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@ kepford
2025-02-11 17:53:51
Please don't take offense to this if you believe in the moral rightness of the existence of the modern state. I don't mean it as a slur, its just the best way to describe the opposite of an anarchist or voluntarist, people that believe in a voluntary society without an artificial monopoly on the use of violence.
I think the fact that many bitcoiners value liberty to some degree and often tend to be libertarian in their views, it is easy to assume we are all opposed to the state. My time in bitcoin circles has shown that to be false. Sure there is a _much_ higher proportion of anti-state people in bitcoin than in the normal population, but we are not the majority. That's the sense I get at least.
Bitcoin's lure is far more broad than liberty and self sovereignty. The number of people that value these things for others is incredibly small. They exist but its a tiny number. Most people are NPCs. Some are just asleep. Others are on journeys of discovery and maybe they can be reached.
Since Trump won the election in the US I have noticed many articles trying to throw cold water on the people happy about his win and the changes he's been making over the past few weeks. I think a big mistake many are making is assuming these people have been seduced by Trump. Maybe that's true but I don't think most of these people were opposed to the state before Trump. Trump is just a different animal. A bull in a china shop doing some things many people have wanted for decades. He's not ideological, moral, or principled.
Like the left these bitcoiners just want their way. They want big daddy government to make the world in the way they want it to be. Its a journey. I wasn't born with all the ideas I now hold. I don't think its persuasive or smart to assume your fellow bitcoiners are like you in their views on the state. They probably are much closer to traditional conservatives than anarchists.
With all that said, I think far too few people seek to find common ground with others. I may not seem to value this on SN but let me assure you that in person I very much seek common ground with those around me.
Some of you need to hear this. We will never have a society where everyone agrees on anywhere near to everything. Sure, some things like murder are pretty agreed upon but I bet you are thinking of examples of disagreements on how to handle it.
So keep that in mind. Bitcoin isn't going to turn everyone into a mirror image of your beliefs. Stay humble. We need the people around us. We don't need millions of clones.
originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/882903