To those that know me in this relatively new space, I write mainly about EOS, but I am also more or less a blockchain agnostic. I am not a tech-oriented guy. I have no background in computers – other than growing up with them and using them for general purpose my entire life. I am however someone who is “street smart” on the Internet. I get around. And thanks to the relatively decentralised nature of the Internet, I have been able to find information and content that has made my life much better. I have been able to listen to and watch people that I otherwise would never run into. I have been challenged mentally by radical people with radical opinions, I hear people out and sometimes I embrace their ideas and sometimes I reject it. That’s how we progress.
These past years I have seen a lot of change and a lot polarisation in the debate climate. I won’t go too much into politics or where I stand, but make no mistake – the anti free speech “movement” is coming from the left. You can say what you want about Trump – I personally don’t like him that much, but I see where people who voted for him are coming from.
Free speech is the number one pillar of the Western civilization. Free speech is what abolished slavery and gave women and gays equal rights. And the LACK of free speech is what is keeping certain cultures in a regressive state even to this day. Why we are seeing so many people wanting to return to a post free speech society is something that a lot of people has problems understanding – and rightfully so. I mean, why would anyone want that? But look at it from this perspective – have we not been bombarded with selected thruths about ourselves for so long? How terrible technology is, how terrible humans are, how we are destroying the world and so on and so forth. People who fall for this wrongthink are “level 1 thinkers”. They manage to only think ONE step. They are people who mainly listen to their feelings, rather than facts and rational logic. And even when confronted, they refuse to change their opinion. This is because changing opinion is a lot harder than you might think. You have a lot of your personality invested in your opinion, because we all think or believe that our opinions are based on some moral values or virtues. So when confronted, you have to look in the mirror and see that “oh my..I was wrong. I’ve been defending actual bad ideals” which means that you have to start doing soul search and change and improve and do all these things that are difficult – like dealing with emotions and accepting the fact that you’ve been wrong (in many things)
This is hard for anyone, but once you kinda get of your high horse and realise that being right or wrong is very hard, and that having an opinion also is very hard – because it requires you to look at so many different factors and eventualities – you decide that you are going to focus on some MAIN virtues or principles.
For me one of those principles is free speech. And I have talked about this a lot. No capitalist, nor libertarian believes in a perfect society. A society where no one are poor or where no one suffers. Life is a lot of suffering for all of us. But I rather want a society where someones feelings get hurt than a society where we turn our backs and people actually get taken away to Gulag camps. I rather have horrible books being written than watching books being burnt. I rather have actual racists and bigots speak their mind and battle them with arguments and reason rather than shut them down.
If someone’s words are so bad, I’m sure they are easy to argue against with words? Why this need to shut it down? If you are right, I’m sure you can take them down with arguments?
No..the anti free speech people don’t agree to this. They are beyond discussion. They don’t think they can reason with “racists” and “bigots” – so why not just punch the nazis right on the mouth right?
People with relatively reasonable views are being shut down every day. People who are critical to immigration, to censorship, to money policies. And you know, first they go for Alex Jones or some other nutcase – but then, eventually, they come after you as well.
So, what does this have to do with me being in crypto?
I have one kid, soon two. I want them to grow up in a rational, kind and peaceful world. A world where we allow discussion and freedom to a much larger degree than today. That requires a lot more personal responsibility, but the reward is also a great deal more freedom and potential success. I want my son to not be called a rapist just because he flirts with a girl. And I want my daughter to get a job because she earned it, not because she got it through some government program. And if she wants to be a stay at home mom I would salute that as a honorable job as well.
Blockchain and Crypto is our only hope to be honest. A technology that no one controls. A decentralised ledger. Autonomous organisations. Flat structures. Technology can be a frightening thing, and in the wrong hands it very well could (check out my article on the Chinese social credit system) , but if we allow it to exist without the control of the few we can thrive as a species. With crypto – money is created for all. With Fiat – money is created by a few. With centralised services – the truth is filtered through huge government influenced organisations that go way beyond being private enterprises (like Google and Facebook), with decentralised structures no one is in control.
How can you help?
By not encouraging too much crypto-tribalism. Crypto tribalism is when you dishonestly or for your own personal gains shill or fud projects. I think we should be as agnostic as possible. Promote the positive stuff that projects has to offer, while also point to the negative sides. But without being too biased. Sure, I understand that it can be hard when 75% of your portfolio is in EOS or TRON, but keep in mind that we are not in a vacuum here. We are an entire sector here with a market cap of around 1/10th of Apple. And the world and the economy is growing each year. For us to reach the same bubble the IT-sector reached in 1999, we would need a approximately a 15-20T market cap. With a T. Trillion. Competition is good, and when EOS moves, so does others like TRON and Steem. So much has happened the past year with several protocols now building apps and exploring stuff no one even thought could ever be an issue a year ago.
You can also help by sharing YOUR knowledge. I am no one, yet I get in contact with people I had no idea I could ever get in contact with. Reach out to people on Youtube, Twitter, Reddit. Keep mentioning Blockchain projects like Patreos where people who are afraid of getting demonetized can check out. Tell people about Trybe, about Steemit, about Whaleshares, about Minds, about Publish0x. Tell them about Emanate if they are musicians. Tell them about how they can get rekt in gambling dapps (or..skip that one..) You get my drift? Spend a little time promoting this stuff! Drop a line some conservative Youtube channel, hashtag something when you Tweet. We are a few hundred thousand people in crypto..your voice counts.
And that is why I am in Crypto. I am not necessarily “in it for the tech”, but I am in it for the perhaps naive and foolish dream that it could help the world be an ever better place than it all ready is for my children. The world is not that bad! I must say that. But a lot of people is trying to turn this ship the other way. I say let’s aim for the horizon guys. Let’s keep going.
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