191 sats \ 3 replies \ @Undisciplined 17 Jul 2023 \ on: RANT: On the things we need to call out: Extremism and idiocy bitcoin
tldr; This is an extreme fringe movement and it's going to be full of extreme fringe weirdos.
I appreciate you labelling this as a rant: that's solid introspection and it changes the nature of my reply. My counter is that the very last group who will get into Bitcoin will be those who buy into all the establishment approved opinions and fear of "extremism".
Early adopters are almost by definition going to be those most dissatisfied with the status quo, whether their reasons are correct or not.
Separation of money and state is an extreme idea and many people would think of you as the kind of "extremist" they need to distance from, just for holding it. I think we'll do better by engaging with people's ideas and amplifying those voices who will have a civilized honest conversation, regardless of what particular views they hold.
I'm not completely in favor of what you say, but I really do appreciate your comment. It's true that separating money and state would look as a extreme idea to some but one thing is doing it by "insert sly roundabout way quote here" and people realizing the alternative is better, and the is trying to overthrow the state and all the power estructures.
I hope I explained myself.
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Don't get me wrong, there are many people in the Bitcoin community who I find completely obnoxious (and for some of the same reasons you listed), but it's very common for movements to fall into this kind of infighting and gatekeeping. I think we should steer clear of it and maintain the position that Bitcoin is for everyone. If Bitcoin is the extent of our area of agreement, fine. If we have more in common, fantastic. If we have things to learn from each other, even better.
Another error movements make is pandering for mainstream acceptance. Bitcoin threatens the system. There's no amount of respectable behavior that will prevent the system from smearing all of us with whatever pejoratives they come up.
All that said, I'm glad you're in here and that there is one more less intense voice than there otherwise would be.
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Oh yeah, I know. It reminds me a lot of the Stallman fans when I was a kid who enjoyed FOSS, most of us simply liked FOSS because it was, obviously free, but also because the sense of comradery there was, how ethical it all was, but there were also the idiots who would like to call anyone who didn't make their own computer fron scratch with Open Source hardware and didn't use Trisquel or GNU Herd "Not s true believer".
I know the wave lf idiota won't disappear, and they will be displaced by a different wave of idiots that might be even mlre idiotic, more extreme and possibly sharing a totally different political view, but I would never stop calling out idiocy, nobody holds the ultimate truth.
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