots of opinions and that’s okay. Believe me, it’s okay (trust me).

BONUS: Here’s this song

Why no one cares about bitcoin in the opinion of a hobbiest

Cryptocurrencies are a decentralized, electronically held and created medium of exchange. The first and most popular crypto is of course, bitcoin. Bitcoin are created through a process called “mining” where individual miners confirm transactions and publish them in blocks to the general ledger. The miners are then rewarded for publishing blocks with bitcoin. These bitcoin then make their way into the virtual economy. The technology has incredible benefits such as low- to no transaction fees and the protocol eliminates the need for a third party to prevent double spending ( a problem with other digital currencies) .

However, Bitcoin has become the center of media attention not for its innovative technology but for talk of the need for regulation, money laundering, and theoretical attacks from collectives of miners.

In spite of the negative media attention bitcoin is being accepted at a growing number of business including Overstock.com, NewEgg, and Shopify. In other words, bitcoin has never been easier to use. Businesses like LocalBitcoin have facilitated person to person transfers by allowing users to rate sellers, set up in-person meetings, and create escrow transactions. Coinbase has been praised by some as the most user friendly exchange/ wallet host. These networks that have facilitated buying and selling, making transactions in virtual currencies fairly safe for the casual users that don’t view the crypto as an investment. Although cold storage and bitcoin safes are becoming more popular, users that buy and spend small amounts of bitcoin are fairly safe from even the most common risks associated with the btc.

So why isn’t this protocol, with its well documented benefits, seen as a flash in the pan or a bubble that could burst at any moment? The short answer: bitcoin users.

The two biggest obstacles preventing the casual internet user from dabbling in bitcoin are the following statements:

1) “The Fed is afraid of bitcoin”: Normal people do not listen to people that EVER talk about The Fed. There is maybe a modicum of truth to this statement. Bitcoin could be used as an alternative to paper currency in the same way that credit and debit cards are today. In May of this year Marc Andreesen described a scenario in which consumers would be able to use bitcoin at Target in his article for the Washington Post. His optimistic yet tempered vision for the future of bitcoin is the type of contribution new users need to push them towards buying a satoshi or two. ( satoshi is the name given to one millionth of a bitcoin). Instead conspiracy blogs tell users that paper currency will be gone the next year. Nearly one-third of the Americans are either unbanked or underbanked, meaning these individuals rely almost exclusively on cash. This fact and countless others are ignored by bitcoin users, making the very useful technology seem, to some, as the passion of the fringe.

2) ” Well first I’ll have to explain how it works” Consumers have many reasons to be a little bit wary of cryptos, as they would be with any other new technology. However, many reasonable people are unreasonably resistant to even examining bitcoin or any other alt coins (ex. Dogecoin Lytecoin). One reason is the way that the conversation around the technology has been approached. Asking someone what bitcoin is if they are a user (or worse miner) will inevitably lead to a lengthy explanation involving talk of hashes, nonces, and ASICS when all you wanted was the basics. People say there is no elevator speech for bitcoin. The truth is, there is. No one knows how their credit card works and yet somehow even the dimmest humans have managed to run up credit card debt all over the world. So why aren’t these same people investing in bundles of bitcoin? Because it sounds so fucking complicated. People that are really knowledgeable about the benefits of bitcoin might tell potential users about the countless advantages, particularly to small business and the underbanked ( very important benefits but outside the scope of this blogpost). Instead those with a little curiosity have it stamped out by an overload of information.

The takeaway here being that bitcoin is very interesting but no one knows what it could or will become. No body does and anyone that claims otherwise is a liar. A terrible liar. Feel free to play.