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Cryptonomicon: Among the Bitcoin maximalists

harpers.org

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Re: Cryptonomicon: Among the Bitcoin maximalists

#11

Post by lapetitejort »

seibelj wrote: post #8

> In The Bitcoin Standard, Ammous blamed the Fed for the modern “breakdown of the family,” and for “perhaps most damagingly, the depletion of the soil of its nutrients, leading to ever-lower levels of nutrients in food.” He compared the art of the Renaissance, Classical, and Romantic periods, all financed properly with sound money, to the decadent culture of the twenty-first century, with its “animalistic noises’’ an…

You know what amazing discovery was made after fiat currency? Bitcoin. I think the human race still has something going for it.

Re: Cryptonomicon: Among the Bitcoin maximalists

#12

Post by frankbreetz »

seibelj wrote: post #8

> In The Bitcoin Standard, Ammous blamed the Fed for the modern “breakdown of the family,” and for “perhaps most damagingly, the depletion of the soil of its nutrients, leading to ever-lower levels of nutrients in food.” He compared the art of the Renaissance, Classical, and Romantic periods, all financed properly with sound money, to the decadent culture of the twenty-first century, with its “animalistic noises’’ an…

The 50-100 years the has been an explosion of new discoveries. The model T was still being produced 100 years ago. To claim anyone has a worse life then 100 years(or whenever fiat was started) ago is a bit of a stretch.

Re: Cryptonomicon: Among the Bitcoin maximalists

#13

Post by burnoutgal »

shralpmeister wrote: post #10
seibelj wrote: post #8

> In The Bitcoin Standard, Ammous blamed the Fed for the modern “breakdown of the family,” and for “perhaps most damagingly, the depletion of the soil of its nutrients, leading to ever-lower levels of nutrients in food.” He compared the art of the Renaissance, Classical, and Romantic periods, all financed properly with sound money, to the decadent culture of the twenty-first century, with its “animalistic noises’’ an…

Is it just me or does that read like a far-right, Christian, white supremacist screed?

Yup, classic fascist rhetoric. It's not surprising they point to a woman being independent and expressing her sexuality as the example of "degenerate culture". The "other" (people of colour, women, queers) are producing art that represents our own experiences, which is a threat to their desired white hetero-patriarchal order.

Never mind that Mozart wrote a ton of filthy shit. People have been obsessed with sex forever

Re: Cryptonomicon: Among the Bitcoin maximalists

#14

Post by seibelj »

burnoutgal wrote: post #13
shralpmeister wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it just me or does that read like a far-right, Christian, white supremacist screed?

Yup, classic fascist rhetoric. It's not surprising they point to a woman being independent and expressing her sexuality as the example of "degenerate culture". The "other" (people of colour, women, queers) are producing art that represents our own experiences, which is a threat to their desired white hetero-patriarchal order. Never mind that Mozart wrote a ton of filthy shit. People have been obsessed with sex foreve…

I think the comment about the music is ridiculous, but the broader point about free money causing the gradual degradation of food, housing, standard of living, etc. is not without merit.

Re: Cryptonomicon: Among the Bitcoin maximalists

#15

Post by rvz »

shralpmeister wrote: post #10
seibelj wrote: post #8

> In The Bitcoin Standard, Ammous blamed the Fed for the modern “breakdown of the family,” and for “perhaps most damagingly, the depletion of the soil of its nutrients, leading to ever-lower levels of nutrients in food.” He compared the art of the Renaissance, Classical, and Romantic periods, all financed properly with sound money, to the decadent culture of the twenty-first century, with its “animalistic noises’’ an…

Is it just me or does that read like a far-right, Christian, white supremacist screed?

Maybe if you have been chasing or watching imaginary nazis in computer games, movies and on the 'news' in the last four years perhaps?

If a claim is without any evidence and has no substance, it can be easily dismissed and ignored.

Not every silly, baseless conspiracy theory has an immediate association with the 'far-right' or with 'Christian, white supremacists' and especially not this one.

As long as they have zero evidence and they are unable to substantiate it, who cares? We already know bitcoin has failed being a peer-to-peer electronic cash system and it is still useless as a currency.

Re: Cryptonomicon: Among the Bitcoin maximalists

#16

Post by fullshark »

seibelj wrote: post #8

> In The Bitcoin Standard, Ammous blamed the Fed for the modern “breakdown of the family,” and for “perhaps most damagingly, the depletion of the soil of its nutrients, leading to ever-lower levels of nutrients in food.” He compared the art of the Renaissance, Classical, and Romantic periods, all financed properly with sound money, to the decadent culture of the twenty-first century, with its “animalistic noises’’ an…

The conversion of US society from an agricultural one to an industrial one to an information/services one probably the larger trend driving results here, especially if the quality of produce/soil is something you're thinking about. The role fiat currency played in that is debatable I'll grant.

RE: terrible art, the rise of that is the rise of art for lower classes in terms of more of it being produced and seen, which is a good thing I'd argue, as well as comparing art made in a 10 year period say with all of the best art western civilization has produced in the past 500 years.

Re: Cryptonomicon: Among the Bitcoin maximalists

#17

Post by batrachos »

seibelj wrote: post #14
burnoutgal wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup, classic fascist rhetoric. It's not surprising they point to a woman being independent and expressing her sexuality as the example of "degenerate culture". The "other" (people of colour, women, queers) are producing art that represents our own experiences, which is a threat to their desired white hetero-patriarchal order. Never mind that Mozart wrote a ton of filthy shit. People have been obsessed with sex foreve…

I think the comment about the music is ridiculous, but the broader point about free money causing the gradual degradation of food, housing, standard of living, etc. is not without merit.

> free money causing the gradual degradation of food, housing, standard of living, etc. is not without merit.

First, you have to establish that degradation has taken place. Considering that for most of civilizational history, the vast majority of people were wearing rags and eating grain porridge without spice or much salt and living in hovels, that doesn't seem obvious to me. Second, even if you do establish that, you have to specifically tie it to "fiat" currency and not some other factor. Those both seem like a tall order.

Re: Cryptonomicon: Among the Bitcoin maximalists

#18

Post by invalidOrTaken »

shralpmeister wrote: post #10
seibelj wrote: post #8

> In The Bitcoin Standard, Ammous blamed the Fed for the modern “breakdown of the family,” and for “perhaps most damagingly, the depletion of the soil of its nutrients, leading to ever-lower levels of nutrients in food.” He compared the art of the Renaissance, Classical, and Romantic periods, all financed properly with sound money, to the decadent culture of the twenty-first century, with its “animalistic noises’’ an…

Is it just me or does that read like a far-right, Christian, white supremacist screed?

To those of us who are far-right, Christian, and have noticed the lack of distinction that seems to be applied between say, David Duke, and Chris Rufo, this is not the takedown-by-association you seem to think it is.

Re: Cryptonomicon: Among the Bitcoin maximalists

#19

Post by oh_sigh »

seibelj wrote: post #8

> In The Bitcoin Standard, Ammous blamed the Fed for the modern “breakdown of the family,” and for “perhaps most damagingly, the depletion of the soil of its nutrients, leading to ever-lower levels of nutrients in food.” He compared the art of the Renaissance, Classical, and Romantic periods, all financed properly with sound money, to the decadent culture of the twenty-first century, with its “animalistic noises’’ an…

If our crops don't have any nutrients, how exactly would our animal products have nutrients in them? I doubt he is eating wild caught animals for a majority of his nutrition - presumably just eating factory raised pigs and cows which are fed the same crops that he believes has no nutrients.

I'll also bet that Ammous ends up with diverticulitis within 10 years if his description of his diet is correct.

Re: Cryptonomicon: Among the Bitcoin maximalists

#20

Post by inasio »

MR4D wrote: post #4

This is interesting... The linked article is titled "Cryptonomicon", and written by Will Stephenson, and a book with the same title was written by Neal Stephenson. Yet, no mention of Neal or his book in the article. So I wonder where he got the word for his title?

Definitely felt like bait, the word Cryptonomicon does not even show up in the (long) article even once. I was waiting for the reveal that his dad was Neal (worried when he said his dad was into Ayn Rand...), or that he himself was Neal.
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