Bitcoin changes our lives.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an almost spiritual observation that we\u2019ve 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<\/em>, we\u2019ve seen our lives change. It echoes history<\/a>. Some people see god<\/a> in it.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n Bitcoin encourages higher-level thinking, of the dynamic kind that once characterized good economics<\/a>. Once a Bitcoiner, we become less prone to believing commonly accepted just-so stories \u2014 more skeptical and interested in verifying rather than trusting.<\/p>\n Anyone who\u2019s been in Bitcoin for a while can point to countless such examples in their own lives. It\u2019s undeniable, therefore, that Bitcoin itself<\/em> has a culture. It affects change in the people it welcomes; you<\/em> don\u2019t change Bitcoin, Bitcoin changes you<\/em>.<\/p>\n The values embedded in it are rules that people who embrace this monetary revolution can\u2019t help but internalize. Whether they understand it or not is unimportant. Bitcoin is for anyone, sure, but you don\u2019t stay that same person after Bitcoin has changed your life; you\u2019re a different \u201canyone\u201d than when you first opened your fiat eyes. <\/p>\n Bitcoin allowed us to see much of the stupidity of the collective delusions at the base of the state, democracy<\/a>, central banks<\/a>, public health<\/a>, public schooling<\/a> \u2014 public anything, really. It\u2019s the same realization that makes us put huge question marks on climate change worries or trans ideology. <\/p>\n In the world of fiat, anything goes. You can unverifiably feel oppressed, a man can unverifiably be a woman, anyone who\u2019s sad or distracted can unverifiably feel autistic<\/a> or depressed. If the lord of the printing press doesn\u2019t feel like there\u2019s enough money around, he makes more. Violently extorting productive<\/a> members of society is held as a morally good thing and celebrated. The experts and fiat media voices say the world ends in twelve<\/a> (or five<\/a>) years, and if you disbelieve them or ask for verification, you\u2019re on par with the Nazis.<\/p>\n In Bitcoin, this playbook doesn\u2019t fly anymore. Identifying as receiving a block reward does nothing, political votes become irrelevant, nobody\u2019s unverifiable feelings reign supreme, and cheating gets harder. UTXOs don\u2019t have a sex. It all goes out the window, revealed and denuded for the nonsense it always was. <\/p>\n Thus, something doesn\u2019t add up in Margot Paez\u2019s recent article thrashing Bitcoin culture<\/a>. She writes:<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026popular 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Big muscles are flexes because they\u2019re unfakeable<\/em> \u2014 like a hash under the difficulty target. A transaction is valid and confirmed or it isn\u2019t. It\u2019s right there, objective, and verifiable to anyone who cares to look. <\/p>\n 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\u2019t; they\u2019re verifiable and undeniable. A muscle-up doesn\u2019t ask <\/em>for permission or tries to confuse you about nuances to an imagined reality<\/a>.<\/p>\n This stands in contrast to the fiat, legacy world \u2014 of which trans ideology<\/a> is merely one of the least material but verifiably stupid<\/a> examples \u2014 where words are violence, invisible and unverifiable identities rule, fiat schools can\u2019t teach people to read or count, Uber doesn\u2019t have any cars, and the banks don\u2019t have your money.<\/a> It\u2019s a broken culture, where the only thing running away faster than the deaths of despair<\/a> are the deficits in a profligate Treasury, forever bound to send welfare checks to rent-seekers. <\/p>\n It\u2019s 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<\/a> and shoves you pharmacy-full of meds and injections at the first sign of trouble.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why I\u2019m not sold on this \u201cProgressive Bitcoiner\u201d 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\u2019t be a Bitcoiner and long remain a progressive; they\u2019re mostly incompatible ideas.<\/p>\n Progressivism came to Bitcoin as a breath of fresh air, but it will ultimately die here.<\/p>\n 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\u2019re merely a libertarian with a strong social ethos<\/em>. Congrats. I\u2019ve said so before<\/a> regarding Jason Maier\u2019s A Progressive\u2019s Case for Bitcoin<\/em><\/a>, and I maintain that in time Bitcoin will change him too, like it has the rest of us.<\/p>\n Bitcoin sooner or later forces you into seeing the world of truth and acting in unfakeable ways, looking to what is<\/em> rather than what\u2019s voiced or recommended by \u201cexperts.\u201d On the way there one usually complains loudly about the mean Bitcoiners not seeing the world you do. <\/p>\n It\u2019s not a coincidence that so many Bitcoiners proudly and diligently consume steak. We saw that the nutritional guidelines were gunk<\/a> (some might even say corrupt<\/a>), and the people pushing them were obese, ill, and ugly<\/a>. We ate a bunch of meat<\/a> and felt better. Do I look unhealthy to you?! <\/em>we ceremoniously ask. <\/p>\n The LGBTQ flags that Paez defends sit next to flags with \u201cFree Palestine\u201d \u2014 even though Palestinians aren\u2019t exactly known for their pro-gay values \u2014 and \u201cSlava Ukraini,\u201d celebrating a country that scores among the worst on the Rainbow Europe<\/a> index and routinely counts as Europe\u2019s second most corrupt country<\/a> (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.<\/p>\n