Today's post is Cantwell's new Sales Pitch for Bitcoin. It's a handy resource for people who are already "Bitcoin evangelists" and it's a good starting place for those that have no idea what Bitcoin is about or what it's good for.
I promise, after posting Cantwell two times in as many days, I'm going to go easy on Cantwell posts for a while (Hey, I kept my promise concerning Tom Woods, right?). Despite what leftist "libertarians" will tell you, he actually walks the walk. Supporting the Bitcoin economy is a big part of walking the walk (Bitcoin use is not required, but avoiding state fiat is. Bitcoin is one such option for doing so.) Between making compelling sales pitches to "the man on the street", convincing business owners to accept bitcoin, and using Bitcoin at every opportunity to procure his livelihood, Cantwell is growing the strength of the Bitcoin (and cryptocurrency at large) network, driving up the value of the currency itself, and letting New Hampshire natives into liberty through the back door.
Today's post is Cantwell's new Sales Pitch for Bitcoin. It's a handy resource for people who are already "Bitcoin evangelists" and it's a good starting place for those that have no idea what Bitcoin is about or what it's good for.
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Related to my post concerning conspiracy theories, I have a short list of conspiracies that were merely theorized about at one time, but later became a matter of historical fact. This list of 10 Conspiracy Theories that turned out to be True is not an attempt to make you join the 9/11 truth movement or to buy some expensive magnets to protect you from lizard jews, but it is an opportunity to falsify a common claim that conspiracy theories are never true or will never be verified. Several of these conspiracies would never have come to light, had conspiracy theorists not investigated them.
The questions raised in my blog post are still very important, but this list can add depth to the discussion presented.
As I've said before, Cantwell, with rare exception, tends to say exactly what I'm thinking in more or less the way I'm thinking it. He has an incredibly rational, well-read, and solidly grounded approach and interpretation of facts. I'm not saying this because I agree with him, I'm saying it because he's managed to make me critically assess my beliefs and has led to me changing my position on a handful of things. He's got a grasp of economics and the human condition that rivals and even surpasses that of Andreas M Antonopoulos.
He doesn't always couch his arguments in the most dispassionate or compassionate manner, but that's not his rhetorical style. What he does is effective, and that's why those unable to measure up to his standards of integrity and knowledgeability are apt to attempting to silence and exile him. It is ironic that the anarchist, atheist, asshole, with a criminal record from New York City is, quite literally, the conscience of "the liberty movement".
He recently posted what has rapidly become his most popular piece of work by a tremendous margin. It was a response to the SCotUS' ruling mandating religious support of gay marriage licenses. Unlike many people who simply look at such issues as either, "Yay! Gays!" or "Boo! Gays!" Cantwell and I have an identical and less-conventional position on such issues: tell the state to mind it's own goddamned business.
As is the case with any other economic or human social issue, government involvement makes everything worse rather than better. The state has absolutely no reason, moral or otherwise to concern itself with the voluntary interactions of human beings, nor they types of agreements (or contracts, for those who believe in contracts) that humans make between themselves. The Church has no reason to try to make sinners the enemy of the state and use violence to try to force them to behave morally, as it will only increase opposition to the Church, and justly so. When did Christ ever take a sword to the adulterer? In the same way, the state cannot use violence to force the Church to acknowledge the state's claim to redefine an institution as old as the human race in order to garner political support. Inserting itself into the voluntary interactions of humans: forcing cake shops to serve customers, punishing churches that will not abandon their sacramental duties, and creating any number of perverse economic incentives will not make discrimination go away, it will justify and magnify it. Just as people are incentivized to kill endangered species that come to roost on private property, they are incentivized to make protected classes of humans go away when they come to roost. Today's resource suggestion is a blog post on ZomiaOfflineGames.com. You may recognize the site from the resource suggestion on HYPERCRONIUS; the man who made that game is a huge content producer, daily content on one of his handful of blogs, weekly or twice-weekly podcasts, video games, etc. All of his material is worth the time and effort; even when he is wrong, he is such in an intelligent and informative way. Today's resource suggestion is about the "quantified self" and the rise of wearables marketed as self-quantifiers and the inherent dangers and cultural tyrannies that can result from their use.
