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105 sats \ 13 replies \ @LibertasBR 2 Jul \ on: Are your properties really yours? AskSN
Why this hit you hard? I don't want to belittle your feelings, I want to understand them. I understand that you pay for everything in this life, whether it's with money, energy, time, everything has a cost, so this didn't hit me as hard. I understand the core of the argument, but it's not that powerful if you think about it.
It's an excellent way to think if you follow your reasoning regarding ownership. However, I understand that the concept itself is more complex than that. Even though your words are only in your head, you have the means to validate the movement of bitcoins in a given wallet on the blockchain. Is that ownership? It's something to think about. If we're thinking philosophically about it, it's complex, but otherwise you're right in a way.
you changed from one socialism to another
Even though your words are only in your head, you have the means to validate the movement of bitcoins in a given wallet on the blockchain. Is that ownership?
Could you elaborate this thought? What is the basis of ownership other than the sole right to make decisions about something's use and transfer of ownership?
you changed from one socialism to another
Is there any non-socialism though? I think there's only gradations of how "socialism" manifests, but it's not a distinct thing. It'd be interesting to find jurisdictions that are anti-social and see what problems they avoid, and what problems they have.
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A school of thought about property — which I don’t follow — argues that bitcoin isn’t property because it cannot be physically controlled.
Your keys are, but they’re more like intellectual property — they can be copied, destroyed, or moved, and they’re what allow you to move the bitcoin.
So, having the keys is equivalent to having possession, not ownership. Possession because you don’t actually own something that is digitally stored on a global ledger, even if it’s scarce and protected by cryptographic proof — and the keys themselves aren’t property either, since they can be easily reproduced.
I don’t agree with this line of thinking. As I said, my comment was more of a philosophical provocation. I leave the debate to the philosophers.
I think there's only gradations of how "socialism" manifests
In that sense, he traded one high gradation for another similar one.
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Actually, we were preparing our exit while Bolsonaro was still in power. The elections came around and he lost, but we already had everything ready to leave, so we left anyway. It was really expensive for Europe, as well as for the United States, so the cheapest and least risky way to leave with my wife and one-year-old child was Brazil.
Even so, we had to leave for Venezuela and pay a coyote to bring us across the border to Brazil. Even so, when you experience the reality of a dictatorship like Cuba, living under that regime for 30 years, and you arrive in Brazil, you realize that there's still a long way to go. What really exists is massive corruption, driven by the progressive left-wing government.
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Don’t fall for that dichotomy—any government by itself is bad. They are mega-corporations run and maintained through coercion, no matter who’s in power or even which country it is.
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I really don't care who's in power, except that you really have governments that are more oppressive than others, to the point of suffocating you.
Here I really found a little more freedom.
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I’m glad you’ve found some relative peace. Now that you’ve experienced the freedom that changing territory gives you, it becomes easier to seek even more freedom outside, or far enough outside, of any state regime.
Thanks! I get what you mean now! I think there's quite some merit to that thought, except maybe the reproduction mention: it's only easy to reproduce the key to a utxo if you know it or if you can break the cryptography.
In that sense, he traded one high gradation for another similar one.
Awesome. Would you say that in BR, the return of high-grade socialism is mostly a reaction to the alleged corruption of the previous lower-grade socialist regime?
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No, unfortunately people tend to forget history very easily. Since the republic was always pure socialism and statism, like every state everything is based on coercion and general control over the population. The degrees have always varied — there were two dictatorships if you don’t consider that we’re always under someone’s rule, dictatorships with complete and blatant restrictions of freedoms and natural rights. Seven or eight monetary standard changes. The only revolutions here that tried secession were always crushed with extreme violence — the most famous being Canudos.
What happens is that in recent years people have become more politically active, but tend to always go towards the statist and dichotomous side of things, only selling power alternation in the 21st century. No one here truly wants freedom — they want a state, a state with members from a political side they agree with.
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I've really noticed that here in Brazil: everyone is either a PT supporter or a Bolsonaro supporter.
And they care little for their freedom.
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I've felt like that for many decades now: come election time the choice always feels like evil vs different evil. The only exception I've seen, where there was an actual significantly lesser evil was the German branch of the Pirate Party to the EU. But iirc they got decimated last elections.
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The truth is, I don't know much about German politics, but I am convinced of one thing: our freedom must begin within, both mentally and spiritually. It shouldn't depend on whether the right or the left governs. Sometimes one party gives us a little more space than another, but the key is not to depend on any government to live with dignity.
Personally, I felt trapped in Cuba. I reached 30 feeling like I hadn't achieved anything, and the worst part was feeling like I was condemning my son to the same thing. That's why we made the decision to leave, to seek a little more freedom and build a life with more options. Because in the end, no one is going to give you freedom: you have to pursue it and, above all, protect it.