quoting
naddr1qq…tgw2Following Trump’s ~~failure to fulfill ~~his promise, much of the Bitcoin community continues to petition for his pardon.(1)
1: Add on: at the end of day one Trump freed Ross. Everything else in this article applies irregardless of that action. Added at 880.358 time chain.
Key Fact 1: Trump failed to release Ross Ulbricht on day one.Key Fact 2: Some Bitcoiners fall into the trap of statism by recognizing the legitimacy of the American President.
“The State is the denial of humanity.”
— Mikhail Bakunin
It seems that in the end, the orange man wasn’t so orange. The orange man was voted for by many of the orange team because they believed he would use the resources at his disposal to create a great stockpile of oranges. But just before taking office, it turned out he started stockpiling manure instead. Bitcoin solves this because, eventually, that manure will fertilize the oranges which, at least for now, will not be produced by the state apparatus controlled by the orange man. Instead, as they always have been, they will continue to be produced by the private sector, contributing much more to decentralization, even at the cost of not achieving at the moment a sharp increase in hashing power.
The orange man was also supported and tolerated by many in the orange team because he promised to release Ross Ulbricht. Ross is someone deprived of liberty for the “crime” of challenging the State by creating Silk Road, a free market. Ross understood that according to natural law, every adult has the right to interact with another by respecting their consent without unwanted third-party interference in the exchange. The orange team shares this vision and understands that imprisoning an innocent person is an injustice that must be corrected. However, not all members of the orange team agree on the reasons or the methods.
There is a portion of the orange team that continuously and respectfully asks the orange man to free Ross. Members of this subcategory of the orange team pray:
“Oh dear Mr. Orange, please grant Ross your mercy! Free him from the clutches of the Federal Government, the same government you’ve always supported, been a part of, and promoted, the same government you administered for four years previously without freeing this innocent man. Oh Mr. Orange, we promise that if you do this, you will have our support to do everything —or almost everything— you want to do. Amen.”
What a portion of the orange team fails to see is that Ross is in prison precisely because they accept his imprisonment, despite all the petition campaigns for his release. This sub-category of the orange team is composed by democratic Bitcoiners, Republicans ones, voters in general, and law-abiding Bitcoiners, in other words, statist Bitcoiners. That´s it bitcoiner who support the existence of the State. No matter how much they may dislike it, the reality is that one cannot ask a President for clemency without simultaneously recognizing his legitimate authority to grant that clemency. What some members of this subgroup of the orange team don´t realize is that the orange man is just another person, a human being with the same rights and obligations as anyone else.
The orange man is currently the one holding Ross captive through violence and force. He is the one at fault. It is the orange man who, every minute he remains in power, tolerates the aggression against innocents like Ulbricht. And this is just one example among millions of others who are also victimized by him and his state apparatus, which magnifies aggression. Whoever initiates or perpetuates violence against others is the one who should be punished by society, whether by restricting their actions, excommunicating him, banishing him, depriving him of public resources, or at the very least, ignoring him. By asking the orange man to please cease the violence against Ross while simultaneously tolerating his violence against millions of other innocent people currently coerced by the state apparatus, one unwittingly promotes further injustices.
“Authority is the negation of freedom.” — Errico Malatesta
Ross is innocent, but so are all the users of USD who are robbed through inflation. Ulbricht deserves to be free, but so does every human being capable of giving their consent to trade in the manner they choose. The creator of Silk Road deserves to return to his family and enjoy the rest of his life as he sees fit, but so does every prisoner accused of victimless crimes. (For example, in the U.S., one of the most common victimless crimes that feeds the private prison industry is dealing of drugs outside of compliance.) This author cannot help but ask this part of the orange team: If the orange man frees Ross and then Ross reinstates Silk Road, what do you think will happen? Would Ross remain free after committing that act again? And if it’s not Ross but John Doe who does it, wouldn’t John also be persecuted by the same orange man whom you tolerate?
Wouldn’t it be better for the global human community to ask the orange man, or anyone who occupies his position, to cease violence against all innocents? Or better yet: Wouldn’t it be better to act accordingly by creating peaceful free exchange mechanisms that allow people to escape such violence? Like it or not, by supporting a potential presidential pardon, one acknowledges state authority. It is an acceptance that there are human beings superior to others, owners of others, whose whims must be tolerated by the rest of society. The difference between the timeline where Ross is a business magnate and the one where he is treated as a criminal lies in the whim of a president and a ruling political caste. But the tolerance of that whim by the rest of society is what is at stake—and, on an individual level, within our control.
Every well-intentioned moral action is correct. Freeing Ross could be a well-intentioned moral action. But it could also simply be a demagogic action intended to perpetuate the inherently immoral state apparatus. The second option is the most likely and logical coming from fiat professional politicians. There is nothing we can do about it since that is beyond our control. But what all members of the orange team can do is deny the authority of the orange man—not only because he is just an ordinary man, equal among humans, but especially to deny the legitimacy of his enterprise. An enterprise based on violence, coercion, monetary inflation, theft, war, and the use of force to benefit his friends at the expense of the rest of humanity.
Camilo JdL at 880,209 timechain. If you find this content helpful, zap it to support more content of the sort and to boost the V4V model.
Camilo on Nostr: Orange man bad. Ross Ulbricht good. Free market better. ...
Orange man bad. Ross Ulbricht good. Free market better.
