Seeing as how Bitcoin is here and Computer Times aren’t going anywhere fast, it’s time to tend to a few things we’ve been brushing under the rug.i It’s time for a little self-improvement. And that starts with the self. Yes, you!
While it’s become fashionable to plug one’s ears while screaming “LALALALA” in an attempt to block out the downright unfair good for nothing trolls, this is no longer satisfactory.ii Calling an argument “trolling” or “racist” in no way addresses that argument any more than calling a movie “good” is in any way informative, useful, or productive. It matters not one iota what you think or feel if you’re unwilling to develop and thence utilise the language faculties necessary to convey this information to the world.
By the same token, when you’re grasping for straws, struggling to solidify the soup in your skull and bring those nebulous notions into the virgin world, for the love of all that’s good and holy and right, use your own fucking words!iii
Using the words of others isn’t in and of itself a crime. Quoting Shakespeare, Kant or de Tocqueville can do wonders for a conversation. It’s the argumentum ad populum shit, that is, arguing that something is good or bad because “most people” do or do not agree with it,iv that sends any pretense at constructive, enlightened conversation down the drain and drives me so fucking insane.
This type of logical fallacy fails due to the following implications:
1. The masses are not in the conversation to confirm or deny the accuracy of your representation, potentially diverting the argument to one over said accuracy.
2. Popularity is not the same as authority.v Specifically, who fucking asked them?
Invoking appeals to the masses only serves to demonstrate your shameful unwillingness to be a fucking man, that is, a fucking sovereign individual with your head on your own fucking shoulders. This is very easily the most important point here because it’s quite impossible that you’ll succeed in this life, by any measure you so choose, without ownership of yourself, your words, and your actions. What, you think Napolean won a lottery and it could’ve just as easily been Simonique, the shy son of a baker in Toulouse, who conquered Europe ?
So while there are an apparently infinite number of “communities,” your self-proclaimed identity or deference to any of them in no way illuminates you with reflected glory of the accomplishments of people actually doing shit. If you think talking about communities matters, you have a serious and probably terminal case of first, largest, bestest thinking.
You are only a participant in anything to the extent that you add value. This is non-negotiable. Your knowledge of a thing, particularly if it’s as cursory as seems to be the fashion, has absolutely no impact whatsoever. As such, “raising awareness” is just about the single most insanely stupid fucking waste of time and energy on this planet, followed closely by argumentum ad populum and the rest of the logical fallacies you really ought to read up on.
So enough of the fallacies. Enough of the other derps. Tell me what you think.
Better yet, tell me what you do.
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- The most seemingly innocuous things can tip-off an avalanche of positive action. Take the current excising of the Phoundation crud from the Bitcoin code as a recent example. What catalysed this violent reaction? Historians may well find themselves divided by this. I’m inclined, without a shred of humility, to believe that it was my fiddling with a former Lord’s node script and my interest in updating it to avoid the latest Power Rangers’ latest braindamage. Others may see that as necessary but not sufficient and point to Stan D’s quest for a hardbound version of the source code as the straw that broke the camel’s back. Then again, what matters is that it’s happening. And that these pages helped push the stone up the hill. Fucking blogs, y’know?↩
Derpopolous can block me from retweeting his shit all he wants. He’s still a fucking shill and I’m still a fucking Lord.↩- You don’t want to end up like “a” or “Tal” do you?↩
- Note very fucking clearly that the “most people” shit has everything to do with what those sheep think and not what they do. The huddled masses cannot act and they know they cannot act. They know full well that only individuals can act and that all the group can do is derp. So… that’s exactly what they do, even though their power is entirely limited in their ability to guilt you into conformity. This is incidentally why opinion polls are garbage of the first order. No skin in the game. ↩
- What is this, some twerpy democracy ?↩
