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Rex, man. Of all the nostriches here, you’re one who has made me dig deep and think a LOT about people, politics, nuance, etc.

Sometimes the stuff you share is loving, wise, and compassionate, and I appreciate you for it.

Other times (like this one) I’m afraid it comes across as cruel and ignorant. And it’s hard, but also kind of amazing to have a digital space where one can organically appreciate that kind of complexity without algorithms and all that.

I’ve never had the experience of feeling like I’m in the wrong physical body. I can’t imagine how difficult, distracting, and complicated it must feel. But the fact that so many in our society refuse to even try to offer compassion or acceptance toward people living such a unique and often hard experience is discouraging to me. Because I love people, and seeing suffering makes me sad. It’s why I Bitcoin.

It’s of course true that tiny, extreme factions can and do act horribly, on any end of the cultural/political spectrum. And I’m not here to make excuses for anyone’s bad behavior. (It’s obvious when it occurs, ‘nuff said).

But if we get hooked by that divisive culture war rhetoric, then we’re failing - in that moment - to bring about a better world.

When a minority of people in our culture have overwhelmingly been the recipients of scorn, abuse, and violence, it feels wrong to me to take any approach other than listening. Because I just don’t know what it’s like, but keeping an open heart has never failed me before.

I didn’t read this thread in detail, but my sense is that it got pretty hostile. For my own well-being, I’m not going down that rabbit hole (and I still have to go get ready for a trip).

But since it’s nostr, where I have gotten to know the two humans having this conversation, I’m not just scrolling on. I respect you enough to say, I believe you’re a good person but I think you’re wrong about this, because if we haven’t lived it, we can’t know. I hope you’ll consider that.

Again, culture war BS is just not something I’m interested in. Red blue white black rainbow whatever, I’m in this for all the other humans and want to listen to and honor anyone willing to share their experience of this life.

Okay that’s all I got for now. Hope this note ultimately acts to bring a little more love to every side of the scale ✌️

Captain Sarahtoshi Nakamoto 1y ago

This is the best note I’ve ever read by anyone trans or not.

My cousin taught me about horseshoe theory. As you go further from center Botha side get further apart, to a point. But after that, both sides actually start coming together again. So the people at the far end of both sides are actually closer to each other than they think.

Most trans people just want to live normal lives and do normal things. It’s these particular trans people who think they’re helping but they’re actually doing more harm than good.

Early I n transition,there’s a phase we call “the pink cloud” where we reach peak euphoria and when that wears off, the juxtaposition of the two hormones, testosterone and estrogen have a battle inside the trans person. Since transitioning is a necessar inherently selfish process, or manifests itself in a lot of way.

Airing your dirty laundry on socials is never the right thing to do. On that we can all agree. Society is adapting to this revolutionary new tool called a computer. As we adjust, we have a choice on how we evolve as a species. For the first time in history, we get to choose the trajectory of our own evolution.

As we attain higher and higher levels of technology, we much more serious ethical questions to discuss as a society as a whole. Downloading human consciousness will give us effective immortality. But how do we deal with an immortal Hitler or Stalin. Do we place them ins artificial hell? Or do we just erase them? What about AI porn? Or AI child porn? We live in very difficult times and it’s going to get worse before it gets better.

How we show other humans compassion will decide how we answer these hard questions and more.

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Discussion

boston wine 1y ago

🫂🫂

Captain Sarahtoshi Nakamoto 1y ago

I’m glad you took that the right way. My ideas tend to be pretty far forward looking and, as a trans person, I have been forced to tiptoe very lightly around the subject of children, lately. And, as a trans person in bitcoin, I’m exposed to more phobias than I would normally allow in my life. But bitcoin is too important for me to back out.

It’s extremely refreshing to hear a true libertarian say live and let live. You obviously see people as people and let their actions tell you who they are. And you have the integrity to do so in such a polarized world!

The world needs more people like you! 🫂🫂🫂

boston wine 1y ago

I especially appreciated, “How we show other humans compassion will decide how we answer these hard questions and more.” 🎯🎯🎯

I also admire and respect you for sticking around in a community which is in some ways so tolerant of people’s differences that it includes some who are incredibly intolerant of people or ideas that make them uncomfortable.

Ava offered the live-and-let-live reminder (and I agree). And it got me thinking…

Sometimes, libertarian philosophy — which in its pure form I find to be very compelling philosophy — is abused by selfish people (or rather, is co-opted by lobby groups and used for propaganda) in ways that ultimately reinforce an incumbent power/structure, to the detriment of the individuals the ideals are supposed to support.

But that happens with nearly any political approach.

For example, imagine that you steel-man the communist/socialist perspective, and give Marx the benefit of the doubt that “he saw the problem and wanted to bring human society to a better place, but got the solution wrong”.

We again find that well-intended philosophical ideals get abused and corrupted by those people with the wrong incentives, and you end up with every failed communist state in history.

Back to “why I Bitcoin”, I guess. It gives power to individuals, whether they call themselves “sovereign contributor” or “proletariat producer”. Bitcoin fosters individual autonomy and responsibility within the context of a massively communal activity: a global monetary network and asset that everyone can contribute to, participate in, and benefit from.

To me, it’s that first “handshake across the aisle” that opens doors to remember each others’ humanity. It’s acknowledgment that we agree on a major (if not the biggest) problem in our society — broken money — and on a workable solution.

I’ve had that experience on Nostr frequently. And I think it’s a first step in moving beyond the divisive rhetoric of the most hardcore activists and manipulative politicians, into a social environment where people learn to respect each other again.

I’ll close with this oldie: