Imagine a world where you can bet on anything. Celebrity breakups? Bet. Oil prices changing with the winds? Bet on it. Foreign leaders deposed seemingly out of nowhere? Bet on that too. Ballistic missile strikes? Go for it. In this Patreon bonus episode, Hannah and Maia cover Polymarket and Kalshi - not quite prediction markets, not quite gambling websites, where users are encouraged to “bet on their beliefs”. If there was ever a sign of the times, it would be this. As gambling addiction skyrockets among younger and younger demographics, and governments scramble to regulate, Polymarket and Kalshi are doubling down via influencer marketing campaigns and college campus merch. They also justify their existence with a troubling philosophy: that money speaks to truth. But with only a tiny number of accounts collecting the majority of the profits, and certain users betting correctly on once-impossible odds, one has to wonder whether “truth” was ever the objective. Tangents include: a review of Backrooms.
FULL episode available on Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/rehashpodcast