1264 sats \ 3 replies \ @elvismercury 6 Feb \ on: A real bitcoiner™️ bitcoin
I like this -- I've had a similar reaction over the years, where I've done the full loop from being excited by btc and excited to meet anyone who was into it, to having a default negative reaction to anyone who describes themselves as a 'bitcoiner', bc it's been so taken over by the sorts of asshats who take over most things. It's not really about btc, it's more about human nature.
Anyway, this makes me curious about what 'a real bitcoiner' means to me. I'm going to noodle on it.
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I thought about it overnight.
I think what being a bitcoiner means to me -- or at least, what I want it to mean -- is digging deeply into things. The origin of btc is technically informed people who dug into other aspects of how the world works. They were actually trying to understand the social world of politics and economics in the same way they understood tech, as systems whose functioning had implications -- often, non-intuitive implications -- for the world; and they weren't afraid, as outsiders, to get after it with the same intelligence and focus as they built other complex systems. If you read the old bitcointalk discussions they're both deep and broad. They were informed across a host of fields and topics. Not everyone, but many; and the people in the 'audience' respected actual learning. I wish I could have been there, live.
Contrast that with the dominant form of expression today, which is a sort of mindless tribalism, repeating standard catchphrases, accusations of heresy of one type or another, forming your opinion based on what some btc thought leader says. You can identify the thought leaders by who's built their personal brands on the podcast circuit. They've got giant bags, and they'll go through the talking points because ideas are now a threat. They have tons of hot takes on politics without knowing anything about politics, or history, or really anything. Their reading list is a circle jerk curriculum of warmed-over propaganda. Every so often I wind up on an airplane sitting next to a 'bitcoiner' and my internal voice always says oh shit.
So anyway, to your original question, that first type of active seeker and far-ranging thinker and builder, that's the version of bitcoiner that I'm holding onto.