I once told my bully he had the dick, brain and self-control of a toddler.
He beat the crap out of me, but it still brings a smile to my face.
Erik Dale
npub1xtdq...8zsj
I went to #bitcoin because I wished to live deliberately. Host of Bitcoin for Breakfast, #NorthernLightning, #TheBitcoinMeetup.
It's ok to be phobic against real dangers.
It's a long play for sure, but the Amish may yet inherit the earth.


Most women are XX and most men are XY, but some are Bitcoiners, making them SEXY π
I want to buy a derelict traditional European village and turn it into Bitcoinville. Are you in?
Growing up in the '90s I remember being told a few things about migration, which was just getting started in large numbers:
1. We only let in as many as we can assimilate and will stop if it gets out of hand.
2. We only let in people whose life is in real danger in their home countries.
3. They will need to adapt to our customs, not the other way around.
4. Second generation migrants are very well integrated, third generation are basically Lutheran liberals.
5. Migrants want to be like us and if they don't it's because we're still a bit racist.
This all seemed very reasonable. Voters bought it too, because they kept voting in favor of these policies. Only the truly far right warned that it wouldn't work out that way, but they were literal Nazis (that word used to mean something). Besides, the outcome was anyway future us' problem.
But in the '00s, the story slowly began to change. It was no longer about assimilation but multiculturalism, and how great it is. And frankly, this also sounded quite reasonable to me:
1. Diversity is great, just look at the food options.
2. It doesn't matter how or why they came, they are here now.
3. If you don't like their customs you're just being islamophobic.
4. Some migrants are integrating really well, just look at this anecdote.
5. Everyone should be proud of their own culture, except us (lest you're racist)
In hindsight, there was some apathy in this change. Less than a conscious shift in narrative, we collectively rationalized what had already come to pass. So while voters showed increased concern, they stuck with the parties and policies that got them there.
Then some really bad things started to happen. Murders over caricatures. A wave of terrorist attacks. A dramatic rise in rapes. Regular bombings in peaceful places. Racially motivated grooming. Exploding social expenditures. Gangs and stabbings.
But most concerning it became taboo to suggest that any of this had any connection to migrants. And they kept coming in ever larger numbers. Many seeking family reunification, bringing even more. Past us miscalculated.
By the '10s, this last fact brought a true racial element to the situation, as the change became so visible on the streets that the echoes of the promises from the '90s seemed to some as a cruel trick.
Old conspiracy theories about some great replacement were thus granted subtle credence, making the unreasonable reasonable.
Tragically, this trapped large numbers of migrants who worked hard to integrate and build a better life here in a web of general suspicion. Increasing suspicion harmed integration exacerbating issues increasing suspicion.
And continuing in the '20s, new migrants kept coming much faster than we could break this vicious cycle, fertilizing the seed of conflict we see budding this summer.
So what now? Pray the seed never blooms and go in peace.
There is no way to return to the past without a fundamental break with the core of our own culture - rule of law, basic liberties, human rights. And then what would it all be for. Besides, the past had plenty of forgotten flaws. Careful what you wish for.
But it also seems unlikely we will be able to move into the future without challenging many of the same values. People are being arrested as you read this for speaking their mind in the UK. Many more are afraid to speak their mind. Perhaps for the best.
Because in the end we will have to live together. And remember that the vast majority of us still do so in harmony. So let's not harbor any fantasies about the past, even if we don't know what to do about the future (other than make babies and stack sats).
To quote the Bible: "Don't be afraid". There must be love.
I don't have any better answers, nor did I write this to offer any. I just wanted to share how I've truly experienced these changes as part of the "native" European generation that grew up with them. I don't know any other world.
At best it's valuable context, at worst I hope some can relate.


Highlights from the Sovereign Individual, written in 1997, that feel highly prescient.


The printing press was such a powerful invention that it brought the Middle Ages to an end.
But as the Pope would have pointed out, it was also a polarizing and radicalizing machine that led directly to religious conflicts. The internet and social media play a similar role in our time.
Although the symbols and slogans have changed, the conflict is fundamentally between the same forces: Catholics fighting for a universal "church" and Protestants fighting for freedom of conscience.
The criticism is also the same on both sides: Catholics believe heresy can destroy society as they know it, while Protestants believe the "church" has become thoroughly corrupt, both theologically and administratively.
And they use the same tools: the free flow of radical information in a battle against the conservative inquisition.
I know which side of this timeless battle I stand on.
Do you? π€
When you bring your latest recruits to the local #Bitcoin meetup.


It's 1 am on the Paris metro and my oldest daughters are resting their heads on my lap after spending the day at #Paris2024β―β―β―
Lykke is gently sobbing, Lucy can't stop giggling.
- Why are you laughing, Lucy?
- Because it was the best day ever!
- Why are you crying, Lykke?
- Because I'm the luckiest girl alive.
We visited Montmartre and the Eiffel tower before walking the Seine and then Champs-ΓlysΓ©es to the Olympic Flame by Le Louvre.
Moments that turn every last sacrifice into a pure blessing.
I would die so happy and complete right now, if there weren't so many more memories yet to make.
Thank you, Lord π


If the free flow of information causes conflict it's because it's overdue.
Are you ready for decades to happen in the next few days?
Congratulations to everyone who was tired of $58k π
Stock market and DC gay bars are crashing while Lockheed Martin and DC pizza orders are pumping.
In unrelated news, the US just sent an aircraft carrier and a fighter jet squadron to the Middle East.
What could possibly be going on? π€


100% of people who think this is fair would vote for Kamala Harris. One. Hundred. Percent.


I must have been a Saint in a past life. How else do I explain all these blessings?
#Paris2024


I dreamed I saw Satoshi last night
Alive as you and me
Says I to Sat "You're ten years dead"
"I never died" says he
"I never died" says he
Cantillionaires attacked your work
They smeared it with their lies
Says he "But they could never kill
What they could not compromise
I never compromised"
"Though fashions change and critics sneer
The code that I have spun
Runs just as true tonight as then
The timechain carries on
The struggle carries on"
When songs of freedom ring out loud
From valleys and from hills
Where people stand up for the truth
Satoshi's with us still
Satoshi inspires us still
(Sing to melody: Joe Hill)


Cogito, ergo conspiracy theorist
They're busy getting rid of the 6th finger in the AI video proving Biden is still alive, aren't they?
If Biden dies now, they better have videos and photos of him actually signing that resignation, or we should assume foul play. Don't trust, verify.