Thread by @davetroy

Cryptocurrency comes from a long line of fascist and far-right thinking: Kochs, Mercers, Ayn Rand, John C. Calhoun, et al.

The current crypto-cult is not compatible with democracy, and people who think of themselves as progressive should distance themselves. #DivestBTC

Anyone who knows history can assert I’m not making anything up here. Dark Money by @JaneMayerNYer, Democracy in Chains by @NancyMacLean5, and Shadow Network by @alnelsona all confirm the assertions I make here.

Some progressives are just in denial about crypto. Time to wake up.

For those that don’t yet understand and are not infected with cult-think, crypto and the gold standard are equivalent and aim to take away power from central banks because they don’t believe they are trustworthy.

Industrialists, especially, feel this way.

These “makers” don’t want to be taxed by the masses (“takers”). They believe the country should be ruled by the elite, and that wealth = societal value. There is a hierarchy, winners and losers — and money is for keeping score. There is also a leaning towards Eugenics.

Government, to them, has no purpose but to protect property rights. Everything else should be provided by the “winners” in the “free market.” Booms, busts, bubbles are just part of capitalism; people that can’t deal with that probably shouldn’t be alive. They had their chance.

Many may not understand this is what crypto-world is all about, and I get it: we barely teach history or economics, and those that do learn it sometimes fall victim to the simplicity of “Austrian School” thinking.

It’s insane that progressives are endorsing ideas from Ayn Rand.

And indeed that’s the play: James Buchanan and Charles Koch devised a series of “interrelated plays” that seem like good ideas on the surface but in fact advance the paleo-libertarian agenda. Don’t get fooled by it.

Those of us studying disinformation also see the long history of discussion of gold standard and now shilling crypto in conspiracyland — “take your money back from the evil central bankers.” Glenn Beck, NESARA, QAnon, etc.

It’s fringe lunacy but made mainstream.

I get it, history and economics is hard, and FOMO is an irresistible force. But any social progressive buying into the get-rich-quick scheme is betraying their own values. Partly because we have done a poor job at governing ourselves. Because gosh, it’s hard.

Far easier to toy with schemes that empower industrialists and eugenicists. I get it. It feels good. But it’s not real. 99.9% of people participating in the scheme have not created anything at all. It’s a time sink for creativity. It’s a sink for energy, too.

A reckoning is coming and I aim to accelerate it. Join in. The sooner it happens, the fewer people will be harmed. Crypto designs that act as currencies have some value; those that become cultish value stores are actively harmful. This is what modern banking was designed to fix.

Also, the only way we are going to address climate is by pooling resources. The most efficient way to do that is through MMT. Crypto schemes serve to foil that by undermining fiat systems. Crypto empowers the oil/carbon lobby. And they know this full well.

So again, any “progressive” person thinking crypto offers real solutions to their stated beliefs is being sold a bill of goods. This benefits industrialists, carbon fuel producers, eugenicists, and John Galt-wannabes above all.

The poor, the grandmas, the sick? Prolly NGMI.

Some say, “it’s helping people in failed states,” and there is some truth in that. For now. But at some point those states have to deal with the messy challenge of democratic governance. Then what? Are these systems well-suited for that purpose? Not very.

And in the meantime established democracies become more unruly and unjust as institutions and governance are eroded. Is that what we want?

Importantly, when did we vote on this? Oh, we didn’t? Seems, well… non-democratic.

Progressives stanning for Charles Koch just seems wrong to me. But what do I know? I’ve just been studying this history for decades.

Carry on, you do you. 🤷‍♂️

And it almost is too obvious to mention, but the “Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion” (1903) is rooted in the same motivation.

Evil bankers (Jews) are coming after the hard-earned fruit of your industry and investments. They must be stopped. That led to genocide, of course.

This was the backdrop of the 1917 Bolshevik revolution. Communists are coming to seize your gold, in the name of the state!

While communism also tends towards authoritarianism, the idea that people want democratic rule does not make them communists, in the least.

Yet this is what the disinfo/crypto cults, which are merging, assert: anyone opposed to the cult is a Communist. This is what we hear now out of Flynn, Bannon, and Falun Gong both. Falun Gong was present at January 6th spouting this.

So there is simply nothing sadder or more ridiculous than a progressive or pro-democracy activist pushing crypto right now.

You may as well get a MAGA hat and a Q t-shirt and start taking ivermectin. It’s the same team. Many just haven’t gotten the memo yet.

For progressives who see the promise of ‘web3’ tech, there is some, and it is potentially exciting.

But it needs to be separated from the Koch-backed prosperity cult, or it can never realize its potential.

Now is the time to sever ties with crypto-maximalists.

Progressive-minded people need to adopt a clear set of norms and values that deconflict web3 and decentralized designs with the goals of democratic governance and regulation.

This stuff doesn’t just magically happen; we have to insist on it.

And we need to distance ourselves from illiberal, eugenic, hierarchical, fascist, and anti-democratic strains in the technology world.

That takes courage. You may lose friends, and clout. But that’s the price of standing up for your values.

Being a decent person != NGMI.

More people need to explore the moral poles of this space and stand up for norms that make the “GMI” cultists the aberration vs. the norm.

Cultists should be kept to the fringes where they belong.

And I certainly don’t want their cult shoved down my throat without a vote.

There is no real historical argument against what I’m saying; it’s factual. Some people think FDR was on the wrong side, though. I don’t.

People lob ad hominem attacks, but that’s not an argument.

Stand up for your beliefs. You don’t need to pretend to go along to be cool.

I hold a small amount of BTC. As a tech enthusiast I got in very early. It’s not material to me. I have nothing against the tech.

