"The unexamined life is not worth living" - Socrates ~400BC

I think most of us know it on an intellectual level. If you’ve read a shit ton of books, if you’ve done a bunch of shrooms(so I’m told), if you’ve been to therapy, then you know… You control nothing but yourself. You are not responsible for the behavior of others. You are not responsible for the outcome of a complex situation. The only things it makes sense to worry about are your own choices. Life is mostly just about deciding who you are and connecting with others. We know this intellectually, but we were born in a world that sold us a very different perspective on life. One where you must feel shame if the outcome is not what you hoped. One where life is about being above others, and having more. And removing that programming from the back of your head takes years and years of work. But everyone once in a while, I don’t just know these things, I feel them. Every once in a while I have a morning where I forget to feel shame and forget to try to be above others. And on those mornings, life really feels pretty fun.

So what do y'all think about the Internets new fav conspiracy theory that Netanyahu has been dead for like a week now???

It always blows my mind how people will speak like an authority on a topic that they haven't even researched for 5 mins.

In a world ruled by violence, the most violent will rule. What kind of world do you want? What do you want the world to be ruled by?

You can take a difficult fact about humans and you can decide to help, or you can decide to take advantage and use it to oppress. Men are bred to be cannon fodder. Do you want to try to change that, or do you want to abuse that and send them out on your wars? Women are physically vulnerable. Do you want to support and protect women, or do you want to use that to control women?

Once again I'm convinced that the red pill mania and characters like Fuentes are being propped up and pushed by foreign actors, probably Russia. This is not a natural organic movement. This is the result of intentional media manipulation.

When you finally get into the fancy room you realize that all these “accomplished” people are the most desperate followers that you’ve ever met. Meritocracy, its the idea that people should be in the fancy room, or not, based on their talent and effort. And in theory, I’m a huge fan of meritocracy. But in the states especially, this concept has turned into a twisted sort of status game. There is this desperation to prove one’s value by being “above” others… by getting into the room that others can’t. I was born into that culture and at times embraced it. I desperately wanted to get into that room. I was convinced that only the best of people could be there. The smartest, the hardest working, the most insightful, and that’s what I wanted to be. I wanted to go to the fancy restaurants, the exclusive clubs, the biggest cities, the most expensive hotel, the VIP lounge. And then it happened. I got my name on the list, I sat at the table at the fancy dinner, I met my heroes. And it broke my heart. At first of course it was quite exciting and fun. But it didn’t take long to start to notice the cracks in the facade. All these people weren’t the most hard working, the most intelligent, the most insightful… they were the most desperate. They were not there because “the cream rises to the top” they were there because they were also desperate to prove themselves. That fancy room, it’s just a room full of people all desperate to prove that they too can be in the fancy room. Sad, and pretty sobering when you realize that description includes you. Now inclusion in the fancy room is of course very much a meritocracy, but the “merit” being tested is one’s ability to follow. It’s a test of one’s ability to pick up on what the current culture values and emulate that effectively. It’s a test of your trendiness and ability to curry favor with others. It’s one of those things where once you see it you can’t unsee it. Now when I look at the pictures from the party in the fancy room I feel a bit embarrassed for those attendees. They don’t even realize what a confession that photo they proudly posted is. The world is really a lot messier than it’s comfortable to acknowledge. There isn’t a room full of all of the smartest, the hardest working, the most insightful. The people that you will wind up having genuine respect for are scattered all around in all sorts of rooms. You are very luck when you occasionally meet those people. You might meet them in a fancy room, but you are just as likely to meet them on the bus. It’s a big letdown to realize that “the fancy room” is just a fantasy. You can’t have it, because it doesn’t exist. So I’ll just be drinking with my friends at the dive bar.

Women do not have legal equality until they have full bodily autonomy. Yes that means no bans on abortion. To be clear here, I am not ‘pro-abortion’. Never was there ever an abortion that wasn’t a tragedy. But it’s pretty clear, if you are not pregnant, then this is not your decision to make. Pregnant women are the only ones with the rights to make those very tough decisions. People in fancy suits hundreds of miles away have no right to make such difficult, nuanced, and personal decisions for another person. It is a wild trampling on freedom for them to attempt to. God/The Universe/Biology gave this burden and responsibility to women. We need to respect that, and respect women’s decision making.

When we talk about the declining birth rate we always seem to talk about women and their choices... why don't we talk more about men? I do know some women who have chosen to not have kids, but I know a lot more women who really do want to have children but who can't find a man who wants to take on the responsibility of being a husband and a father.

People are rarely truly “wrong”; more often, they’re just speaking from a limited perspective. If you want to change their mind, don’t flat-out deny what they’re saying, instead, add new information. When someone insists on a point, they’re probably right in some sense. They’re telling you that 3+2=5, and of course, it does. What they may not see is that the problem also includes a 4, which makes the full answer 9. So instead of telling them they’re wrong for saying the answer is 5, just show them the missing piece.

The writing was on the wall with the “have fun staying poor”. I came to the Bitcoin because I wanted to demolish power structures. HFSP very clearly states “I’m here to create a monetary hierarchy where I am above you”. The American Bitcoin influencers now are motivated by being above others, and they try to sell Bitcoin by promising that those who adopt it will also be above others. It’s the antithesis of what I thought we were doing here and it’s heart breaking.

I’m really saddened and disgusted with the Bitcoin world right now. And to be very clear I mean the loud, American, Bitcoin social media ‘influencers’. Most of them anyhow. They are a pack of tyrant worshiping, blatantly misogynistic, fame whoring sociopaths. At this point I’m embarrassed to have ever hung out with them, or to now have any association with them. I’m debating what to do about this. I’ve left Bitcoin Twitter and don’t plan to engage with that world anymore. I want to keep speaking about this tech, but I won’t be focusing on that audience. They don’t want tech, they want to be above others. I’m not sure what is a good strategy here. I thought maybe I could help make things there better, but it’s gotten so bad that I can’t in good conscience be associated with it. Should I work on forming better Bitcoin communities? Should I just leave them to rot by themselves and focus on expanding the use of this tech in better communities? ...something else I haven’t thought of yet? I’d love some ideas here.