neo on Nostr: 🎯💯 nostr:note1977pdk2uln96jlzt8aqtlptcps6wdp4vqk0ucfshh408l3gq33qqa2t53c

quoting note1977…t53c

You tolerate other people ten times more if you know ahead of time that you have a shared principal with them. You'll disagree around the margins but realize you're basically on the same page.

Back in like the 1950s USA, people felt that sense with their neighbors, church, and even government. They might disagree on things, and there were some shitty downsides to that (anyone not in the majority) but they were like, flag-waiving Americans. So a question is how to recreate that, and more broadly than it once was.

And ironically, as shitty as the authoritarian economic and legal situation is in many ways, people in Egypt today feel that way today. There's a substantial sense of unity or shared ideals, aside from a small percent of extremist outliers. That's true for many developing places.

One of the major strengths of the "bitcoin community" is this set of shared identity. Bitcoiners will loudly argue with each other, but they know they have at least one foundational shared agreement. That's healthy.

There were times, at like conference side-parties, where I noticed I was standing in a friendly discussion circle with like an anarcho-capialist to the literal right of me, a progressive to the literal left of me, a human rights advocate from an authoritarian state in front of me, a billionaire capitalist with pragmatic politics also in front of me, and us standing in a circle happily talking and basically friends. It's because we have at least one shared major principle that brings us there. A unifying factor for which, as we enter discussions for which we might disagree, we know we can build common ground upon.

As certain countries get hollowed out, and as neighborhoods become more remote and distinct, I continue to believe that local in-person bitcoin communities are absolutely profound. Regular meetups help exchange local fiat with bitcoin P2P, help educate people on the latest tech, help bring people from different viewpoints together, etc. Absolutely essential.