Until election season is over, Twitter has reached rock-bottom to me.

I won’t say it’s unusable, since I am using it, but I have to navigate around its main thing to continue with the positive elements of the network effect that exists there.

And so many accounts are super biased on any given topic to a clearly irrational degree. I keep seeing things that seem like satire, but instead they are genuinely written to appeal to lower information people in a way that, from my perspective, is highly patronizing to them.

I find it so distasteful. The prior election year 2020 had a lot of polarizing elements obviously, but 2024 has more clearly conscious polarizing elements going on. Large influencer accounts whose motives are clear toward a broader audience with talking points geared toward child-level rhetoric and civic understanding. You can watch them as an observer speaking to their flock as though they were children.

RFK wrote a letter to the editor in the economist today.

archive.ph/AO4un

The most punk thing that you can do right now is be happy.

The mainstream wants you exhausted, unhealthy, doomscrolling, angry and pathetic. It drives more clicks and advertisers. Finding true joy has become edgy.

chasing ego boosts never ends well. find meaning and purpose elsewhere.

If the decision is easily reversible make it quick as fuck then reverse it later if needed.

99% percent of tech arguments: your accepted tradeoffs don’t match my accepted tradeoffs 😅

people care about different things, maybe just got to accept that and move on. No point in arguing.

> As iron sharpens iron; so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.

Proverbs 27:17

When iron sharpens iron, it is inevitable that some sparks will fly. But if done from the right angle, and if goodwill is assumed by both parties, then both can come out sharper.

Privacy Checklist

Step 1. Learn Linux

It’s easier than you think. You don’t need the command line, and the software compatibility isn’t as big a deal as it used to be, because a lot is in a web browser now. Over the last 10 years, Linux has improved dramatically, while as Microsoft Windows has gotten worse due to their increased surveillance wasting more and more resources.

Step 2. Get a DeGoogled Android

It’s as easy to use as a regular Android! You can have all the same apps (although you should ditch some of them). You don’t need the newest and most expensive model, Pixel 6a or 7a are just fine. We sell them cheap, or do it on your own.

Step 3. Slowly learn about open source alternatives.

There is a lot of alternative software out there, and our site covers most of them. Kdenlive is just as good as Adobe Premier for 90% of stuff. GIMP is just as good as photoshop for most people. Try to replace one app a week or month, you’ll get there. Patience.

Step 4. Get a VoIP line.

Stop using the number on the real SIM card of your phone, otherwise the phone company sees what you’re doing. If you use VoIP with a VPN, then the phone company sees just a VPN tunnel. And the VoIP company just sees a VPN exit. The data is still unencrypted, but this is a huge separation of knowledge.

Step 5. Transition to Crypto.

Bitrefill, coincards, cake wallet, and many more vendors have a huge variety of stuff. This depends on your country and needs. But no country has no options. Don’t let pessimism keep you trapped in fiat.

Step 6. Consider self-hosted email.

If you’re not going to just use a bunch of burners, and you actually have real content going through email, then self-host on a VPS is the best way. It’s true that the VPS provider can still access it, but if you need business email, then this is your best choice. We offer to do the setup for you, or you can read guides on your own.

Step 7. Start on-boarding your friends and family

It takes two to tango. It helps to have the other side of your conversation secure as well. Our site has guides on how to approach them, but the answer usually lies in increasing your value proposition and friendship. And never in cursing them out. Target your pitch on what they know and care about.

Step 8. Type your name in search engines.

See what comes up. Are these accounts you can clean up, change, or delete?

Step 9. Make the plunge: Delete Facebook.

It’s a tough one. And most won’t do it. But I did, and I kept all the people I actually talked to in the real world in my life via different tools. Good time to pitch Nostr.

Conclusion:

When you first see this list, it will be overwhelming with what you ought to do. But I’m here today to tell you that I was once just like you, and I felt powerless with all this technical jargon I had to overcome. But remember, to some people Nostr or Bitcoin is complex. So it’s all what you’re used to. If you go through this list slowly over the course of a few months, I promise you that one day you’ll look back, and be surprised that you ever let it intimidate you.

Now I need you to return the favor, and spread the knowledge you just learned. For the more people that walk this trail, the easiest the path becomes.

Daily Bitcoiner #meme

Seeing some transphobia on the TL which while unsurprising is still upsetting so I'd just like to throw this out there:

Trans and third gendered people have existed for 10s of thousands of years, long before the modern concept of gender was even invented, it's a completely normal and valid mode of existence.

Trans folks lack the political power to even defend their ability to exist, especially in the States, the idea that they're coming for your rights is beyond absurd. This is your favorite political sports team weaponizing marginalized people to get you to vote for them. Classic political theater and scapegoatism that many transphobes claim to be privy to yet always fall for.

You can't make appeals to authority citing "basic biology" and "mental illness" then throw a fit when its pointed out that the biology books and the DSM actually acknowledge the validity of the trans experience. Nor can you make appeals to freedom with one hand and try and squash people who think differently from you out of existence with the other. I mean you can, but you'll look like an idiot and an asshole.

I get its's a tall order to ask everyone to be down with every way of life but it's certainly not too much to ask that you respect another person's right to define their own identity. That's such a basic fucking freedom and some of you refuse to respect it. And yet you have the balls to start whinging about your freedom. Marginalized people are NOT the enemy come on now wake tf up and grow tf up