In reference to Stephen Livera's Bitcoin Won't Let You Transcend Politics. I also want to cite to other excellent discussions on SN, such as Bitcoin is Political and Bitcoin is a political tool.
I believe that the idea that we can transcend politics to be naive, if not outright deceptive. To say that we bitcoiners should keep our distance from politics misunderstands both the nature of Bitcoin and the nature of politics itself. Politics, in its essence, is not merely the province of governments and voting booths; it is the synthesis of everything uniquely human: rationality, aggression, diplomacy, calculation, violence, intelligence, duplicity, language, and everything else that drives human interaction.
While many bitcoiners see politics through a lord/serf lens, that is just one expression of it (admittedly one which has been dominant for most civilizations throughout history). Politics is not a machine that we can avoid; it is the language we speak, the strategy we wield, and the consequences we live. The concept of escape it is a comforting myth, held by those who fail to recognize its pervasive influence or, more troublingly, by those who hope to wield it uncontested against those who claim exemption.
And furthermore, Bitcoin itself is not just embedded within the landscape of political expressions; I believe it is a crystallization of it. Every feature of Bitcoin -- its protocol, its cryptographic fortifications, its consensus mechanisms -- reflects a calculated assertion of power and autonomy. Bitcoin’s cryptographic robustness is rationality made tangible; its proof-of-work is a bold display of aggression against the unchecked excesses of the fiat empire; its consensus protocol is diplomacy enacted through decentralized consensus.
Even the pseudonymity of Satoshi Nakamoto is a political act, harkening back to The Federalist Papers and revealing again how anonymity can protect revolutionary ideas. Each aspect of Bitcoin represents defiance toward centralized systems, a rallying cry for autonomy, and a meticulously calculated plan for reshaping power.
Yet, Bitcoin’s political essence goes deeper. Its very presence on the world stage is a strategic move to alter the rules of engagement, forcing a recalibration of political powers on a global scale. Bitcoin challenges and refines political expression by limiting certain forms of control -- censorship, seizure, or inflation manipulation -- while expanding others, like financial self-sovereignty, borderless transactions, and uncensorable asset ownership. In this way, Bitcoin isn't some outside force which tolerates or coexists alongside the political sphere; it reshapes it from within.
As long as humans desire autonomy, stability, and freedom, Bitcoin will remain relevant because it speaks to those desires through actions, not words. Bitcoin isn’t an escape from politics but a tool for reshaping it. Every transaction is an assertion of self-sovereignty, every mined block a testament to decentralization’s resilience. It reveals that political power does not always need a centralized authority; sometimes, it resides within a protocol, a network, a language, and a community willing to hold the line.
Bitcoin has built a political structure of its own, one in which rules are enforced not by force but by consensus, not by coercion but by code. Far from being passive bystanders, Bitcoin and bitcoiners are active participants in the political sphere, and carry with them a message that is as bold and relentless as its protocol: the future of power belongs to those who claim it, secure it, and hold it in trust for the individuals it empowers -- and it is now our turn to take the lead.
Livera references the statement "you may not be interested in politics, but politics is interested in you." Clausewitz famously commented that “war is not merely a political act but a real political instrument, a continuation of political intercourse, a carrying out of the same by other means.” Bitcoiners like to point out that "Bitcoin doesn't care what you think." These statements all describe aspects of a unitary process which emerges from human nature.
Bitcoiners must engage with the traditional political machine. Both to protect and extend Bitcoin itself, and to ensure the most positive synthesis of the two systems. Because Bitcoin is itself just politics by another means.
This bit resonated looots.
In a big-government world, it matters lots who's in power -- hence, gotta vet all/any social engagements
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133 sats \ 0 replies \ @anon 30 Oct
Bitcoin isn’t an escape from politics but a tool for reshaping it
Yes. Sovereignty doesn't come from escaping to the citadel -- that is a temporary reprieve, at best. Sovereignty must be asserted by active participation in society, and influencing the ark of societal development.
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👏👏👏👏 fantastic post.
