The news about Facebook banning crypto ads may be one of the causes market is so down today (together with the subpoena of Bitfinex, that is).
But as I got up this morning, I realized there's much more to the FB news than to any other one.
Here's why.
1. Facebook has more than 1 billion users worldwide
This is by far the largest media company in the world. It is, if you want, the media company of the world. Whatever Facebook does impacts our society at a very deep level. And this happens not only when Facebook intently distributes (or allows the distribution of) some content, but especially when Facebook ignore something. Because, for so many people, Facebook took the place of the TV.
I remember the times when my parents were telling me, as a kid: "it's on TV, it must be true". Something similar is happening now with Facebook: "I saw it on Facebook, it must be true".
The amount of trust people have parked into this new centralized giant is simply unbelievable. Its ability to influence public opinion is almost grotesque: from Arab spring protests, up to the Russia meddling with the US elections, Facebook is literally allowing access to power to selected social structures.
I don't know the algorithm for this access to power, though. To be honest, I don't even think there is an algorithm, it's simply something that's happening and, in many instances, Facebook is just a passive vehicle hijacked by opinion leaders.
And this is frightening.
2. People are faking cash all the time, should we ban cash?
I remember a story about Argentina fake cash situation, in early 2000s. I don't know if this is solved now, but back then it was a very serious problem. People were faking cash to such extent that almost 20% of the circulating supply was thought to be counterfeit. There was even a master fake guy, I don't remember his name, who was behind this entire operation, but he was free (a loophole of some sort) and even revered and appreciated by some people - there was an interview with him on Travel Channel.
So just because there are some bad guys faking cash, should we ban cash? Oh, wait a minute, cash is issued by government, so it must be valid, right? Why? Because we trust government. Hmm, do you start to see a pattern here?
Facebook is trusted to hold "true" content, governments are trusted to create "valid" money...
3. There is a trust crisis, and it is caused by technological advance
For the first time in the history of mankind, social structures are sharply defined by the access and use of technology. I'm not talking abut wealth distribution here or about lifestyle. I'm talking about new organizational structures. Like communists versus capitalists. Only this time the gap is not based on ideological reasons, but on access to technology.
People who only have access to TV are less informed (and, obviously, more prone to be deceived) than people who have access to social media, and these, in turn, are way less informed than people who have access to decentralized, self-governing structures (being it about information, like Steemit, or about money, like any other crypto out there).
People reactions and affinities are dictated now by how well their understanding - and usage - of technology is aligned. And there is this tendency of everything that's obsolete to preserve its status quo. It happened with "traditional" media during the dot com boom, and it's happening now, with social media during the crypto boom.
Stupidity should be treated with compassion, not hate
If you are fortunate enough to be part of a decentralized structure (and, really, even a collaborative open source project on Github is more or less a decentralized structure) then you're probably baffled by the enormities you see on other media channels. Many times, this can't be labelled otherwise than "plain stupidity". A wave of uninterrupted, self-feeding, irresponsible stupidity.
The gut reaction is to punish it hard. To make it stop somehow. Well, I don't think it's working. Especially during the initial stages of a technological advance, when the number of early adopters is an order of magnitude lower than the number of the "old guardians of the truth". We're just a few, compared with them.
But as their structures are growing heavier and heavier, their demise will come from within. These old, obsolete structures will die by implosion. Those people who are riding now the wave of censorship are going to end up in a very rigid and sad universe. Devoid by any trace of that mighty truth they claim to preserve.
Hence, compassion is need in interacting with them, not anger. They are already dying.
Ok, So what's with the Mars colonization thing?
In a sense, I feel that this gap between the "old" and the "new", between the technological obsolete societies, and technological fit social structures is growing bigger by the day. To such an extent that space will be insufficient at some point.
It happened all the time in history, only it was driven, like I said, by ideological mantras: we will impose our socialism, our capitalism or our fascism by force, because we need your space and your resources.
And here's where that Mars thing comes into place.' As strange and as sci-fi this sounds right now, the process of colonization an empty planet could solve the above space and resources problem. There is a real chance to avoid killing each other again here, on Earth, if we "all" aim to colonize something new.
The bad news is that, once Mars will start to function, this place that we call "home" right now, the planet Earth, may become inhabitable. But not so much because climate change, but because the old, the obsolete and the inflexible will continue to ban everything.
To the extent that they will, eventually, ban their very own life.
I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me 
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