I always thought Mark Zuckerberg has some neck…

I will be forever grateful to Alan Rusbridger for enlightening me to the fact that I am not a multi-billionaire leader of the world for lack of opportunity, motivation, privilege or unwarranted wealth, but because I have foolishly failed to avail myself of an Iron Neck, or similar device (“Mark Zuckerberg has made me rethink what it means to be a man (and the size of my neck)”, Friday 17 January).

Exactly why using apparatus that looks like it belongs in a low-rent BDSM dungeon and gives you a neck like a cross between a pit bull and a heavyweight boxer raises you to such heights of power is unclear – but the influencers have spoken.

The online purveyors of such devices beckon and I will return to rule the world shortly.

Mike Margetts

Kilsby, Northamptonshire

In your reporting on cryptocurrencies, I exhort The Independent to draw a distinction between market capitalisation and market value (“Bitcoin price hits new all-time record amid Trump-fuelled frenzy”, Monday 20 January).

Market capitalisation is the number of units multiplied by the price someone recently paid for a unit. To call it “market value” implies that everyone could sell at that price, and it is highly misleading. Meme coins and cryptocurrencies, like bitcoins, have no asset backing, so their price is entirely based on greed and fear.

If everyone decides to sell, fear will dominate, driving the price down to the intrinsic value of zero. You only make a profit when you sell, so you have to sell while greed still provides a buyer. When those potential buyers see the risk in relying on such greed and prefer to invest in assets with an underlying value, you have left it too late, not only to make a profit but to get anything back at all.

I live in the hope that Donald Trump’s promotion of crypto speeds up an understanding of them and their eventual demise – so that naive investors stop transferring their wealth to the creators of crypto “assets”.

Jon Hawksley

France

I am becoming more convinced by the day that the “American dream” is based on Dorothy’s – and that the dream and the Wizard of Oz are about to be revealed (“Trump inauguration day: Live”, Monday 20 January).

Carl Carlson

North Cornelly, Mid Glamorgan

Following his visit to Auschwitz, I hope our prime minister will also visit the gruesome ruins of Gaza while the stench of dead civilians still hangs heavy in the air – assuming Israel will allow access to outside witnesses. (“Starmer visits ‘harrowing’ Auschwitz and vows renewed fight against antisemitism”, Friday 17 January).

Both cases are examples where unchecked racial prejudice and hatred have left their ugly and unnecessary mark on civilisation. Both are examples of the extermination of mostly helpless people that the wider world should never have allowed to happen, yet it did.

I also think Keir Starmer should reflect on the tragic irony that the brutal and indiscriminate campaign waged in the midst of helpless Gazan civilians has probably done more damage to the Israeli cause in the world today than any amount of antisemitic prejudice ever could have.

Vince Ward

Sale, Cheshire

I very much agree with Richard Gibson that it’s “time to tax retired pensioners” (Letters, Tuesday 14 January).

As a pensioner whose total gross income is in excess of £30,000, it strikes me that Gibson’s proposal is one that would go some way to improving salaries of medical staff in the NHS and social care workers encouraging recruitment and retention. Perhaps this proposal is worthy of government consideration.

Brian Phillips

Ilkley, West Yorkshire

I found myself in agreement with Angela Comer’s story about her grandmother telling her there would be no tea until she ate her lunch, and that she should “think of the poor, starving children in Africa” (“Being forced to clear my plate as a child caused me endless tummy trouble”, Friday 17 January).

I had the same instructions from my father, who was born in 1912 – the only difference being that, by the early 1950s, children were starving in Europe.

Bob Mathers

Bristol

I very much enjoyed Louis Chilton’s tribute to David Lynch, having grown up with Twin Peaks (“David Lynch, the visionary artist who made films that no one else could”, Friday 17 January).

I’ve always seen his work as sublime art. For me, Lynch is postmodern, trying to present the unpresentable. Hence I can watch the films again and again, finding new things. Who will fill his shoes now?

Kartar Uppal

Streetly, Sutton Coldfield

On Saturday evening, there was a question on the BBC quiz show Pointless about Mhairi Black, a senior Westminster nationalist and an SNP MP for nine years until last summer. Yet it seems no one could remember her, and she was a “pointless” answer. Says it all about her and the SNP, doesn’t it?

Martin Redfern

Melrose, Roxburghshire

To have a letter considered for publication, email your thoughts on topics covered in The Independent to letters@independent.co.uk. Please include your name, full address and contact phone number. Submissions may be edited for length and clarity