Learning Latin

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For the past 2 years, I've been learning Latin. I’m reading, I’m memorizing, and I’m writing down noun declensions like a madman.

I'm 46 years old, way past the age when people normally learn new languages. I’m also not one of those polyglots that learns a new language every couple of years. Nor am I a masochist who enjoys reading slowly, so why am I doing it?

There are three reasons I am learning Latin.

Becoming a Respectable Intellectual

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The first reason is that I have a bit of intellectual snobbery that I’m trying to reclaim. Back in high school, I desperately wanted to learn Latin because it was the language of science. Being the math geek that I am, I wanted to learn something that would help me understand fancy Latin phrases like a priori and Carthago delenda est. Sure, I wouldn’t be any more popular, but at least I could pretend to have some superiority over the actual popular kids.

Sadly, my high school didn't offer Latin, and my dreams of being that annoying geek wielding Latin would have to be set aside. Instead, I had to settle for being that annoying geek wielding a chess board, a keyboard, and Magic the Gathering cards. Lacking the option of learning Latin, I spent 4 years learning Spanish and settled for learning pop culture phrases like gordito and la vida loca.

Frankly, I don’t remember much of it because the motivation to learn Spanish just wasn't there. I was a geek that dreamed of getting into MIT! I wanted to be a math professor or a computer programmer. Spanish just didn’t feel like something I needed as it didn’t give me any advantage in what I wanted to do. Latin, on the other hand, was something I could use! Everyone knows that the winner of any philosophical argument is the one using the cooler Latin phrase.

Absorbing Ancient Wisdom

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The second reason is because Latin is the language of the Romans. These were some badass people who came, saw and conquered (veni, vedi, vici). They were also Stoics, whose motto was memento mori, or remember that you will die. They had courage, enjoyed life and kicked ass. Who wouldn’t want to be like them? Yet learning to be like them is not so easy, especially since so many of their works are ancient and their mentality is so foreign to the modern mind. Learning Latin is a way into that mentality. To understand why, indulge me in a brief digression.

I'm a Korean-American immigrant and that means I know two languages… sort of. I immigrated when I was 8 years old, so my Korean is still that of a second grader. I’m pretty embarrassed to speak it, but I have some familiarity with a language quite different than English.

The weird thing is, I think very differently when I think in Korean. It’s especially true when I interact with older Korean people. I suddenly defer to elders, take care of anyone younger and politely but firmly fight for the restaurant check. None of this is normal when I’m thinking in English. Language shapes mentality.

Latin has been the language of intellectual culture for the better part of the last 2000 years. Some of the greatest thinkers thought in Latin. Translated works are notorious for their awkward phrasing. Historical works are also pretty hard to read because they’re written with unfamiliar words. Trying to understand a historical translated work is like trying to understand that guy on Zoom who’s driving through a tunnel. How am I supposed to be a badass Stoic if their words come through garbled?

An Alternative to Pop Culture

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The third reason that I want to learn Latin is because I’m tired of pop culture. Yea, yea, it’s such a hipster thing to say, but hear me out. Pop culture is getting really preachy. Every time I watch a movie or listen to a song, I feel like a racist, homophobic, misogynist pig.

Pop culture has a lot of assumptions baked into it about what the right thing to think is, and to be quite frank, I don’t agree with all of it. I want art that’s more aligned with my values. I’m a Christian, so you may think that I listen to contemporary Christian music or watch Christian movies. I don’t, because they (mostly) suck. Okay, that’s harsh and not very charitable of me, but I just don’t enjoy them the way someone into electronic dance music enjoys a rave. Trying to find art to consume in today’s culture is mulgere hircum or milking a male goat.

Latin gives me access to classics that have withstood the test of time. Most pop stuff will not be popular in 5 years, let alone 50. With Latin, I can access books, music, and art that are hundreds of years old. There’s timeless wisdom in something that’s managed to last that long. Latin is a gateway to another culture, one whose values more closely align with mine and I can bathe in its ancient riches like Scrooge McDuck.

At least that’s the hope. And that makes memorizing noun declensions worthwhile.

Torbrowser is a Firefox build. Alby supports Firefox. AFAIK you don't need an email for a getalby wallet but I might be wrong about that. Another option is to use a custodial lnbits like legend.lnbits.com and install the lndhub plugin and point your bluewallet at it.

I haven't had good experiences with breeze and I'd rather self custody.

You can still use bluewallet, just add a lightning wallet with a different lndhub like lnbits, gatalby, or your personal hosted lightning node

Stacker.news

You can create an account with lnauth, no need for email

Trying to post an image with iris...

Challenge: Create an account with no email, phone number, address or any other identifying information somewhere and buy something also without giving any of this info.

The only two I know of are Nostr and Mullvad.

Consider,

Twitter could've implemented lightning tips, or honestly payments of literally any kind YEARS ago. But they didn't. Why?

#Nostr on the other hand has accomplished this in no time, and everyone who has experienced it immediately feels what a big deal this is... but why exactly?

Numerous features implemented in Nostr could've been on Twitter all this time.

• Do you think it's because they didn't want to?

• Was it too technically difficult, even though Nostriches pulled it off in a matter of days or weeks?

Of course not, it was POLITICALLY infeasible. Remember how Facebook spent *years* and bookoos of capital trying to create a *whole new currency* just to enable it because there was no chance of doing it with dollars? They were even dragged before Congress to explain why they would do such a thing as enable payments on social media! How dare they! It was easily squashed despite the fact that the list of those backing it was essentially a Who's Who of Silicon Valley fintech.

And what did the Twitter Files teach us? That not only would the suffocating regulatory environment make tips and payments on social media virtually impossible, but the political leviathan refused to even allow them to freely TWEET to their followers! Intelligence agencies were both *funding* social censorship & had direct communication channels to shut down people's accounts, shadow ban, & ensure that "unapproved" opinions simply can't travel through the network.

Like @#[0] said, "this has the power to monetize dissent." Consider the insane power of sharing an "unapproved" opinion to millions of people and being directly rewarded with 1000s, maybe 10s of thousands of private, instant payments while the post has unfiltered, free flow to every last user in the network.

No more "donation services" or "patreons" that take 10% and will preemptively shut down anything remotely against the establishment. No more Go fund Me's fuck stealing millions going to protestors to donate to a "charity of their choice." They are all immediately redundant & pointless.

Instead we are walking into a world with unfiltered, free flowing information and unfiltered free flowing money.

The simple fact is that no large, centralized social platform of any kind CAN do what Nostr does so easily. Because they have a gun to their head & they know it.

This is the 10x value add that is going to wake people up, and it's going to start with ALL the dissenters. We need to find all of them and bring them here.

The simple ability to have direct access to millions of followers, and be able receive payments and tips from them directly, unfiltered, untaxed, with no middle man & no authority whatever involved...

They are afraid as FUCK of that power. And they absolutely should be. Think of what a staggering problem the mere existence of someone like Joe Rogan has presented in the past couple of years. Now consider they attacked him through his network, his advertisers, his payment processors, and a huge targeted propaganda campaign (and fucking LOST despite, 🤣). Now think about the 1000s of others we watched get attacked, banned, deplatformed, canceled, etc...

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Now imagine the past 3 years done over again, except without any of that being possible anymore...

Guys, we are right in the fucking middle of the revolution. It's right now.

⚡⚡🔥🔥