Bitcoin Culture
In Defense of Bitcoin Culture
Published
2 months agoon
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The original article this piece is responding to: Reflections on Bitcoin Culture.
Bitcoin changes our lives.
It’s an almost spiritual observation that we’ve all seen within ourselves. After acquiring some, learning how it works, and to various degrees delving into what this decentralized, uncensorable, proof-of-work money is, we’ve seen our lives change. It echoes history. Some people see god in it.
Bitcoiners have had their lives upended, their perspectives shifted, and their value systems altered. We see how our behavior changed from our pre-Bitcoin selves, our emphasis now squarely placed on real things, hard things, the long term, and the local. We look to our inner selves, and we look after ourselves. We see to our families. We set our own house in order before we criticize the world.
Bitcoin encourages higher-level thinking, of the dynamic kind that once characterized good economics. Once a Bitcoiner, we become less prone to believing commonly accepted just-so stories — more skeptical and interested in verifying rather than trusting.
Anyone who’s been in Bitcoin for a while can point to countless such examples in their own lives. It’s undeniable, therefore, that Bitcoin itself has a culture. It affects change in the people it welcomes; you don’t change Bitcoin, Bitcoin changes you.
The values embedded in it are rules that people who embrace this monetary revolution can’t help but internalize. Whether they understand it or not is unimportant. Bitcoin is for anyone, sure, but you don’t stay that same person after Bitcoin has changed your life; you’re a different “anyone” than when you first opened your fiat eyes.
Bitcoin allowed us to see much of the stupidity of the collective delusions at the base of the state, democracy, central banks, public health, public schooling — public anything, really. It’s the same realization that makes us put huge question marks on climate change worries or trans ideology.
In the world of fiat, anything goes. You can unverifiably feel oppressed, a man can unverifiably be a woman, anyone who’s sad or distracted can unverifiably feel autistic or depressed. If the lord of the printing press doesn’t feel like there’s enough money around, he makes more. Violently extorting productive members of society is held as a morally good thing and celebrated. The experts and fiat media voices say the world ends in twelve (or five) years, and if you disbelieve them or ask for verification, you’re on par with the Nazis.
In Bitcoin, this playbook doesn’t fly anymore. Identifying as receiving a block reward does nothing, political votes become irrelevant, nobody’s unverifiable feelings reign supreme, and cheating gets harder. UTXOs don’t have a sex. It all goes out the window, revealed and denuded for the nonsense it always was.
Thus, something doesn’t add up in Margot Paez’s recent article thrashing Bitcoin culture. She writes:
“…popular influencers who are often millennial men spending a lot of time taking photos of themselves flexing their muscles in front of a mirror. I really wonder how big those muscles have to get to protect the fragile ego buried beneath those muscular fibers.”
Big muscles are flexes because they’re unfakeable — like a hash under the difficulty target. A transaction is valid and confirmed or it isn’t. It’s right there, objective, and verifiable to anyone who cares to look.
Pull-ups are flexes because they display truth, regardless of what anyone else thinks about an invisible ego beneath. You can do them, or you can’t; they’re verifiable and undeniable. A muscle-up doesn’t ask for permission or tries to confuse you about nuances to an imagined reality.
This stands in contrast to the fiat, legacy world — of which trans ideology is merely one of the least material but verifiably stupid examples — where words are violence, invisible and unverifiable identities rule, fiat schools can’t teach people to read or count, Uber doesn’t have any cars, and the banks don’t have your money. It’s a broken culture, where the only thing running away faster than the deaths of despair are the deficits in a profligate Treasury, forever bound to send welfare checks to rent-seekers.
It’s a culture dominated by sensitivity instead of truth, that celebrates weakness instead of strength and responsibility and self-improvement, that encourages therapy even though it barely works and shoves you pharmacy-full of meds and injections at the first sign of trouble.
That’s why I’m not sold on this “Progressive Bitcoiner” ethos flying around. Progressives came to Bitcoin and carved out a niche for themselves, and for now that works well as a bridge over from the hyper-leftwing clown world to our world. But you won’t be a Bitcoiner and long remain a progressive; they’re mostly incompatible ideas.
Progressivism came to Bitcoin as a breath of fresh air, but it will ultimately die here.
Bitcoin strips a government of control over transactions and economic value. A progressive requires a large and invasive government to uphold and enact the many things they yearn for. If you still want those goodies, but not the violent organized crime syndicate we call government, you’re merely a libertarian with a strong social ethos. Congrats. I’ve said so before regarding Jason Maier’s A Progressive’s Case for Bitcoin, and I maintain that in time Bitcoin will change him too, like it has the rest of us.
Bitcoin sooner or later forces you into seeing the world of truth and acting in unfakeable ways, looking to what is rather than what’s voiced or recommended by “experts.” On the way there one usually complains loudly about the mean Bitcoiners not seeing the world you do.
