It's actually kind of shocking how polarized my Twitter/X feed has become.

So many people who were technical developers, capital allocators, thoughtful geopolitical commentators, etc are now just outright tribalists.

-Some of them are direct anti-Palestinian. Not just anti-Hamas, but outright against Muslims existing in Israel.

-Some of them are direct anti-Jew. Not just anti-Zionist in the sense of being critical of the modern state of Israel and its border rights. But instead just like, actually anti-Jew.

I hate to see this. The truth is not necessarily in the middle (ie "moderation" may itself be wrong by assuming the middle is correct), but perhaps more concerningly, many people can't even steelman their opponent's view. In the best of worlds, you should be able to explain the most intelligent version of your opponent's view, and then deconstruct it by explaining how it's wrong.

I see little of that. Hardly anyone can do it. My feed is now mostly like 90 IQ tribalist stuff, even from 120 IQ people. It's sad to see. I rarely see anyone who can steelman the Palestinian case and then explain why Israel is right, or steelman the Israeli case and explain why the Palestinians are right.

I have my own personal views, first and foremost toward the civilian children, and secondarily toward land rights, but perhaps my biggest view thirdly is to criticize the sheer polarization that has occurred. Everyone is sure, but few can particularly explain the dilemma in detail in such way that acknowledges their smartest opponents views and then builds their own case against that. Almost everyone is instead polarized and tribal now.

Feels good to be slowly getting back to being productive; it's been very very rough since Nostrasia between traveling, baby, moving, more baby, sick wife, packing+unpacking.

GM

Just a quick comment today. Given the rapid development of events on the streets and with political rhetoric since the weekend, in terms of the political narrative and where things might go, I think it would no longer be implausible for there to be an attempted assault on Congress by the Spanish alt-right during Sánchez's confidence debate in parliament (still without a date set by the also socialist Speaker of the lower house).

That doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. It just wouldn’t be implausible or illogical, having suddently gone from boring normality to 39 people injured and police charges with rubber bullets and tear gas in the Spanish capital in four nights of “spontaneous” protests. The amnesty deal with Puigdemont is now done and the right is fuming.

The alt-right sees Sánchez as a traitor. The confidence debate will be the point of maximum psychological and political tension, when the hated Sanchismo gets to renew its mandate in the Prime Minister’s office, Moncloa, for another four years, through to 2027, thanks to the widely criticised amnesty agreement with the even more hated Puigdemont, who is still a fugitive from Spanish justice, with both of them, in the eyes of the right, trampling all over the Constitution, and with a strong perception of democratic impotence among the protesters, without judicial protection and with the clock ticking down against them.

All the elements are there.

So Bluesky is pretty dead, then. Just like Nostr, Notes, Threads and Mastodon. Even after Musk has spent a year doing stupid, destructive things at Twitter, it is still livelier than the rest.

A summary of Sánchez's proposed amnesty law for Catalan separatists in English for you:

🔴Vox: to file criminal complaint against Sánchez

🔴Vox: to seek urgent Supreme Court injunction

🔴PP: Sánchez "has filed the paperwork to become a totalitarian"

1. Applies to all crimes related to Catalan separatist, independence or secession process

2. Between 2012 and 2023

3. Judges get two months to put it into practice, "urgently"

4. With a special mention for the 2014 referendum (Artur Mas) and the 2017 referendum (Puigdemont)

5. All crimes related to promoting, procuring, organising or executing any kind of independence of Catalonia, or collaborating or assissting to do so in any way

6. All crimes related to money, the misuse of public funds, or abusing the authority of public office

7. Contempt of court, public order offences, attacking police officers, resisting arrest, blocking police ofciers, abuse of authority, public criticism of authorities

8. NOT INCLUDED: murder, serious assault, torture, inhumane traetment, terrorism, treason, crimes against the financial interest of the EU, racism, antisemitism, anti-gypsyism

9. Amnesty means: crimes do not exist, release from jail or detention, elimination of criminal record, arrest warrants and search orders expire immediately, bail conditions expire immediately, no administrative fine processes

10. Amnesty also means any public workers involved also get their jobs back with full rights and a clean record

11. There is a paragraph on page 16 that makes sure to point out that there will be no restrictive bail measures of any kind, or jailing of anyone on remand, even if someone appeals the process, or tries to argue it is unconstitutional

12. Amnesty bill modifies Criminal Code, adding "amnesty" to list of reasons criminal responsbility is extinguished.

13. Amnesty bill modifies Accounting Tribunal Act, adds "amnesty" to list of reasons financial responsibility is extinguished.

14. In very long preamble, government argues the law is constitutional because it is "singular" and applies very spefically to a well-defined set of circumstances.

15. Government argues that the bill is needed to deal with an "exceptional situation" in "the general interest" in order to foster greater political and social coexistence in Spain.

16. Government argues that if the amnesty were not to go ahead, social and political tensions with Cataln separatists could continue into the future.

17. Spanish government argues that other European countries and European law back the principle of amnesty. Cites Italy, France, Portugal, Germany, UK, Austria, Belgium, Ireland and Sweden.

Is he saying that putting tweets on a blockchain would be a very good idea?

Or is he saying that we should somehow enforce that all relays host all the data forever and that somehow will make the network less centralized? Maybe he will be interested in Farcaster.

In any event, I think he doesn't realize that the outbox model is possible -- or how much centralization his suggestions would bring, including any kind of "key delegation" mechanism he may have in mind.

I'm not sure how forcing people onto a single currency and making it impossible for countries to control their own currency on a national level is inherently beneficial.

Let's be honest, the people who want BTC to be a single global currency want that to be the case because they feel they are "early" and will massively profit from that happening. Pretending it matters to poor people living paycheck to paycheck for whom money is ephemeral is top tier cringe.

This is made possible by out of date technology with no authentication for the end user (all the authentication in the system is designed to benefit the network operators only).

Not The Amethyst?

I SAID YES!! 🧡

There is no other answer when your soulmate asks you to marry him.

A match made on #Bitcoin Twitter ⚡️

Stop writing "NOSTR" in all caps, what are you doing!