Let us question all the establishments that are so ingrained in our lives that their existence is assumed to be normal, rather than parasitic.

Independent journalism to us means independent economics. And the core of that, why we think it’s possible, is the internet…and it’s the power of the web to raise money directly from people.”

Gore Vidal.

No doubt in anticipation of Bitcoin-Nostr symbiosis

😎 Sending this to my anti-Bitcoin friend who trades for Credit Suisse…

I was trying to appreciate your question and send you a useful link. I’ll try again.

https://realprogressives.org/podcast_episode/episode-214-surfing-the-wayback-machine-2017-with-fadhel-kaboub/

Here is the best answer to your very thoughtful question:

https://realprogressives.org/podcast_episode/episode-214-surfing-the-wayback-machine-2017-with-fadhel-kaboub/

The fact that they don’t seem to be engaging in thoughtful conversation doesn’t make it any less important. I find that most Bitcoin brothers are also more likely to disengage and criticize than consider environmental concerns as well.

Both parties, with compatible long-term goals, are caught in an ad hominem fallacy, wherein we criticize the other’s “ignorance” before really discussing our similar and consistent motivations.

I am a large scale miner AND an environmentalist. Those two things are not inconsistent. The reasoning that comes with dogmatic commitment to a single cause often blinds people to parallel causes.

And I do like the Satoshi Skull…

Greenpeace is doing exactly what it should: advocate for the protection of the environment.

Concerns about POW are real concerns. As Bitcoiners and as fellow brothers in the quest for a better world, we need to respond appropriately.

Making fun and minimizing environmental risk is bad for our case. The argument we need to make is a reasonable one, and we need to be open to conversations with environmentalists.

1. POW incentivizes miners to find ever-cheaper sources of energy

2. The cheapest sources of energy are untapped options far from populations: off-shore winds and waves, tidal straights, solar, etc.

3. Electricity can only be transported about 200 miles, so most end-users must engage nearby power sources. This often prevents renewable energy from being an option for them.

4. Bitcoin mining is the one industry that can bring itself to the energy, rather than the other way around.

At some point, all miners will be using renewable energy because it’s the most economical to source energy that others cannot use.

5. The Bitcoin ecosystem undermines one of the most environmentally wasteful institutions in the world: the US military

6. The Bitcoin ecosystem prevents the transfer of wealth from people that have to eat, move, and work for that wealth, to people who employ exploitative institutions to extract rents. If people have to work 20% more to fulfill their needs, that comes with a 20% greater environmental burden.

We cannot expect others to appreciate our reason for POW if we do not try to understand their concerns as well.

We all should be environmentalists, and we should all be advocates for decentralized money.

“The core of anarchist tradition is that power is always illegitimate, until it proves itself to be legitimate…

…It is the responsibility of those who exercise power to show that somehow it’s legitimate. It’s not the responsibility of anyone else to show that it’s illegitimate. It’s illegitimate by assumption…

Harry Kreisler interview with Noam Chomsky

Ah the Godfather of reason and human rights!

Urban Institute’s “Well-Being and Basic Needs Survey”

“130 million people in the U.S. admitted an inability to pay for basic needs like food, health care, housing, or utilities.”

“In National Security State budgets, military expenditures tend to exceed those for both education and public health, despite the absence in most cases of any external security threat and despite the huge deficits in education and health that would press for solution if human needs were given any serious weight.”

Edward Herman

The Real Terror Network. p76

This is not a progressive philosophy. This is emotional click-bait to distract the public from the real issues that keep them in a state of slavery. Real progressives and real conservatives debate real issues. The establishment uses inflammatory issues to focus people’s attention on the idiotic, so that they don’t think to question militarism, capital allocation, workers’ rights, monetary policy, austerity measures, etc.

Tax deferred accounts are not designed to help the people.

They’re designed to shift savings into the control of the finance industry.

Freedom of monetary exchange is a type of freedom of speech. Freedom to say a thing or send money is different than the freedom to not be persecuted for saying that thing or spending that money. In the US, you can say what you’d like and send BTC where you’d like. But if you’re speaking out or spending against powerful interests, you might end up in jail.

This is why non-KYC is valuable.

Perhaps Snowden can chime in

#[4]

#npub1sn0wdenkukak0d9dfczzeacvhkrgz92ak56egt7vdgzn8pv2wfqqhrjdv9

Control

Shit is really real out here

I said shit is really real out here

Just trying to get a deal out here

I'm screaming cream

Who fucking with the rap supreme?

Joey Bad, the Big Preem came to collect the green

I got a dollar and a dream, know what I mean?

And I gotta get my mama off the scene

And I gotta get my mama off the scene

Cash ruined everything around me

Cash ruined everything around me

Cash ruined everything around me

They say money is the root of all evil

I see money as the route of all people

Cause we all follow paper trails, paper trails

And everybody gotta pay their bills, pay their bills

And everybody gotta pay their bills, pay their bills

It's the dollar dollar bill, y'all

It's the dollar dollar bill, it's the dollar bill that kills, y'all

It's the dollar dollar bill, it's the dollar bill that kills, y'all

It's the dollar dollar bill, it's the dollar bill that kills, y'all

It's the dollar dollar bill, it's the dollar bill that kills, y'all

Before the money, there was love

But before the money, it was tough

Then came the money through a plug

It's a shame this ain't enough, yo

Paper Trail$

-Joey Bada$$, On traditional finance

Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.

— George Orwell, 1984

Antonopolous is an excellent way to introduce someone to Bitcoin 👍

Unfortunately, many folks don’t see the problems that Bitcoin solves. They don’t interact with banks frequently, don’t question their interest payments, have an entitled social position, don’t send remittances overseas, don’t worry about banks taking their money, and don’t see inflation… It’s much easier to Orange Pill folks who understand the problems inherent within the system. But AA is wonderful