I've noticed there's a certain class of person, whose beliefs are optimized for social and professional convenience, who looks with pity and judgment on me and my family for holding in their view suboptimal ones.

They have meticulously configured their world views to fit in rather than to look for what’s true. They see as true what’s socially and professionally convenient and have no regard for whether it checks out in reality or for first principles. Or put differently, “reality” to them IS the social and professional reality. Beliefs are simply tools to navigate that optimally, and my tools are (and they are actually right about this) woefully, *tragically* suboptimal for that purpose.

They wonder — “what happened to him?” And they laugh about all the “conspiracy theories” and “right-wing tropes” for which I have fallen.

Because like them, I too am an educated laptop-class person, I know a lot of these people. And because they are in my social circles (mostly via my wife), I have largely tolerated them.

But I’m getting sick of it. I have no ill-will toward them, but I am tired of buying into the frame that what they are doing is somehow “normal”.

It’s not normal to deny reality, to believe lies, to believe the people who lied to your repeatedly, to cut yourself off from good information in order to maintain a narrative, to think emotionally rather than rationally, to use your reasoning to defend the indefensible beliefs you hold, to download talking points uncritically. It’s not just bizarre but I’m starting to think it’s actually pathological.

. . .

I watched some videos by Matthias Desmet on Mass Formation Psychosis during the “pandemic” and he points out that MFP isn’t what you might think, like people running naked through the streets during a manic episode. It’s more that they narrow the parameters of their worldviews so tightly as a mechanism for coping with the extreme anxiety, and they do not deviate from those narrow lanes.

And that’s what it really is — psychosis. All these “normal” people feeling sorry for you because you are not optimizing for fiat social and professional advancement are actually in a state of psychosis. You can humor them, assume they’re just pretending for a bit out of convenience, but after a while, you realize they’re in much deeper than that, and you’re not sure if they’re coming back.

. . .

I used to think I could persuade people via reasoning of my point of view and if they had a good counterargument I might learn something, evolve my thinking. But now I realize that really does not apply to a large swath of the population who are downloading their views from some outsourced sense-making machine to which they’ve pledged their fealty. There is no conversation to be had, no real exchange of ideas possible. And as such there is sadly no value in maintaining the relationship, either.

Dear friend,

it seems like you have decided to turn your back on those walled gardens and set sails to enter uncharted territory. A world without walls, an open world, a world of beautiful chaos. At least for today, I don't intend guiding you out of the safe harbour onto the open, endless sea. Today, my only intent is sharing a few thoughts, before you depart.

As a wise man on Madeira once said, it's not so much about having the right answers, it's about asking the right questions. While I'm not certain whether I have found the right questions myself by now, let me share the current set with you:

* What causes the discomfort that drives you out of the walled garden onto the open sea?

* Are you trying to transfer from one walled garden to the next one, where the difference being a slightly friendlier colour on the wall?

* What are you hoping to find on the open sea that walled gardens cannot provide?

* What are you willing to sacrifice for freedom (of speech)?

* What will you need to keep the ship afloat?

* How will you react when you find yourself in the middle of a storm?

I sincerely believe that it's worthwile taking a step back before departing to reflect on the big picture and the underlying paradigm shift between walled gardens and nostr. This is not about building competitors to broken systems, this is not about mimicking centralised services, this is not about repeating the same mistakes over and over.

This is about building a new world, an open world without walled gardens and data silos.

Onwards!

Yall weird in the hood we dont show off to the police on what we are using to hide from them

Yall like look guberment we are using this hello hi guberment look at us

😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆

Sometimes its not the destination, its the Nyms we meet along the way.

All your hero’s are retarded.

Look to your mirror and build from there.

Do you guys reckon bitcoin will crash soon?

Morality > Laws

I SIMPLY ASKED IF YOU HAD ANY ASSOCIATES WHO COULD INTRODUCE ME! SCREAMING!: WHY THE FUCK DID IT TAKE YOU THIS LONG TO ANSWER, AND PUBLICLY?!?

Trying to do a small market study.

If I was to release an offer that is OBVIOUSLY worth 1M sats, would you be interested in buying?

I am asking because I consider this to be a significant amount of money, and, even tho you might want and value this offer for more than 1M sats, you might not be able to afford it.

If I was to release an offer that change the Gane when it comes to Bitcoin fashion/merch, would you seriously consider spending 1M sats for it?

There's a lot of Indian hate currently on Twitter. I'm sure there's some part of the country that aren't great but seeing how cool their movies are, it can't be that bad everywhere.

Indians movies, as ridiculous as they might be, are actually really cool.

These guys knows how to make a badass character.

They can't and this is the reason why #Bitcoin will succeed.