~snip
...which is also linked to not really understanding what bitcoin is to the extent that their ignorance might be accidental rather than on purpose or malicious.
At this point, I'm wondering how many people must have fallen victim to another man's ignorance. It turns out that the people we sometimes seek help from don't even have the experience or idea to share from. Just imagine the number of people that must have liquidated their entire holdings because of false assumption.
People will frequently rely on what they hear, especially if it is said with some authority, and perhaps being said by someone they trust in regards to other topics... Also, sometimes a celebrity endorsement can go a long way too.
People will claim that they are critical and that they engage in critical thinking, but they tend to be gullible too, and will follow bad advice based on their own lack of finding access to more credible resources. With something like money, we have learned to trust our local governments and sometimes people lose faith in their local governments, but then they might have faith in the US dollar to hold its value.. and so sometimes there can be a disconnect in regards to any of our understanding of the various manipulations that happen with money, even with the US dollar, and surely some folks might even understand that the dollar (and other fiats) is being manipulated, but then they will also agree that the prices are being raised by greedy corporations and some other talking points that are not completely true, yet the talking points are not complete lies, so the fact that statements have some truth in them, they are believable.. and many of us do not know what to do with the information, even if we might realize that we are being lied to.
Even with the knowledge that some of the information involves lies, we still might not know what to do about it, so we still end up having faith in certain aspects that might not want to blame politicians or banks or even various behind the scene manipulations of the money. Even in March 2020, we saw that the whole system was seeming to implode for several days, and almost everyone from any political side seemed to accept that bailing out the system so that it did not crash was an appropriate solution.. and we accept the authorities bailing out the system by printing money and also acting as if they were doing a good thing, they were trapped, they did not cause the problem, and then they act surprised that prices of everything ends up going up years down the road based on the flooding of so much additional money as the solution to bail out the emergency situation.
I am not saying that I understand everything going on, even though it seems that bitcoin serves as amongst the most unmanipulatable assets (monies) even though there surely are attempts to manipulate and control it, yet bitcoin does seem to be something that is available to each of us and all of us to take action to try to leverage against irresponsible governments and/or financial institutions and status quo rich and people in power who had been advantaging themselves by the money printing.. some folks are advantaged more than others by money printing systems, including those who are closer to the money printer... and bitcoin creates neutral monetary factors that are not controlled by others and to take some advantages away from the money printer and those who are advantaged by it, even though it could still take a few generations to play out.. and surely in the meantime, manipulation will continue to be done and bitcoin seems to serve as a way that everyone and anyone can directly protect themselves, especially if they have discretionary income or that they can figure out ways to achieve discretionary income... and even if someone cannot advantage themselves by directly investing into bitcoin, they still might have some indirect benefits by the existence of bitcoin that creates more fair systems and more fair incentives that are based on sound money rather than perverted money that unfairly advantage some over others and not necessarily for meritorious reasons, such as the rewarding of fair work versus just being in the right place at the right time.
Currency manipulation has been in existence for ages for selfish interests which could be power of dominance. Even the USD is not out of place. This is the more reason the world needs to adopt digital currency like the bitcoin which have proven it self over years. In a government where every slight economic shift crashes the currency, a country where scarcity of some commodities also influences the fiat value. The world can not be built around just one economy. Money manipulators have tried bitcoin and failed closely and that's why leaving your assets in bitcoin is also your best bet.