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Everyone loves to say their politics are just common sense but characterizing all of crypto as “rich libertarians who see crypto as a way to protect their asset

by jrsj 5y ago

Everyone loves to say their politics are just common sense but characterizing all of crypto as “rich libertarians who see crypto as a way to protect their assets from the government” is an inherently political narrative and it simply isn’t true. There’s also a big difference between valuable emerging technologies that have a lot of speculative investments & charlatans selling snake oil vs “the whole shebang”.

m_ke 5y ago
The post I was replying to was asking why some VCs are pumping so much money into crypto. I'm not characterizing all crypto supporters as libertarians, just the VCs who pretend that they're investing in it because they want decentralization and open democratized platforms that are owned by the users.
- jrsj 5y ago
  Ahh yeah I misread that a bit. Still I don’t necessarily think that’s accurate even regarding the VCs. Their investments and goals sort of run counter to the libertarian types in the crypto community who tend to be focused more on monetary policy or privacy concerns. If anything what the VCs are doing imo is subverting cryptos ability to meet any of the goals of libertarians by focusing most of the development effort in crypto on centralized platforms that look a lot more like traditional tech companies.
deleted 5y ago
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inopinatus 5y ago
This rather parochially presupposes the whole world operates on the same basis as the two-bit low-grade binary oppositional shit-flinging that passes for political discourse in the USA, or even cares much about it. Fortunately, that isn’t how this works. Since I don’t live in the US or read its tattered, overwrought media except by accident, I can comfortably say “what political narrative are you on about mate”, and make my analysis free of whatever baggage that entails. Which leads me back to saying, no thanks. What’s being peddled here creates no fundamental value, so the only beneficiaries are middlemen, their equivalents, and their proxies.
- jrsj 5y ago
  Repeating a narrative that was crafted with a particular political intent is furthering that intent regardless of how you’re thinking about it internally. And unfortunately us Americans are really good at exporting our shittiest ideas everywhere else (especially Western Europe) so it still has meaning regardless of where you live
  - inopinatus 5y ago
    Except I'm not "repeating a narrative", I'm drawing my own conclusions. The assertion that anyone who disagrees with (whatever) must have been brainwashed by something they read is pathological for debate.

by jrsj 5y ago

m_ke 5y ago

The post I was replying to was asking why some VCs are pumping so much money into crypto. I'm not characterizing all crypto supporters as libertarians, just the VCs who pretend that they're investing in it because they want decentralization and open democratized platforms that are owned by the users.

jrsj 5y ago
Ahh yeah I misread that a bit. Still I don’t necessarily think that’s accurate even regarding the VCs. Their investments and goals sort of run counter to the libertarian types in the crypto community who tend to be focused more on monetary policy or privacy concerns. If anything what the VCs are doing imo is subverting cryptos ability to meet any of the goals of libertarians by focusing most of the development effort in crypto on centralized platforms that look a lot more like traditional tech companies.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

inopinatus 5y ago

This rather parochially presupposes the whole world operates on the same basis as the two-bit low-grade binary oppositional shit-flinging that passes for political discourse in the USA, or even cares much about it. Fortunately, that isn’t how this works. Since I don’t live in the US or read its tattered, overwrought media except by accident, I can comfortably say “what political narrative are you on about mate”, and make my analysis free of whatever baggage that entails. Which leads me back to saying, no thanks. What’s being peddled here creates no fundamental value, so the only beneficiaries are middlemen, their equivalents, and their proxies.

jrsj 5y ago
Repeating a narrative that was crafted with a particular political intent is furthering that intent regardless of how you’re thinking about it internally. And unfortunately us Americans are really good at exporting our shittiest ideas everywhere else (especially Western Europe) so it still has meaning regardless of where you live
- inopinatus 5y ago
  Except I'm not "repeating a narrative", I'm drawing my own conclusions. The assertion that anyone who disagrees with (whatever) must have been brainwashed by something they read is pathological for debate.