In everyday life, people hate to be the exception. They want to fit in.

And yet, legends are told about the exceptions. Legends are born from the extraordinary.

Men who led extraordinary military campaigns. Men who were born poor but built a dynasty. Women who fulfilled a man’s role out of necessity and became an outlier success. Men who created timeless art but were likely gay at a time when it was not allowed.

The woke view tries to pull everything up or down to the average, regardless of merit.

The fascistic view tries to suppress the exceptions and keep them down, while propping up those who haven’t earned it but who support the leader.

The truly based view, however, invites everyone up toward excellence. Especially the exceptions.

I like how Nintendo systems from the 1990s could be put in a shed without air conditioning and survive for five years and still play games. Simple, optimized, robust engineering.

I like how cars from more than ten years ago just work, rather than being a nanny to you while you drive.

Cars, TVs, and all sorts of devices just whine today about problems. We’ve gone backward in some sense.

I’m willing to support brands that make more physical stuff. Already doing that with my next car choice.

In my lifetime I've never seen Jew hate like I'm seeing right now.

My dad would tell me stories about the seventies. Telling me catholics would all say racist Jew jokes.

But this war with Gaza, tictok, social media coupled with the reaction to Covid era censorship has fueled Jewish hatred the likes the world hasn't seen in a long time. Like world war 2 times.

Even if some of the claims are correct.

basically there being a elite group of baby eating Jew bankers turning everyone into biracial gay lesbians.

This level of world wide hatred has the potential to create wars and mass casualties. Nobody will win it.

It's not a good thing

A banner was put up by protesters yesterday on a Tehran highway that says "We vote for the (regime's) downfall.” #iran #WomanLifeFreedom

Jokes on them, all price suppression does to a HODLR is let us buy more sats. I have not cared about price going down in any negative way since about oh 2018. That one was pretty harsh but it changed how I thought about it forever.

nostr:note19avpgs6a85eww8d2vxl07c92lqslgv6qfr52gav6m45lzexz60tsu4a7t3

Which one(s) you like?

(Enlarged for easier viewing)

Summer 2024 #Bitcoin t-shirt design collection

#StackSats #HODL #OptOut #ProofOfWork #Timechain #UTXO #21Million #Bullish #FixTheMoneyFixTheWorld #OptOutOfTheMatrix #DrainFiat #DontTrustVerify

GM.

There are many different subcultures in Egypt, and waves of religious and cultural changes over time.

Most well-known is the fact that alongside the majority Sunni Muslim population, there is a significant Coptic Christian population in Egypt. Some of the oldest still-standing churches in the world, dating back to the third century, are located in Cairo.

But in addition, among the Muslim majority there are different types of Muslim conservatism vs modernism. There is a traditional conservatism that is rather ubiquitous in the Egyptian rural areas and stretches back very far, and there is a more recent religious fundamentalist conservatism (Wahhabism, and more broadly Salafism) that came from Saudi Arabia into Egypt over the past few decades that affects both the rural areas and the urban areas.

My Muslim grandparent inlaws, when you look at their pictures back in the 1950s, are not wearing any hijab head coverings, and neither were their adult children in the 1970s. It was less common to do so in the urbanite middle and wealthy classes back then. Rural traditionalists generally wore hijab head coverings back then and in the present, and have more conservative views. But as Wahhabism/Salafism spread through Egypt, even those wealthier and more cosmopolitan urbanites became more outwardly religious and conservative within the same generation. Many people who didn’t previously wear head coverings began to do so. Niqabs (full head and face coverings) also grew in popularity as well, alongside hijabs, but have always been a much smaller minority.

My in-laws came from the urbanite upper-middle class. So over time in the past, they went from no hijab head coverings to wearing hijab head coverings (grandparent and parent in laws) with the adoption of Wahhabism/Salafism in Egypt during that era. And then some of the younger ones (now in their 30s), who were raised with hijab head coverings from the start, began to take them off about a decade ago. They grew up being told it was wrong for women to dance or swim or show almost any skin or hair in public, but eventually shifted their views away from that, even as their parents still adhere to it. They are still Muslim, but interpret things more like their grandparents once did. Meanwhile among the traditional rural class there is no such retracement.

As a result of all this, there is a big spectrum of conservatism/modernism and religiosity across the country, and even within extended families.

In Greater Cairo’s 20+ million population, there is also a west vs east divide. Upper-middle classes in West Cairo are generally more cosmopolitan, whereas similar economic groups in East Cairo lean more conservative on average. Outside of Cairo, Alexandria, and coastal resorts, the rural areas and smaller cities all lean pretty conservative. And again, there are some differences between traditional blended cultural/religious conservatism which is generally correlated to socioeconomic class, and the separate wave of Wahhabism/Salafism religious conservatism that is more class-independent.

Among rural Egyptians, there are different subcultures north of Cairo (in the Nile delta farmland region) and south of Cairo (following the Nile down south to Sudan). A significant percentage of southern Egyptian families have a vendetta culture, similar in some regards to old-school Sicilians, which is not really present to any similar degree among rural northern Egyptians.

Nationwide Egyptian politics over the past 50 years have largely been defined by the conflict between secular military rule (who are usually in power) vs religious theocratic rule (who were only in power briefly). The secular military view is still Muslim and is conservative by western standards, but leaves most religious choices to individuals and families. They focus on economic matters, and want Egypt to be a place for global tourism and business. The religious theocratic view instead wants a more theocratic society, either through political means or in some cases through violent means and terrorism. The military secularists then become empowered by the broad public toward more authoritarian tendencies by being seen as the force that can stop the extremists and keep things safe and stable.

Today is my Nostr anniversary and also Franz Kafka’s birthday. 141 years ago, a really sensitive and brilliant man was born! He’s one of my favorite writers. If you also like him,please leave your favorite book by Franz in the comments or share any of his statements with me. I’d love to get to know more Kafka readers out there. 🫂🙌🏼❤️

#nostr

#grownostr

#kafka

#bookstr

#nostrvesary

😂

nostr:npub1cn4t4cd78nm900qc2hhqte5aa8c9njm6qkfzw95tszufwcwtcnsq7g3vle just dropped bombs as expected. Give it a watch when it comes out.

nostr:npub167n5w6cj2wseqtmk26zllc7n28uv9c4vw28k2kht206vnghe5a7stgzu3r

Nostr panel at the main stage in 20 minutes 👀👀

I remember watching this happening in real time and discussing it with nostr:npub1lrnvvs6z78s9yjqxxr38uyqkmn34lsaxznnqgd877j4z2qej3j5s09qnw5, laughing our asses off while also being in utter amazement. Two years ago. Time flies.

So western leaders care about what’s happening in Georgia 🇬🇪 but not Palestine 🇵🇸. I wonder why?

I know people are horrified by how many civilians are dying in Gaza.

The October attack killed like 1700 people more or less

Like 30000 people have died in Gaza. Numbers hard to be sure about

Y'all remember 911? Around 3000 died in the towers attack.

America bombed like 250000 people after that. It was on another level.

We didn't really have social media back then so people didn't organize protest as much.

Though I do remember several anti American protest around Europe. I was a kid then but I had a half German friend who told me about it when he visited Germany.