Glad to see some guys aren't hiding it, #bitcoinasia

Today I had the chance to steal about 150 dollars from an 18-year-old girl named Zahraa. Scot-free, would have gotten away with it easy-peasy; nobody would have known. Somebody had left their purse at a buss stop. --- I picked it up and obviously looked around. Saw nobody running, nobody in obvious search for a lost object. I opened the purse and saw that there was a bunch of stray cash and a wallet with some bank cards and ID. I took the name and quickly started googling. From public records (yes, the Nordics are insane about this... All in the open) I could find somebody with her name, matching the age of the driver's license I held in my hand, registered in my city. (Google for phone number or her Facebook account unfortunately failed.) Alrighty, what do I do now? I had a bus to catch myself, ultimately a plane, so wasn't exactly able to run across town and deliver a purse. (In hindsight, I DID have enough time... and push comes to shove, I probably would have made a detour to deliver a purse to someone.) As if on cue, a police car drove by and I flagged them down. I explained what I found and that I hadn't located a phone number for Zahraa; they took the purse and thanked me, and I have fairly high confidence that Zahraa will eventually get her purse, cards, and cash back (Once they call her, or she calls them). I'm not exactly out here bragging about moral honesty and integrity, but offering the surprise (and pride!) over my no-questions-asked reaction: it barely even occurred to me to take the cash. If I had to guess, I probably wouldn't have done this in America, where cops might as well just take the cash and pretend it was their coffee money all along. Plus, social cohesion is lower in that country, trust in strangers much less so than what I'm used to (and, I might add, any sane human ought to aim for). There, my morals might have been more flexy, and I would have taken the cash before ditching the purse somewhere: _someone else's problem_. But here, in my town? In my lands? From an 18-year-old girl who had just gotten her driver's license a few months before, and for whom $150 is a decent sum. _uh-hu_, not happening. I suppose, if I had know the cash was obtained through illegal means, or it was a larger sum — but not _too_ large... That's terrifying recipe for getting in trouble! — or the owner was a schmuck or some other circumstance surrounding the event, I again might have taken the cash. -- Enlightenment scholars and moral philosophers since Adam Smith have spoken about an inner voice, a compass, the honest morality of the impartial spectator — the chest, basically. It's nice to see that when put to the test, mine was there; my job, now saddled with someone's lost purse, was to ensure that it made its way back to its owner. NOT to (marginally) enrich me. Today I had the chance to get myself a small payday by making the world worse. I would have had to live with that, knowing what I had done. It was cool to see that at no point did I contemplate or hesitate: her purse and money are going back to her, hands down. Bring goodness into the world, friends. Live well.

Today I attended a classical liberal social event at a Stockholm research think-tank where I interned over seven(!) years ago. It was lovely to be back, great to say hi to a few faces I recognized from my pre-Bitcoin days (at least publicly). They're all academically inclined, most who work there are almost entirely on a government payroll ("controlled opposition"?) — as civil servants, as experts for various gov bureaucratic offices, or as professors at public universities. They all favor free markets — but, let's be honest: in name only and in ethereal, over-two-beers hypothesizing, not in any sort of practice. They're about small, incremental, microscopic, and insignificant changes ("life is better if we contribute one sentence to the latest parliamentary budget proposal that reduces taxes by 0.1%, right??"). The clash to my "burn-it-all-down" approach is palpable. Still, small social victories: - Recommended one guy to check out Nostr, "social media without ads or algos, where people just send you small amounts of bitcoin for posts." - Talked about the pre-history of Bitcoin with two dudes, and said for them to read @Aaron van Wirdum 's book when one of them asked what to look at to learn more. - had a 45 minute friendly convo with conservative dude about the virtue of discretionary monetary policy. He seemed interested in bitcoin, and genuinely surprised that somebody could be in it for other reasons than GREEN CANDLES-NUMBER-GO-UP. He understands that the Swedish Riksbank hasn't done a good job printing money, and that it's "unbelievable that the krona has survived." Kicker? He thinks Sweden should join the eurozone (hashtag, massive faceplant...). - Discussed Swedish housing market debacle with someone who researches intergenerational inequality. He was politely interested in bitcoin, wonder how I pay my bills. - Gave away a few Print magazines to the CEO of the think tank — admittedly, a lady I know since before Bitcoin, but still. Now all of their interns and staff will have a chance to look at the highest quality writing in the Bitcoin space. At dinner, I asked three masters students who had just finished their summer research internship about their work and their interests. We laughed, we teased, and had fun; we were being human. And that's the most important bit for orange- (and purple-) pilling: just be a normal, friendly, engaging dude. No shilling, no technobabbling, no wacky crazies. Just good vibes. This is how we win.

Writing about Nostr for @Bitcoin Magazine today, featuring a NICE, PUNCHY interview with Mr. @Derek Ross himself! Once purple, _always_ purple!

Bitcoin Magazine

Once You Go Purple, You Never Go Back: Are You Even A Bitcoiner If You're Not On Nostr?

Bitcoiners who aren't on Nostr are missing the point. The purple pill of Nostr is inseparable from Bitcoin's orange pill. In this sit-dow...

"Dark, like the future" -- worn ironically to produce leftist tears. ...Because the future is bright, orange, free, and wonderful. Like the midday sun. Go touch some grass, folks.

"Most people dismiss what is being presented here as 'conspiracy' because they are too preoccupied with 'life' or too afraid to face the idea that they may be pawns in someone else's reality" (98) There are sections in _Beyond Money_ where @Daniella ✨ woke up and chose violence. Ruthless... Beautiful "politicians, priests, and entrepreneurs have led us to believe we need their guidance in order to find happiness, and peace, and to experience the depths of our humanity" (97) Reads like a rebellious manifesto, wrapped in an Alan Watts lecture.

100% Just invert the standard advice given from gov institutions and health establishments.

Look what I got in the mail today!! @Daniella ✨

Find somebody who looks at you the way I look at local, award-winning smoked ham <3

_hurraaah, diese Welt geht runter_ <3

Touch grass and sunsets.

Ouw, such dreamy beauty<3

OK, so the MSMs _actually_ believe the enriched-uranium story...?

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“It wouldn’t surprise me if, in 20 years, when you take an economics course, there will be a discussion about the 60-year experiment from 1970 to 2030 on fiat currencies, and how it failed.” -- Randy Smallwood, chief executive of Wheaton Precious Metals Tweetable af, from the Financial Times

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Timestamp: 1:12 a.m. Elevation: 680 m (2,231 ft) Latitude: 66.18° Happy midsummer's eve, everyone