Wearables can kill. It's short and to the point, and gives one a good taste of what to expect from the podcast or other blog posts. Today's resource is an interesting article which, to my non-anarchist but freedom-minded friends, may be food for thought. All this provides me is a clear-cut example regarding why I am not a libertarian and have no faith in the rule of law. This includes the NAP. It is not a crime to broadcast radio waves, even if your neighbors may be exposed to them; if they don't like it, they can negotiate with you, erect a giant lead box around their property, or move to Somalia. Of course, they must do so with the understanding that they, too are impacting your property in a proportionate manner and degree. Ultimately, as the article briefly alludes to, it is an environmental concern. Not "environmental concern" as in hippie tree-hugger environmentalism, but rather an issue which one must take into account when choosing what environment to homestead or migrate to. If one wishes to avoid hurricanes, one should stay off the gulf coast. If one wishes to avoid radio waves, one should move to a low-altitude rural area and use lead paint on one's house. For a deeper exploration of the ideas expressed in this article, I recommend reading Lysander Spooner. Most pertinent to this issue would be Vices are not Crimes. In order to get the most solid understanding of what is said.
Today's suggestion may sound like religious mumbo-jumbo, but there is a serious philosophical point underpinning the article. St. Irenaeus has always been a mainstay for my philosophical inspirations, and this article gives a very brief introduction to his discussions concerning Gnosticism, which was a long-standing pagan and Jewish set of doctrines which predated Christianity by centuries. His specific concerns were regarding a particular Christian heresy that attempted to supplant Scripture through the adoption of some of the pagan Gnostic beliefs.
This particular discussion, as the article points out, has important ramifications to this day, and it is a shame that medieval Thomistic fervor has allowed us to forget one of the most intelligent philosophers the Church has ever employed. I will write full posts on him at a later time, but a primer is good enough for today: http://www.wordonfire.org/resources/article/bruce-jenner-the-shadow-council-and-st-irenaeus/4785/ Also, nobody should care about the whole Bruce Genner thing, and this article would be all the better if the author had simply left out their inspiration and had focused solely on things that matter. This article is a great way to open a wide-ranging discussion about drugs in a free society. Libertarians are often painted (not unfairly) as being obsessed with legalizing and decriminalizing drugs. Cops and cop apologizers these days, have nobody more scary, unpredictable, and violent than a cop to point to that the caricature of a crackhead to say, "At least we're better than him." Admittedly, in an anarchist community, drugs would be "decriminalized" as a matter of course. It is crucial, then, for liberty-minded individuals to explore the full breadth of understanding that we have so far about drugs, the societal impact they have, and the best methods for encouraging responsibility in one's family and community. Such a discussion also opens the door for further reading and discussion into the realities hidden behind propaganda, such as the relatively low rate of addiction even amongst users of "hard" drugs like cocaine and heroin or the incredibly strong relationship between exposure to environmental factors (almost all caused by government) and drug use.
An informative and handy explanation on thy the NSA is bad and what to do about it. It's a little bit of a read, but it's divided into easy-to-navigate sections and is as concise as possible while still conveying the enormity of the situation every single human being in the developed world now find themselves.
Today's resource stands in lieu of my current blog post, as I'm a little behind schedule. Today is a podcast episode from Matt Walsh about what people deserve. It's kind of funny how I found this guy. A person I met in college randomly threw a tantrum on facebook saying, "if you value your immortal soul, don't listen to this guy." Knowing this particular person's general attitude towards the world, and the attitude that tends to accompany people who throw around the phrase "If you value your immortal soul...", I naturally went straight to the very thing I was told to avoid.
This instinct rarely disappoints me, and this was no exception. Matt Walsh is the only pundit I can stomach. His views on faith and society are rarely off, and when they are, it's only by a minor degree. He does tend to make some incorrect political statements, but he is on the right track, slowly becoming an anarchist as he witnesses the absurdity of the state. This particular episode, I think, does a great job of introducing the idea that what people think they deserve has nothing to do with reality. I don't believe anyone deserves anything, at all. If I absolutely had to say anyone deserved anything, it would be that they deserve to be consigned to the flames and then oblivion. We deserve nothingness, and we are fortunate that we do not receive our just desserts.
This particular podacst was made in response to the usual touchy-feely, irrational haters of Matt Walsh when he wrote this blog post a little while ago.
Christopher Cantwell recently released a new podcast feed wherein he reads his best essays with all the passion and verve that only he can muster. I strongly recommend that people read his blog, listen to his Some Garbage Podcast, and these essays. I often find him saying the exact words that leave my lips when faced with the news of the day, and sometimes find myself repeating what he says. I don't always agree with him, mind you, but he has the intelligence and the scholarship required to make us unlikely allies in the philosophical world.
In the interest of keeping the suggestion small enough that people can be bothered to take the time to broaden their education, I guess I should pick just one essay. My favorite to date is Gun Owners, Take Down Your Flags, closely followed by the very topical On Vaccinations. http://christophercantwell.com/category/spoken/ |
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