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Seriously...for a group of people who generally pride themselves as being open-minded/free-thinkers, it's pretty hilarious (and ridiculous) seeing the inevitable screeching histrionics that these sort of threads seem to always inspire in a certain few. There are responses from those who think it's stupid or can't be bothered to care about it and are dismissive, and then there are the responses from those who are literally filled with genuine rage, which tells me that those who belong to the latter group should seriously consider finding some alternative outlet for that anger and rage, it's certainly not good to be wound up like that over something so ultimately trivial.
I don't care if my tendency to speak out against any kind of "toxic bitcoin maximalist" bullshit (for lack of a better term) gets me pushback from certain people, I'll continue to do it because the folks who engage in this kind of behavior tend not to realize just how incredibly off-putting it is to outsiders and curious newbies who might've considered the bitcoin way of doing things, only to get ran out on a rail after being mocked/ridiculed/dismissed. Which oftentimes leads to them becoming shitcoiners and getting scammed, losing money, etc.
Too often I see people who treat bitcoin as a stand-in for religion or something, they treat it like it's some kind of panacea capable of fixing all of the world's/society's ills; this is equally as delusional (not to mention dangerous) as those who still perpetuate the myths propping up our 'traditional' fiat economy, just in a different way. These sorts of ideological purity tests and gatekeeping that I still see happening within the Bitcoin community is the very kind of shit that I became interested in Bitcoin because it was an ALTERNATIVE to this kind of garbage, I didn't become interested in Bitcoin because I wanted to experience MORE of it, if that makes sense.
Fucking hell, please keep posting. Couldn't agree more.
It's sad that I've had to shed the fiction that bitcoiners are any smarter, more principled, more truth-seeking than anybody. I wanted to believe that, but they manifestly do not, as a group, live up to those ideals, and evidence is everywhere. But maybe almost no group really does, when viewed as a group. And you can't deny that there certainly are some who are supremely awesome in all the ways you'd hope.
I think SN is a nice crucible. There is so much interesting btc-related discussion just waiting to be had, where thoughtful people could try to get smarter and understand the world better. Btc touches so many things, the opportunity is so high! I'm optimistic that we'll get there.
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With the 2020 environment and subsequent run-up we picked up a political element. The White Paper as evangelism gave way to The Bitcoin Standard (Saifedean is hyper-political); Austrians broke cover en-masse (esp in BitcoinMagazine); the S2F model was in full swing (PlanB is hyper-political); large public mining companies exploded in a conservative state because that state is the only one with an independent grid that excludes them from most federal oversight; the IDW were common guest speakers at bitcoin conferences and on podcasts (Thiel, Peterson, Weinstein etc); Rogan had just gotten his Spotify contract... It'll all fade, and many will be surprised at the very different voices representing the culture late into next cycle.
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