Oddbean new post about | logout
 When did you first begin to question fiat money? For me, it started when someone gave me this dollar bill over 20 years ago. https://nostr.build/i/2950.jpg 
 This a prime example of needing the zoom option on a pic! Heard there is a PR already submitted :) 
 Does this help?
https://nostr.build/i/2964.jpeg
 
 Yes! Someone was lit giving you that 20 years ago 
 Oddly enough it was the kottonmouth kings I’d say that was over 20 years ago 
 That's not a dollar, that's an nft. 
 It’s still legal tender, but that’s the last dollar I’ll ever hold. 
 When we quit Soviet Union and first faced inflation I knew it was a scam. I was still young and unexperienced, but this one was obvious. I thought it was obvious to everyone, and I also thought there was no escaping it, and also naively thought that the history books were true. That history made me think that despite everything, including inflation, life is better now than before. And this is what tricked me into not worrying about it, not even talking to anyone about it. I was just happy that now we were less beaten and less robbed than before. I assumed everyone thought the same thing. So I always knew fiat was rubbish, just did not think there was any escaping it. Still I am not certain that bitcoin will do it, but sure I am giving it a chance. 
 The reason I am cautious about bitcoin, is that people seem to think that bitcoin is the ultimate vehicle of eternal goodness. But it is not. It is just a step. Unless we undo all wrongdoing not just to humans, all lies all unnatural selfishness, we are just trying to push around and clean the water in the pool while continuing to pee in it.
The Matrix is so everywhere in every single detail, that I cannot even begin to list them. Let's take something super simple: if we want to really start moving in the right direction, there must be no contradictions in our logic. I mean zero contradictions. The "wisest" people I met tell me that it is not OK to trick Africans into living poorly while producing essential stuff like minerals and coffee for the westerners. OK. But the same people think it is perfectly fine to limit free life of animals in meat farms. Most even think that humans are not animals. This lack of consistency in logic produces the only thought in my head: everyone is totally fucked up, evil and stupid. So fuck them, and africans, and everyone. I do not care who I will abuse, because anyway everything is fucked up, and there is no hope.
So, sorry for exagerating, but we have to try more.
P.s. don't think that I am against eating meat or fish or anything. I am all for it. But it must live free and be hunted. Like it is in the rest of nature. It is that simple.
There is only one thing humans should do differently from the rest of fauna: multiplication. Because it is the most powerful species, humans must restrain themselves to fit spaciously into comfortable climates. Unless we want our population to be regulated by the forces of nature. Which has been partially happening until now, and which we know is not gracious. 
 Just think about how fucked up this is. Very simple. Everyday life. Nobody even gives it a thought:
A kind loving farmer takes care of his animals nicely, almost sacrificing all his life for them. Perhaps giving away his own wellbeing for a better food and conditions for his animals
 Strokes them everyday and all that. Makes them his friends. They certainly think he is their friend, they trust him blindly, they think he  is their family, they think there no better life anywhere else. They have no idea how happier they would be in freedom. And then he turns around and kills his friends and eats them. That is not how you should treat your friends. If you want to eat something, you hunt it. You do not trick it into friendship and then betray it by eating it.
I do not look down on any individual farmers. They are tricked into this kind of living like their animals are tricked into trusting them. But this is the level of how things are messed up at details everybody takes for granted.
We must unlearn EVERYTHING, rethink EVERYTHING, be honest, and fix EVERYTHING.
Albeit, in a calm, slow and nice manner. No waves too big. No rushing. No ignoring individuals, no treating everyone the same way. No more bullshit like plandemics or such! 
 And it pisses me off, when nobody bothers reading and reacting to inconvenient truths. Bitcoin maxi is not a holy cow. Don't stop there. That is not enough. Think more, do more, discuss more. 
Sure bitcoin is a priority now. But in every war the next battle is a priority. And yet, if you do not convince me as a soldier that the war is worth fighting, I will say screw your next battle, too. And I need convincing. Every day over and over again. Sorry, that is life. And hunting is part of life, too. Farming is not. Stroking the ones you are going to eat is not, either. 
 ‘Number go up’ hits different at grocery stores than how we usually mean it.

I’m learnt now 🤙🏽 
 I was a kid and I was like, money has value because we believe it does, so people will give you things for it. Sooo I can create my own money and it'll have its own dynamics and whoever believes it has value can use it!

And so I created my own currency based on the cartoon Ed, Edd n' Eddy that had its own supply dynamics and serial numbers, and I printed it out. There was a total supply of something like 3 Eds. And I gave two to myself and one into circulation. At that moment I realized that fiat doesn't have anything backing it but empty promises, and that declaring something as legal tender against all else is purely arbitrary and only makes it worse. I was 9 years old. 
 The only thing that stopped me from printing more to give to myself was the fact that I didn't know how to write a program to increment the serial number. I did it by hand on Microsoft Paint, so it was work-intensive. Because it was work-intensive to make more, my money was actually **more** sound than the U.S. dollar. 
 I love this story. 
 Being assigned “What Has Government Done to Our Money” by Murray Rothbard in Econ 101. 
 there was no one moment for me, I just know that even when I was a child I subconsciously knew things didn't add up. everything became clear when I started looking into bitcoin a few months ago 
 10 years old. Mexico took a zero off and reprinted the money. The lunch lady didn't take the old coins or bills. What a sham. 
 69'r fam(u get what u give) has been tracking 4 i don't remember how long/history repeats/cycles 
 t-u fam! 
 2020 when they gave us checks and told us to stay home.  Made me question a whole lot 
 When I went to Canada for the first time in junior high and their dollar was different than the U.S.  I never understood why other countries had currencies worth different amounts. 
 Can I steal this? 🧡 
 When I did the math 
 Love how you made it work for you. 
 Someone gave me a book recommendation in 2002. The Creature From Jekyll Island by G. Edward Griffin. That was the entrance to the rabbit hole. And I haven’t seen the light of day since. Just the orange glow, way down the hole lighting my way, that I finally reached in 2020. 
₿ 
 About 2015ish, when I found my long term bank had added PPI to loans without my consent. 
 My high school economics teacher taught us about fractional reserve banking --Over 20 years ago. 
 You were fortunate.