Bitcoin has a lot of keyboard warriors who “opt-out” in the safety and comfort for a developed nation which more than likely has the following characteristics:
  • Running Water
  • Power
  • Internet
  • Food
  • Police
It’s easy not to vote and not care about politics when life is good and your idea of oppression is getting banned of YouTube or X. Once it’s no longer there and you have to fend for yourself. Life gets 1,000 times harder.
Many people LARP and say they use bitcoin to pay for everything but it just isn’t true. All ISPs take fiat to provide internet services. Just that very fact confirms that no one is purely on a bitcoin standard it’s impossible at this time to meet all your needs and not pay someone directly or indirectly in fiat.
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Excellent comment especially keyboard warriors
Some guys do pay for everything with bitcoin. They are millionaires who consider themselves sovereign individuals because citizenship is slavery
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31 sats \ 1 reply \ @siggy47 30 Oct
Maybe definitions are important. Merriam Webster defines politics in relation to the government and nations: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/politics
I found these definitions on Wikipedia:
Harold Lasswell: "who gets what, when, how"
David Easton: "the authoritative allocation of values for a society"
Vladimir Lenin: "the most concentrated expression of economics"
Otto von Bismarck: "the capacity of always choosing at each instant, in constantly changing situations, the least harmful, the most useful"
Bernard Crick: "a distinctive form of rule whereby people act together through institutionalized procedures to resolve differences"
Adrian Leftwich: "comprises all the activities of co-operation, negotiation and conflict within and between societies"
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Laswell and Easton are correct
Crick sounds too optimistic. He needs new medication: generic drug called reality. Comes in pills 💊. Side effect is bitter. Difficult to swallow.
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Bitcoiners must engage with the traditional political machine. Both to protect and extend Bitcoin itself, and to ensure the most positive synthesis of the two systems. Because Bitcoin is itself just politics by another means.
I don't get how people can claim that bitcoin is not a political tool. It's a currency that pretends to have an alternative for the fiat system, which last time I checked it was managed by (checks again notes)....politicians.
Politics is just another way to embrace. And yes, you are so right when you point that:
Bitcoin has built a political structure of its own
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"Bitcoin isn’t an escape from politics but a tool for reshaping it. Every transaction is an assertion of self-sovereignty, every mined block a testament to decentralization’s resilience...Because Bitcoin is itself just politics by another means."
These two things seem unaligned; don't think I buy it. All you're doing then is to expand the definition of politics into meaning EVERY aspect of human coexistence. What the sentiment says in sentiments like opting out of politics or operating outside the system yada-yada is to not take part in the corrupt clown show that is high-stakes politics today. But to opt out, to create an alternative, to spend one's time and effort and attention not on what the news channels feed you but to consume V4V, understand bitcoin, and hold your sats far away from control by these parasites.
When systems are sufficiently corrupt, you don't "reform" them from within; you build alternatives that can supplant them. Fair enough, you can call that being politics renewed -- and that's right -- but then we're just redefining terms. OPTING OUT in my mind is synonymous with things like "ignoring politics" or "building outside the system" etc
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If one describes politics to mean the system we're operating within now, then yes, I think that you're correct.
Of course I agree that the current system is a corrupt, clown show, parasitic disaster.
My argument is that politics describes all systems of human organization. The problem I see is when people say "I'm outside politics" but mean "I'm outside the current system" or "I'm outside those politics", they then (consciously or not) cede their political power back to the current system. The current system is an instantiation of politics, acting through debased and corrupted elements of human nature.
I see Bitcoin as a way to reverse the debasement and corruption of human nature, to realign politics more closely with positive elements and away from corrupted elements.
So yes, maybe I'm being a bit pedantic. And transcendent language does have a place at the beginning of a movement to inspire and motivate. But after a point, when the movement is no longer a fringe revolutionary movement and is more of a "real player", then the separationist rhetoric becomes a problem, potentially enervating the most vigorous fighters at just the time they're needed.
I believe that it's now time for that rhetorical shift - we're not outside politics, we're building a new politics outside those politics.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Xlindo 22h
Not necessarily to escape, but to move without so much surveillance, since if you buy a Coca Cola, the government already knows.
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