5 ms·

Bitcoin is a topic that brings out a lot of irrational arguments and pejorative name calling ("boiler rooms", for example) in the HN community. There's some tr

Bitcoin is a topic that brings out a lot of irrational arguments and pejorative name calling ("boiler rooms", for example) in the HN community. There's some truly transformative tech at the core of Bitcoin, which is why it's been as successful as it has been (and will be) as a technology. On the other hand, there really is a contingent of supporters that primarily has a profit motive. I've come to see it like politics. People pick a side and then become extreme about it, to no one's real benefit. People are weird about money, in several directions at once. Bitcoin is money. Therefore people are weird about Bitcoin. That's my theory, anyway.

moe 12y ago
That's my theory, anyway. Which the HN community helpfully confirms by downvoting your perfectly reasonable comment. I think Bitcoin tickles a rather deep-rooted fear in many people. Money is fundamental to everyone's existence and has always been exclusively issued and controlled by "the authority". Seeing a completely different system appear out of nowhere, and seeing it actually work (on a small scale), triggers a strong enough anxiety-reflex in enough people for every debate about Bitcoin to immediately derail into discussing BTC as if its definite purpose was to replace "real money", starting tomorrow, completely and entirely, and to devalue my pension fund in the process.
- vectorpush 12y ago
  Ugh. This kind of arrogance is a significant contributing factor to the contentiousness of bitcoin discussion. Nobody is fearful of bitcoin, especially not with regard to the idea that bitcoin will somehow replace fiat money and "devalue my pension fund". It's intellectually insulting and it goads skeptics into sarcastic and unproductive debate. When enthusiastic bitcoin supporters parade around this kind of nonsense while simultaneously heaping on volumes of nebulous praise like "transformative", "revolutionary", "world-changing", likening bitcoin to the early internet, claiming it will stop wars, stop corruption, free the people and all the rest, it really puts up red flags for a lot of people.
  - moe 12y ago
    Nobody is fearful of bitcoin, especially not with regard to the idea that bitcoin will somehow replace fiat money and "devalue my pension fund" Then how would you explain this irrational aggression in every Bitcoin thread? As a case in point, why were you so eager to follow up with a strawman of your own: heaping on volumes of nebulous praise like "transformative", "revolutionary", "world-changing", likening bitcoin to the early internet, claiming it will stop wars, stop corruption, free the people and all the rest Neither waterlesscloud nor me wrote or implied anything like that. Why do you attack something stupid that someone else once said about Bitcoin, rather than presenting an actual argument versus my "intellectually insulting" idea that Bitcoin might touch on some mammalian "fear of change", or against any of waterlesscloud's observations?
    - vectorpush 12y ago
      > Then how would you explain this irrational aggression in every Bitcoin thread? I don't consider downvotes aggression. I don't consider skepticism or even a general dislike of bitcoin to be aggression either. As far as the the discussion goes, bitcoin discourse is no more aggressive than any other technical topic on this forum. > Neither waterlesscloud nor me wrote or implied anything like that. A direct quote from waterlesscloud: >There's some truly transformative tech at the core of Bitcoin. waterlesscloud is only one example: ctr+f "revolutionary" or "early internet" in this thread for others. It's not a strawman because I'm not making an argument, I'm giving you examples of enthusiast rhetoric that turns people off; it's not "something stupid that someone else once said", it's a category of condescending platitudes commonly laid out by bitcoin enthusiasts. > presenting an actual argument versus my "intellectually insulting" idea that Bitcoin might touch on some mammalian "fear of change" My point is that painting bitcoin skeptics as irrational people who can't help but lash out due to a subconscious fear of what bitcoin might mean for world economics is insulting and also subtly pushes the narrative that bitcoin is such a clearly amazing technology that it would be reasonable to ascribe fear of bitcoin's success as a motivator for negative reactions to bitcoin. It's absurd.
      - moe 12y ago

moe 12y ago

That's my theory, anyway. Which the HN community helpfully confirms by downvoting your perfectly reasonable comment. I think Bitcoin tickles a rather deep-rooted fear in many people. Money is fundamental to everyone's existence and has always been exclusively issued and controlled by "the authority". Seeing a completely different system appear out of nowhere, and seeing it actually work (on a small scale), triggers a strong enough anxiety-reflex in enough people for every debate about Bitcoin to immediately derail into discussing BTC as if its definite purpose was to replace "real money", starting tomorrow, completely and entirely, and to devalue my pension fund in the process.

vectorpush 12y ago
Ugh. This kind of arrogance is a significant contributing factor to the contentiousness of bitcoin discussion. Nobody is fearful of bitcoin, especially not with regard to the idea that bitcoin will somehow replace fiat money and "devalue my pension fund". It's intellectually insulting and it goads skeptics into sarcastic and unproductive debate. When enthusiastic bitcoin supporters parade around this kind of nonsense while simultaneously heaping on volumes of nebulous praise like "transformative", "revolutionary", "world-changing", likening bitcoin to the early internet, claiming it will stop wars, stop corruption, free the people and all the rest, it really puts up red flags for a lot of people.
- moe 12y ago
  Nobody is fearful of bitcoin, especially not with regard to the idea that bitcoin will somehow replace fiat money and "devalue my pension fund" Then how would you explain this irrational aggression in every Bitcoin thread? As a case in point, why were you so eager to follow up with a strawman of your own: heaping on volumes of nebulous praise like "transformative", "revolutionary", "world-changing", likening bitcoin to the early internet, claiming it will stop wars, stop corruption, free the people and all the rest Neither waterlesscloud nor me wrote or implied anything like that. Why do you attack something stupid that someone else once said about Bitcoin, rather than presenting an actual argument versus my "intellectually insulting" idea that Bitcoin might touch on some mammalian "fear of change", or against any of waterlesscloud's observations?
  - vectorpush 12y ago
    > Then how would you explain this irrational aggression in every Bitcoin thread? I don't consider downvotes aggression. I don't consider skepticism or even a general dislike of bitcoin to be aggression either. As far as the the discussion goes, bitcoin discourse is no more aggressive than any other technical topic on this forum. > Neither waterlesscloud nor me wrote or implied anything like that. A direct quote from waterlesscloud: >There's some truly transformative tech at the core of Bitcoin. waterlesscloud is only one example: ctr+f "revolutionary" or "early internet" in this thread for others. It's not a strawman because I'm not making an argument, I'm giving you examples of enthusiast rhetoric that turns people off; it's not "something stupid that someone else once said", it's a category of condescending platitudes commonly laid out by bitcoin enthusiasts. > presenting an actual argument versus my "intellectually insulting" idea that Bitcoin might touch on some mammalian "fear of change" My point is that painting bitcoin skeptics as irrational people who can't help but lash out due to a subconscious fear of what bitcoin might mean for world economics is insulting and also subtly pushes the narrative that bitcoin is such a clearly amazing technology that it would be reasonable to ascribe fear of bitcoin's success as a motivator for negative reactions to bitcoin. It's absurd.
    - moe 12y ago