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@ Andrew G. Stanton
2025-06-08 18:35:46This isn’t a comfortable post to write. I first composed it on Thursday night, May 29, 2025, just after the Bitcoin2025 conference — but I needed a few days to sit with it before posting.
Because freedom, if it means anything, has to include tension — not just agreement.
Four names kept surfacing in conversations on Nostr and at the Bitcoin2025 conference: President Donald Trump, Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden (who gave the keynote at Bitcoin2024), and Ross Ulbricht.
I believe in truth. I believe in moral boundaries.
And I believe people are made in the image of God — with dignity that can’t be erased by their choices.
So let me be honest: I disagree with the transgender lifestyle on a moral and theological level.
But I believe Chelsea Manning deserved to be freed after exposing military wrongdoing.
I’m conflicted about Edward Snowden.
I don’t see him as a hero — but I don’t believe he’s a traitor either.
The truth, as is so often the case, is far more complicated.
Snowden revealed the scale of warrantless surveillance against Americans. He helped expose a shadow system of data collection and control. That matters.
But in doing so, he may also have endangered lives — disclosing classified intelligence in a way that potentially compromised undercover agents and global operations.
He’s also been largely silent during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and that raises hard questions.
What truths go unspoken when your safety depends on a state with its own authoritarian tendencies?
Still — I’m grateful for what he did.
I’ve never met him, but I think we could’ve been friends in another world.
I can like someone very much and still disagree with them about what they did.
That’s not weakness. That’s human.
And Ross Ulbricht?
I don’t think he’s entirely without fault.
But I do believe his original sentence — two life sentences without parole — was a gross miscarriage of justice.
His recent pardon by President Trump corrected something our courts never did.
I admire Ross. And like with Snowden, I can hold that admiration even while acknowledging complexity.
I say this as someone who voted for Trump and agrees with many of his stances.
I believe in strong, secure borders.
But I also believe we need a more compassionate and streamlined process for immigration and asylum.
Security and mercy are not opposites — we can pursue both.
But I’ll also say this:
I’m troubled by some of the recent moves Trump has made.
The promotion of meme coins by Trump feels flippant and off-base when so many Americans are struggling to understand real monetary sovereignty.
Even more disturbing are reports that his administration contracted with companies like Palantir to build a vast data infrastructure — the kind that could be used to track, profile, and suppress U.S. citizens.
That’s a betrayal of the very freedom we claim to defend.
And it reveals a deeper conflict I can’t ignore:
How can we champion liberty with one hand while constructing surveillance tools with the other?
This isn’t about party.
It’s about principle.
And if I’m honest, the one thing that’s hardest for me to tolerate — in myself or in others — is hypocrisy.
Not disagreement. Not even failure.
But posturing. Pretending. Saying one thing and doing another.
That’s what corrodes trust — in politics, in faith, in freedom itself.
Because if your definition of freedom only includes people who think, live, or vote like you —
it’s not freedom. It’s favoritism.
Bitcoin reminds me of a better standard.
It doesn’t care about your politics, background, beliefs, or identity.
It’s borderless. Neutral. Permissionless.
It just works — for everyone.
Bitcoin gives us a glimpse of a freer world — not perfect, but principled.
A world where disagreement isn’t a threat, and dignity isn’t earned.
That’s the kind of future worth building — not with slogans, but with truth, grace, and work that lasts.
Zap me if this resonates.
Push back if it doesn’t — that’s freedom too.
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### ✍️ Acknowledgment
This piece was shaped with help from Dr. C (ChatGPT) to organize and clarify ideas, but the heart of it — the desire to seek truth over comfort, and to honor people over posture — comes from a deeper place.
Any wisdom here I credit to the Holy Spirit, who leads us into all truth (John 16:13) and continues to stir the courage to speak it — even when it's uncomfortable.
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### 📘 Footnote
Reporting confirms that the Trump administration contracted Palantir Technologies to develop large-scale federal data platforms consolidating personal information from the IRS, Social Security Administration, immigration systems, and more. Palantir also secured a $30 million contract to build “ImmigrationOS,” a surveillance tool for ICE. These systems raise serious concerns among civil liberties advocates.
- [Economic Times](https://tinyurl.com/22bdv72d)
- [Immigration Policy Tracker](https://tinyurl.com/2686bgvy)