It’s not a coincidence that so many Bitcoiners proudly and diligently consume steak. We saw that the nutritional guidelines were gunk (some might even say corrupt), and the people pushing them were obese, ill, and ugly. We ate a bunch of meat and felt better. Do I look unhealthy to you?! we ceremoniously ask.
The LGBTQ flags that Paez defends sit next to flags with “Free Palestine” — even though Palestinians aren’t exactly known for their pro-gay values — and “Slava Ukraini,” celebrating a country that scores among the worst on the Rainbow Europe index and routinely counts as Europe’s second most corrupt country (behind Russia). These are not serious people. You know something is rotten when originally peace-loving leftists celebrate the very warmongering people they should detest.
The ultimate shit-test is the clown world shitshow, not Bitcoiner culture. In fact, the truth and honesty in Bitcoin culture is the antidote.
Quit whining and go do some pull-ups.
This is a guest post by Joakim Book. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
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I admit I’m nostalgic for Noam Chomsky. Chomsky is a controversial figure, but he’s also a hero for his writings on consent and conformity, and he was perhaps the most articulate in calling out the development of the deep state. Now 95 years old, he had a massive stroke last year and can no longer speak. This article isn’t really about him, but it is inspired by him. Bitcoin is an electronic peer-to-peer cash system that is working, but the world we’ve built around it is incredibly alienated and disconnected from the rest of society. We’ve been effectively siloed, and anyone who thinks this will help adoption is dreaming. I think the room stinks and that this little Bitcoin world isn’t working for Bitcoin.
The irony about the people who like Bitcoin, and I mean really like Bitcoin—the kind of people who would read this article—is that they, or we, think they are immune to propaganda. They believe they are immune to the processes that manufacture consent for decisions that are not their own, and which, given a chance to consider independently, they would not condone.
Bad news. You are not immune. In fact, I think many of the people who call themselves “bitcoiners” today are only “bitcoiners” because they were propagandized into it. An entire cultural reproductive machine is being built around Bitcoin, and it is incredibly reactionary and, in many ways, bigoted.
For example, posting an LGBTQ flag with the Bitcoin symbol on it is beyond controversial. Attacks on people who are trans or queer and who contribute far more than 90 percent of the people who hold Bitcoin is normalized. Abusive behavior against women is normalized.
This cultural reproductive machine comes in the form of popular influencers who are often millennial men spending a lot of time taking photos of themselves flexing their muscles in front of a mirror. I really wonder how big those muscles have to get to protect the fragile ego buried beneath those muscular fibers.
These influencers are not selling anything real. They are not selling you a way out of the existing system. All they are doing is giving you a simple narrative that will help you sleep better at night. You’ll be okay, just remember: all the bad things happening are because “money printer go brr” and transgender ideology.
I call it a cultural reproductive machine because I’m seeing a lot more people holding the same narrow-minded, ignorant, and bigoted ideas taking up space. These ideas are spreading and poisoning well-meaning people’s minds. I wonder if those who hold these ideas could just stop for a moment and ask themselves, “Where did these ideas come from? When did I start believing this?” Realize that the narratives around you are often built so that you think you invented them yourself.
If you’re new to Bitcoin, keep in mind that you don’t have to conform to the mainstream ideas. You don’t have to be for the orange man who likes the orange coin (claims to, anyway). You don’t have to eat steaks every day and hate seed oils. You don’t have to believe in a transgender ideology or hate queer people. You don’t have to keep an altar in your garage where you pray to Hayek every night for the day the collectivists are finally wiped clean from this planet.
The reality is that Bitcoin is for anyone who needs it. Bitcoin is apolitical money. Bitcoin doesn’t need a political party, and Bitcoin doesn’t need states. The only thing that Bitcoin needs is people to use Bitcoin and learn about how it works.
Noam Chomsky made some really good points about the problems with society that I think are still relevant. American democracy is alienating because it’s not really a democracy. He said that when political systems function without public input, the general population feels marginalized. It’s obvious that many of you are here because you feel marginalized by this corporate-run society. It’s normal to react. But don’t let people with a loud mouthpiece try to convince you to act against your best interests. Bitcoin wins when we accept each other as we are. Bitcoin wins when we maintain healthy skepticism of political leaders and their promises. Bitcoin wins when we organize against the powers that are trying to destroy us.
I’m sure I’ve triggered plenty of you, but then again, that’s the whole point of this stream-of-consciousness rant. I want you to be triggered. I want others who don’t agree with you to realize that they aren’t alone. No matter how suffocating the bigotry and fascist tendencies may be right now in this space, there are still many of us who will not consent.
You’re not alone.
This is a guest post by Margot Paez. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
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