What I do object to is an unregulated cult running a global Ponzi scheme rooted in fascist traditions.

I object strongly to that, and we all should.

Cryptocurrencies use an inordinate amount of energy relative to most monetary systems. The current conversion of energy into crypto is useful to states with massive energy resources.

Continued warming will also make it easier to access arctic oil reserves.

Crypto and oil/carbon interests are thus neatly aligned. We don’t see any effort coming from the carbon lobby to curb crypto use. Yet Russia is promoting it as hard as anyone. Why would that be? Putin wants to keep oil contracts in dollars, for now.

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

We’re seeing an increasing number of elected US officials (insurrectionists, btw) championing BTC and denouncing “Fedcoin” which is legal tender for all debts public and private. 🤔

Why would they do this?

https://twitter.com/davetroy/status/1458094711294529539

Rep. @WarrenDavidson (R-OH) is part of the “sound money” and “cryptocurrency” caucus in Congress. He is also an insurrectionist who stood with 21 others in denying recognition to Capitol Police.

This is the guy progressive tech wants to stan?

https://twitter.com/WarrenDavidson/status/1458426409752346634

Progressive web3 folks: you really think this @warrendavidson guy is someone to side with? Really? He’s a thug.

But because he’s part of the crypto-cult he is ok? Got it.

thedailybeast.com/21-house-repub…

If you stop in over on Telegram, it’s wall to wall crypto scams. Telegram is of course run from and sanctioned by Russia. Cool cool, just pumping financial disinfo at vulnerable people 24x7, what could go wrong? But HODL, in the name of progressive tech freedom! 🙄

To younger people, I get it: we have built a crap world. The systems seem rigged, and they are. But Ponzi schemes have always been a trap and an escape. We need to turn this tech towards actually improving things, and separate from the scams and schemes.

Most folks not studying disinfo also aren’t aware of the “financial newsletter” universe, which has been pumping gold and crypto nonstop for years.

These are also your bedfellows.

baltimoresun.com/business/bs-bz…

And if you don’t know the financial newsletter world, you wouldn’t know that same world also is the source of most medical disinfo and misinfo.

Why? To weaponize people while also fleecing them. Doesn’t sound very progressive, but yet, the Ponzi scheme depends on all of this.

The amount of bleedover between crypto and QAnon world is substantial. The “great reset” and “great awakening” are flipsides of the same coin. The reset is supposed to be the evil bankers taking control, the awakening is supposed to be crypto-flourishing for all.

I’ve referenced this 2011 film Thrive before, but it’s supposed to paint a vision of a central bank (i.e. Jew) free world and, well, it does. This is what progressive crypto-stans are signing up for. Watch it on YouTube.

huffpost.com/entry/thrive-f…

This doesn’t sound like an especially progressive vision to me. Yet this film was screened at Occupy LA in 2011 by Lisa Clapier, who went on to become “Snow White” of QAnon fame. QAnon is all about this vision. Most progressives do not want to be associated with QAnon.

What prog techies fail to understand is that this scheme is about maximizing “economic freedom,” which is about eliminating taxes and regulations, promoting “individual sovereignty” and allowing corporations to do whatever the hell they like.

Not very progressive.

Another bedfellow: Steve Bannon. Crypto was birthed from his loins, along with Brock Pierce (of Mighty Ducks.) Before BTC there was IGE. And now he claims he has allegedly cleared $27bn on crypto schemes.

Very progressive, all that.

https://twitter.com/piperk/status/1459776678402482176

Ultimately this is all a scam and a con built on some valid tech and interesting ideas. It’s time to kill the scam.

Walk away, denounce the scammers. It’s that simple. Let’s anathemize people who won’t sign on to progressive norms and values in the crypto space.

There is cool stuff to be built.

Ponzi schemes, weaponization of social capital, cults, and use of political technology against a naive public must be terminated with prejudice.

We can do that, if we get smarter about what’s happening.

The debt limit increase on December 3 looms large on the horizon and is the next major crisis. Perhaps real power will assert itself against the cult, or perhaps the cult will take a run at the dollar by trying to default.

We just don’t know how it will play out.

And it is not reasonable that this should be in question.

We need to eliminate the debt ceiling, and crush the Ponzi scheme cult by imposing clear regulations.

@SECGov @USTreasury @federalreserve need to see this as the Jan6-style national security emergency that it is.

What kind of world should we design and build? We should consult with historians, ethicists, philosophers, artists, sociologists and maximize for comity; to make a less unruly world, and one where we can agree on shared reality.

Current course = “Lord of the Flies.”

I’ve been in tech for 35 years. I’m up to speed on what’s going on. I go to conferences and participate in dialog.

The simple fact is that most idealistic tech people dabbling in this space don’t have the history background to sense-make about what’s going on.

I’ve been in touch with many thoughtful people who re-think their stances once they understand better what’s going on around them.

That’s what normal thoughtful people do; re-evaluate, set course, keep learning.

Those in a cult (a topic I’ve also learned a ton about) will deflect the critique, try to discredit the attacker, and double down. That’s where we are now. It is a crypto-cult. If you have lost loved ones to it, consider books by @cultexpert. See freedomofmind.com

I know this is a massive thread.

If you care about and believe in some of the things I’ve said here, let that sit with you and start to speak up.

This hellscape we are building is not the only option. There are many other timelines available. Let’s change course.

Someone called my attention to this essay, and while I am sympathetic to some things she says, the abuse of the term “democratic” is quite egregious. Also shows zero knowledge of history or the ideological roots underpinning any of this. People are duped.

medium.com/@samanthamessi…