I don't want revolution, I want evolution. It doesn't matter which flag is flying if we're still repeating the same patterns of control.

Wednesday another @San Juan Bit Devs We'll be discussing... - Local news - Bitcoin 2025 Review - Decentralized Identity continued... - And then we'll be joined by Jesse from Amboss to discuss the state of the Lightning Network!

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Today in Bitcoin is freedom tech, have you heard of Roya Mahboob? She’s an Afghan tech CEO who very early on realized the freedom potential of Bitcoin. She taught women in Afghanistan about Bitcoin, helping a few to escape the Taliban. And this is why I work with this tech. This is so much cooler than NgU.

Bitcoin Magazine

Finding Financial Freedom In Afghanistan

A pioneering female CEO has been promoting Bitcoin in Afghanistan since 2013 and sees it needed in her home country now more than ever.

If you just say things boldly and frequently it will become normal and thus true… right? 🤔😜 The perception of Bitcoin as just a crypto bro investment is BS. So we’ll change that... with pretty pictures! Bitcoin is cypherpunk 😎 Bitcoin is for everyone 🤝 Bitcoin is freedom tech 🕊️

We all crave attention and admiration from others. That’s just part of being human. But it’s important not to seek the adoration of strangers, instead, seek the respect of those you respect.

Using mockery as a means of defense always brings backlash. You may momentarily silence people, but in the long run you are just recruiting for the opposition. Mockery may feel like strength, but it is strategically weak.

There’s a false dichotomy that says you have to chose between being “toxic” or being taken advantage of. You don’t. You can call out scams and bad behavior without needing to mock people into conformity.

I want Bitcoin events to be spaces for free thinkers again. Not purity tests. Not toxicity. Not groupthink. Just curious people debating ideas in good faith like the early days, before being nasty became a lauded value. I’ve been chatting with old friends about the meetups back in the day, and that’s what I miss. Prior to the “maxis” it wasn’t that social or political ideas were off-limits, it was that the space felt open. Curious. Willing to explore disagreement without hostility. Somewhere along the way, that shifted. As maximalism moved in, being “toxic”, engaging in mockery, etc. became something to celebrate. Any deviation from complete Bitcoin worship and praise of NgU was ridiculed. The culture narrowed. It became closed-minded. And so now, with all the events I’m a part of, I will attempt to undo that. I want to help rebuild a vibe that’s open, non-toxic, and genuinely welcoming to thoughtful disagreement. Bitcoin deserves better less toxic spaces free of group think.

I've got a lot of sympathy for Trump supporters. I was never a supporter of his, but I get it. I imagine if I was as disgusted as I am with the American far left and also had yet to lose my faith in politics.... I also might have wound up as a Trump supporter. The extreme wokism, the covid vaccine mandates, all sorts of insanity that can leave you desperate for any kind of shake up. And that's what a vote for Trump has been. He's the button to push to say 'fuck this shit!' Trump was a human Molotov cocktail 🧨 And so here we are. But now, in an undeniable fashion, his true colors have emerged. He was supposed to drain the swap but turns out he was a part of it the whole time. That's a devastating betrayal. That's rough. I'm sorry.

Pondering the early Bitcoin meetups, I have a question for anyone who was around then, ~2015-2018. My experience of Bitcoin and Crypto meetups now is dramatically different than in the past in very specific ways, and I’m not sure if the events changed or if I did. Did we always talk so much about social issues? Now when I go to Bitcoin events (that are not my own) I try to discuss tech, but always wind up in discussions of social issues. I am particularly sensitive to this at the moment as in the past ~5 years I’ve been bombarded by people literally following me around trying to give me their asinine gender studies treatise 🤦🏻‍♀️ At the past few events I’ve been to I didn’t get too many insane lectures on why I should go home and have more babies etc, but it was just uncomfortable for me as I wanted to discuss tech and I was seemingly the only one who did. Was it always like this and I was just less sensitive to it back in the day? Did we discuss a lot of social issues at BOB meetups? Or has it changed?

Sexual attraction and respect should go together. Healthy people are attracted to people they respect, and they respect people they are attracted to.

The gender wars are over. Men need women. Women need men. Anything that harms half of humanity degrades all of humanity. That bullshit is over. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

It’s embarrassing when someone you used to have a close association with has gone off the rails or fallen into an ugly ideology. ...something I’ve been experiencing a lot of in the past few years. With some people I can look back and see that the signs were there, but then there are others who I was suspicious of years ago who I now have more respect for than ever. You just don’t know which direction people will go in. People change, sometimes for the better and sometime for worse, and you can’t control that. All you can do is walk away when it becomes necessary.