If I could roll back time, I think starting btc discussions w/ an intro to the petrodollar would be The Way. It's just so clean, and so much snaps into place. I feel a little bad about my past self, who didn't have the pieces to put together.

I think this is mostly what you're saying, but in my own head, when I hear "the dollar isn't backed by anything" I correct it: the dollar is backed by oil. It is grounded in oil, and that is as consequential a grounding, from the PoV of the world, as anything you can think of.