Nostr Web Client

Yes, that's right. Imagine pleading allegiance to the flag of Walmart every morning in school...that's the same thing we grew up doing in my day. I was statist and believed in public education and elections (etc., ad infinitum) until I was in my late forties 😬

I spent my entire young life identifying as a DFL-er (unique to MN) and then my thirties as a conservative, and from 2011 until 2017 I had no idea what I was, just wanted no part of it. I guess that was when I found libertarian twitter, and lots of those folks started to annoy the crap out of me, and that pipeline to anarchism (for me) is short unless you're [redacted].

BTC_P2P 10mo ago

Hell of a journey beejay.

I was raised by an ex marine who wholeheartedly believes the American / nation state propaganda. But for some reason I never internalized it.

After high school I went to a top 20 U.S. public college and majored in business. Another statist indoctrination program, but I just always felt like a lot of what I was being taught was BS.

I was reading guys like Noam Chomsky, Michael Parentti and Chris hedges. I think learning about a more realistic version of US history from people outside the system made me realize how insanely fucked up governments really were. Fully subverted the temptation to be a statist cuck. Still hadn’t been introduced to anarchism, Austrian Econ or Bitcoin though.

Years later after living and practicing Agorism and a lot of tenets of anarchism without ever having been formally introduced to the ideas, I found Bitcoin. From there everything coalesced.

Reply to this note

Please Login to reply.

Discussion

beejay 10mo ago

Yes, it does seem surprising how you turned out with such an upbringing 😄

Oh, and...

All the times I mentioned I was liberal until I wasn't anymore, I was trying to build my own small business... then I learned about my new income taxes lol. I am sure you know what happened next.

MAHDOOD 10mo ago

Hahaha the classic socialist turned capitalist story

sachin 10mo ago

Y'all live and grew up in a much more free country than mine 😂

But I was surrounded by and grew up in a subculture that values property rights and entrepreneurship quite a lot. That + Bitcoin + the internet played a big role in my de-programming.

MAHDOOD 10mo ago

The internet may be the greatest invention ever

sachin 10mo ago

Fuck yes it is!

BTC_P2P 10mo ago

Yeah the process of starting a business and going through a calendar year will radicalize anyone. All the red tape and the state, municipal and federal taxes at the end of the year. Infuriating and demoralizing.

I was growing weed in college and loved it so after graduation I doubled down and built it into a cool little boutique business. But the state I was in legalized cannabis shortly thereafter and if you didn’t have a million dollars in capital you couldn’t go legal, so I went full black. Did that for a long while and felt a sense of pride in not bending the knee or contributing to The State’s insanity.

MAHDOOD 10mo ago

I get so fucking irritated when I think about shit like this and all the potential businesses that can never start up because of the fucking parasite class

beejay 10mo ago

Took me decades to learn you gotta go gray/black flag

beejay 10mo ago

Stay small and independent, otherwise, the bigger your biz gets, the more you are tied to contributing to the evils of the tyrannical, blood-soaked, kidf***ing, extorting, fat, fake, and gay state.

MAHDOOD 10mo ago

What is that?

beejay 10mo ago

An agorist flag

MAHDOOD 10mo ago

Surprised I’ve never seen that before

beejay 10mo ago

Bro you're just a wee baby 😊

When I was just out of college, it was 1993, and Clinton supposedly didn't inhale 😅

MAHDOOD 10mo ago

Damn I haven’t heard about Chris Hedges in yearsssss. That guy is intense and really made me look at the world differently.