If China invades Taiwan, I promise you, we’re at war. Japan will be drawn in immediately, and the likelihood that the US will be drawn in — and likely have its bases in Okinawa attacked — is basically 100%. Then the US is just at war.
All of the libertarians and peaceniks arguing we should stay out of it, will be blown away like dry leaves on a windy Fall day.
The only thing worth thinking about at this point, is how to dissuade China from taking that step.
I agree with you there.
We aren’t in a Bitcoin world. We live under a fiat standard. There are only a handful of millions who have adopted a new economic for of communication and culture.
The Bitcoin thesis is that our culture and currency is superior, and will win out eventually and usher in more peace and prosperity compared to the current culture and currency. However, that hasn’t played all the way out yet. We aren’t at a point where we can prevent the unraveling of the old world, and unfortunately we might not make it there before the old world tries to destroy everything that’s been built.
I appreciate you accepting the reality of the current situation. You can both understand the reality of fiat powered global war, violence, and violations of individuals, while also believing in a better future where a new monetary technology makes these atrocities impossible to repeat.
You can’t beat human nature. The tribe will always close ranks when threatened. Bitcoin will not stop this. You’re hoping for a spiritual awakening that will never come, unless we literally breed our tribal instincts out of us through genetic engineering.
What is stopping you from believing in a world where our current institutions, that have evolved over hundreds/thousands of years, will continue to exist with bitcoin playing a role within it?
I do believe that. I just think the “role” it will play will be big enough to restructure them beyond their current form, and largely defang them. Nobody wants to pay for senseless war and destruction.
No one in this thread is arguing for senseless war and destruction, but to believe bitcoin will stop it is misguided hope. I’ve got more hope in my blood than doom. I believe in humanity, but I don’t believe in all of the fairytales.
I guess my framework is just that it needs to be stopped. It needs to end, it cannot continue. nostr:npub1hyqrsvl6hle8r5rc9cpshesm0mpcee75tgde4p5lhke5h83dyqqqdwk7cp would be correct that if we cannot find a solution to these problems, we face a grave existential crisis. Due to this framework, I’m forced to argue that Bitcoin is capable of defunding state violence and bringing more peace and prosperity to civilization, because I see it as by far the best chance we have, and nothing behind it comes very close. If I’m wrong, I’d rather have lived in some hopeful delusion than accept that humans cannot evolve past this as a species.
I think just sitting back and letting our institutions fail, rather than trying to reform and fix them, is just about the dumbest fucking idea at this point. It’s playing with matches at a civilizational level.
I’ve never argued that we should sit back and let institutions fail. I do believe that they are failing. And the only level an individual can change a social system at is the level they interact with it at. I have already changed my individual behaviors to try and create the better world I wish to live in. How am I playing with matches?
The problem is always going to be, that one person’s definition of “senseless war” is another person’s “just war”. If enough people think a war is just, then the tolerance of the public to sacrifice towards the prosecution therein, will go up.
Ukrainians are paying extreme economic costs — and in blood — to sustain their war against the Russians. And support for the war in Ukraine is >90%.
Humans are not purely driven by narrow economic incentives.
Whats wrong with video games and movies?
This is salient. As nostr:npub15dqlghlewk84wz3pkqqvzl2w2w36f97g89ljds8x6c094nlu02vqjllm5m say, even if one dies intestate with our #bitcoin uninherited, thus staying untapped and unused by mortal hands, it would be a win for the ₿ community at large. In that way, we are contributing posthumously to a cause in which we deeply believe. I am not saying that it is ideal. But it is comforting.
