What's one of your more controversial opinions? \ stacker news ~AskSN

pull down to refresh

What's one of your more controversial opinions?

581 sats \ 28 comments \ @Aardvark 21h AskSN

I think Canada has it right with their suicide pod idea. Let people do what they want.

view all related items

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @xz 1h

Cell phones do not add convenience to our lives.

Substantiation

If I collated all the hours of time I spend trying to get shit working.

scanning QR codes
signing up new accounts
entering passwords with/without autofill from password managers
charging phones
waiting for phone to boot/shutdown
being expected to check notifications

To be honest, I'm not against phones. There was a sweet spot for me. The time when SMS messages were rediculously expensive. That was fine. SMS are super useful. Like calling can be super useful. Besides that, I just hate phones and I imagine if I added up all of the minutes that I have used in my life doing the above things, I'm quite sure it would be a few months. If I was to add that to the total fucking waste of time that the catastrophe of human critical thinking that was 2020, I'm looking at wasted years of my life.

People only live for 60-80 years. I don't want more time wasted with useless shit.

Okay, there are some perceivable benefits and this is very much an opinionated rant but, I actually find cash super convenient. Banking (when all of the bank branches are not closing down one by one) convenient. Almost like there was no problem in a developed nation. I feel now we are just on the rollercoaster of mimicking authoritarian payment, social network, everything apps.

Not sure whether it's so controversial, but depends on the location I suppose. I do a fair amount of traveling for one reason or another, and find that the bureaucracy doesn't subside, and the redundancy is taken away which ultimately forces everybody to adopt things whether they like it or not.

465 sats \ 12 replies \ @ek 17h

Most "bitcoiners" got "lucky" that they had one good insight into the world (broken money) but now think they are soooo smart and normies are sooo stupid.

No, you’re mostly just as retarded as everyone else. Maybe even more because now you think you’re right about way more things where normies would actually be humble enough to admit they don’t know and don‘t care. But as long as it makes you feel more like a "bitcoiner" and your bitcoin echo chamber tells you you are right, you are convinced you are right.

I really agree with what @elvismercury once said:

When I sit next to someone and they say they are a bitcoiner, I think: "Oh shit."

100 sats \ 1 reply \ @elvismercury 9h

No, you’re mostly just as retarded as everyone else. Maybe even more because now you think you’re right about way more things where normies would actually be humble enough to admit they don’t know and don‘t care.

This is the best and most succinct expression of what I believe that I've ever encountered.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @ek 7h

👀

I feel honored

130 sats \ 6 replies \ @jgbtc 17h

Imagine two people, Alice and Bob, heard about Bitcoin at the same time, and both had the same means and opportunity to buy the same amount. Alice was curious and intrigued by the idea and bought some while Bob dismissed it as a ponzi scam. Several years later Alice is very happy with the result and believes more than ever in bitcoin's potential, while Bob still claims it's a ponzi and likes to point out that Alice "just got lucky". Do you agree with Bob about her getting lucky in this scenario?

33 sats \ 0 replies \ @SimpleStacker 16h

I would think Bob is probably coping, but if Alice were to rub it in Bob's face and call him dumb, I don't think Alice would be right either.

30 sats \ 2 replies \ @Aardvark OP 16h

Yes absolutely I agree with Bob. It's extremely easy to be judgemental in hindsight. What if years later Alice lost her ass because the US government changed capital gains on BTC, and it got regulated to near death?

Also maybe Alice isn't always open minded, but that day she was. Maybe Bob listened to people who are extremely trustworthy that happened to be wrong.

It's easy to be snobby when your decisions turned out to be correct, but none of this is written in stone.

33 sats \ 1 reply \ @jgbtc 16h

Good points, but this makes me wonder if everything is "just luck". By your logic it seems like any good decision could be "just luck" in someone else's view.

126 sats \ 0 replies \ @Aardvark OP 16h

You're lucky to even have enough fiat to be able to get Bitcoin. You live on a planet where 12,000 people starve to death every day.

Most people are oblivious to the fact that their outcomes have way more to do with luck than they care to admit.

I mean, congratulations on making one decision that worked out, but what of Bob invested in AI and got 10x the returns that Alice did?

Stack stats and stay humble, there's a reason that statement is so important.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @ek 16h

Both were lucky to hear about bitcoin, one was just also ignorant/stupid/whatever for too long; like most of us were the first time we heard about bitcoin.

"I wish I bought bitcoin the first time I heard about it years ago."

I think the point I am trying to make is that it's too easy to think when something good happens to us, it's because we earned it 100% and there was absolutely no luck involved. But when something bad happens to us, the world is against us. I am obviously overgeneralizing, but I would say that is something we all experienced in ourselves or in others at some point.

I think all we can do in life is to increase our chances of luck. That's not luck, but there is still some luck required in the end to be successful; whatever that means to you.

Btw, thanks for the reply, I usually don't know how to talk about what I want to talk about when nobody asks me about it, lol.

100 sats \ 0 replies \ @jgbtc 15h

Thanks for posting an interesting philosophical problem! Maybe there is an issue with the word "luck". It seems to be used in two ways. 1) in regards to initial conditions or things outside our control, and 2) in regards to good outcomes of decisions we make in the past. I totally agree with #1 that luck is involved, but #2 is a problem especially when I see people using it to diminish someone's ability to make a good judgement call, which was what I was getting at in my little thought experiment. For #2 I think it's not fair to call it it luck as there was clearly some choice involved. But honestly I'm not totally sure.

100 sats \ 1 reply \ @Solomonsatoshi 16h

While I agree with your sentiment I also disagree to some extent! Many who found Bitcoin appealing early on were those who had already questioned the legitimacy of the banking and monetary system- The Occupy movement for example was something many joined but found protest in that way did not achieve a lot- so when Bitcoin came along it was instantly attractive to those of us who already questioned the current financial system. You are correct in that the success of Bitcoin has emboldened many- including myself I admit! I never thought Bitcoin would reach the price it has or position it has and so I feel both surprised and am to some degree empowered by that to launch into other projects that otherwise might never have been able to. So Bitcoin has empowered those who most quickly were prepared to question the fiat financial system and join an alternative (Bitcoin) when it seemed unlikely to succeed but simply to have the chance was enough. I suspect that many very worthwhile and innovative projects are now in place which could never have been realised without Bitcoin- at the same time some have been emboldened to a degree of annoying arrogance.

At the same time I would add there is also an annoying reluctance from many Bitcoiners to admit just how compromised and diverted Bitcoin has become- the sly but effective obstruction of Bitcoin use as a MoE has rendered the protocol into much more a speculative commodity than a P2P censorship resistant payments protocol...but NGU narrative pushers do not like to acknowledge this.

41 sats \ 0 replies \ @ek 14h

At the same time I would add there is also an annoying reluctance from many Bitcoiners to admit just how compromised and diverted Bitcoin has become

This reminded me of this:

I think a loss of ideals is inevitable the more people consider themselves "bitcoiners."

I can't wait for the day when we no longer talk about 'normies' or 'bitcoiners' because those terms have become meaningless. And I think we're on the right track.

44 sats \ 0 replies \ @Aardvark OP 17h

20 years from now, people will say that I was just lucky, and I'll agree. Yes the information is readily available now, but I stumbled onto it by happenstance.

I'm certainly no genius, nor do I have any real insight, this shit has pretty much been spoon fed to me by greater minds.

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @Signal312 12h

Suicide Pod...hadn't heard of that one.

I did hear a podcast a while back, an interview with a male nurse, working for the Canadian health service. He was was upset, because he was being prodded to remind people about the assisted suicide option, and to mention it multiple times.

It sounded really bad.

84 sats \ 1 reply \ @k00b 21h

Humans will replace themselves with superior organisms of their own making. I'm not sure we'll go extinct when this happens, but don't think we'll be the apex species on earth forever.

42 sats \ 0 replies \ @Aardvark OP 18h

I 100% agree. Not only will we do it, but we are racing to do it as fast as we can.

72 sats \ 3 replies \ @grayruby 21h

I am not against medically assisted dying but I would rather the taxpayer doesn't have to pay for it. That being said if we are being cold and merely economical here it costs a lot less to suicide someone than it does to keep a dying person alive.

40 sats \ 1 reply \ @SimpleStacker 21h

I also think it is symptomatic of and promotes a culture that doesn't value life beyond individualistic notions of self... but a person should have value to the community even if they themselves no longer value their own life

I'm not someone who thinks life should be saved at all costs, i.e. I believe that sometimes you can unplug the machine

But I also don't think people should kill themselves out of subjective notions that their life is no longer worth living

I admit, knowing where to draw the line, and who gets to draw it, is difficult

30 sats \ 0 replies \ @grayruby 21h

"I admit, knowing where to draw the line, and who gets to draw it, is difficult"

That's the hard part.

20 sats \ 0 replies \ @Aardvark OP 18h

It would be cheaper for the tax payer to pay for death than social security probably.

51 sats \ 0 replies \ @denlillaapan 21h

there is objective moral order.

Identity isn't set/internal to you: #844171

40 sats \ 0 replies \ @SimpleStacker 20h

Controversial take: I think Bitcoin's future could be like Tor---niche, still around, still used, but nowhere near mainstream.

(I think price can still keep going up even in this circumstance, simply due to monetary debasement)

30 sats \ 1 reply \ @zuspotirko 17h

I'm a classist

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @SimpleStacker 16h

What does that mean? You look down on the plebs?

42 sats \ 0 replies \ @suraz 18h

Astrology does not influence life.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Jon_Hodl 8h

I believe that men and women should enjoy equal human rights but men naturally rise to the top of power hierarchies because we are superior beings for exerting brute physical force (violence).

ALL forms of government will ALWAYS be patriarchal.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Roll 21h

Reincarnation is one of the controversial...