People often assume that whoever their god is, that it is standing with them specifically. In the US, they often separate this view along party lines.

Conservatives to some extent imagine Jesus standing with them on the border with a rifle protecting Christendom against anarchy. Even if many of those immigrants are ::checks notes:: also Christians. If a "woke" bishop calls for compassion on immigrants and is not a fan of the twice-divorced President who can't name his favorite bible chapter and forgot to put his hand on the bible when being sworn in, she's somehow the baddie rather than him, even among Christians.

Progressives to some extent imagine Jesus walking around in Gaza or Haiti or Sudan attending to the least advantaged among us. He shuns the empire and tends to them. And yet, while Jesus called for pacifism and was a rhetorical saint among chill speakers, many of them find a way to mentally turn extremists into heroes. Anything the underdog society does against the dominant society is justified. Even if it's violent toward civilians. In our media rebels are cool, but in reality they often like to kill the gays or the civilians, so it gets awkward pretty fast rather than being like the cool Star Wars rebels vs the Empire.

I find myself in a weird camp that almost nobody is onboard with.

I'm like, "Yes, we actually need to secure our borders. We need to be more scrutinizing for our society's sake. We need slower, higher-end immigration. And we actually need to enforce the rule of law for theft on the streets."

But also,

"No, I don't think Jesus of Nazareth as depicted in text would be onboard with this border view. He'd view us like Rome. Let's not re-imagine him as onboard with this. We're rooting for ourselves; he'd root for the underdogs."

I'm too woke for the conservatives and too based for the progressives.

The US was involved with multiple coups in Latin America. We ran the reserve currency and tried to bend them to our will with their dollar-denominated debt 40 years ago by spiking the value of that debt. Some of them went into retarded socialism and rekt themselves throughout that time period too; it's not all our fault. But it's some of our fault.

And then we militarily entered the Middle East. We made deals with them, funded them against the Soviets, and then turned against them. We've invaded them at like a 100:1 ratio vs them invading us with one major incidence (9/11). And as much as I am a fan of Jews as a people (as someone who grew up in Northeastern USA where Jews are relatively dense, I'd happily have them settle all around here), Israel is a state is colonial; our western powers displaced Gazans to make it and have been fighting that reality ever since.

We're Rome. And like Rome, we think we are justified. And along those lines, we're probably partially right, and probably partially wrong.

When you take a view, imagine every possible view opposing it.

And as the US dominates as neo-Rome, I think we will realize how distant we are from Jesus the hippie.

Time is a flat circle, but you have the power to break free.

I think you're ignoring the impact such an action would have on the stability of the Bitcoin market, and subsequently the price of Bitcoin. It would send the network into absolute chaos which would result in plummeting market prices as confidence dramatically dropped. The people with the most likely ability to do this are also the people who have the biggest interest in maintaining the stability of the blockchain, and the Bitcoin market.

Dude. 41% and rising?

Bitcoiners from 2015 would have resolved this by now.

In fact, you don't even need to add the lightning address.

Your npub can be used as a taproot address. So you are set up for self-custody and anyone can send you even if you don't want it 😎

On Instagram, you are eligible to monetize your account once you reach 10K followers and meet some other eligibility requirements.

On nostr you are eligible as soon as you add a lightning address and start posting.

The write access happens when you refuse to provide goods or services for coins your node disagrees with.

they really don't understand Bitcoin

"He who refuses to rule is liable to be ruled by one who is worse than himself."

Now that nations are adopting btc as a treasury asset, they are incentivized to protect it via mining. Maybe it's not critical for mining fees to rise to compensate for subsidy reduction. People with massive holdings will just pay to mine to keep the difficulty from going too low

I had lot of enthusiasm in 2017 when price went up.

I don't feel it anymore and think bitcoin is dead if it remains a speculated asset being traded by trusted third parties.

I don't know. I feel very emotional about it because I can't see something being captured by governments I used for payments on darknet.

It has become so weird that the US Right supports Israel’s war on Palestine while the US Left supports Ukraine’s defense against Russia.

Political sides dig in. The wars become associated with culture.

There is so little voice today from those who oppose aggression. Those who support Jews but are not onboard with Israel’s actions against Palestinians. Those who support Ukrainian independence but don’t want to commit unlimited troops for border regions that literally speak Russian amid a complicated history.

More people die in Sudan and Cambodia than Israel/Palestine, but we are all focused on Israel/Palestine because it’s a conflict of cultures. Religious cultures but also western imperialism vs the global south. The focus of it all. That occupies our attention even as bigger massacres occur elsewhere that aren’t directly across these massive fault lines.

I refuse to engage in attention whoring. I support peace in most instances globally, other than total war against someone’s existence where it becomes right to fight back. People have a right to self-defense. And those who have power over others have a responsibility to hold back on using it fully.

Keep in mind that at any moment, tons of violence is occurring globally. The media directs you to a subset of it that is geographically, economically, or culturally relevant for their purposes. You ignore or are unaware of the rest, and get emotional about what is fed to you. That’s how most people act, anyway.

shout-out to all price-agnostic bitcoiners

Use promo code GFY to get 25% more peace of mind

Man acts purposefully, to improve his situation. He doesn't need to be rewarded with a privilege. He fucks around and finds out, and copies other good ideas and behevior automatically. He does it alone and together with others. One man's creativity inspires others. When it happens it feels like magic. Very little gives a dopamin rush like understanding something new. And when to people's ideas melt and turn into a third idea, the magic and dopamin is almost overwhelming. This is why dopamin often is referred to as "the learning hormone."

IP, on the other hand, is nothing but government fiat.

It's sold with a promise that a nothingness consisting of government fiat can produce something we call material wealth.

Government doesn't even attempt to prove its case.

And it rarely ever talks about the costs of blocking free dissemination of ideas.

Only when government profits from talking about it, as the US govt did in the 19th century, they mention it.

If you think otherwise, prove me wrong.

Show me how government fiat creates something from nothing, and explain to me why the cost of fiat is less than the profit.

And show me how IP distributes wealth fairly.

If you don't make any attempt to do this, we're finished talking about IP.

Gaslighting.

It has never been proven, empirically or logically, that IP is net beneficial for society.

Actually, logics dictate that it's very harmful.