Is it good that the Bitcoin community acts like a cult? (Podcast)

[franky1]

a cult is not a decentralised/libertarian/independant/transparent system

a cult is a belief/trust system without proof, in a manner where its more communist where you have to hand all your wealth to a centralised leader who controls every aspect of your life pulling you away from your peers not allowing you to communicate with the world and eventually suicide the community..

so no bitcoin is not a cult

thare are multiple groups of differing mindsets, some are idiotic and some are socially based cabins of echo chambers reciting some beleif of some one they know without thinking..

but i wouldnt say that it must be a sign of bitcoin community as a whole being a cult.. it just like any community/society. has raving lunantic groups of a dozen people per silly mindset having their own silly conspiracy/idiotic/racist/anti-[insert their agenda] group

bitcoin is actually diverse community but we are not following unproven beleifs in general. the code and the block data is clear and transparent and able to prove who owns what.

[Nhazwrath]

Nobody should be engaging media without proof that the media in question is honest.  =>

Talking points such as these are why smart people don't engage you.

You can argue that I'm debating in bad faith and be as subtle as you want in terms of implying that I'm too dumb to deserve replies to the inquiry.

But let me ask you this: did you watch/attend any of the Miami conferences? Or the one that's currently taking place in Amsterdam?

I won't make any assumptions, but I'll leave a few samples here. Before you consider using "these guys are in a minority" argument, I'll remind you that these conferences have more attendees than BitcoinTalk forum accounts and the amount of followers that the talking heads have should also be taken into consideration.

Max Keiser's "fuck Elon" moment: https://youtu.be/GC_h_tz44uw

Michael Saylor telling sovereign individuals what they should do with their own money: https://youtu.be/8ZcFahsvFyI

Saifedean explaining to Jordan Peterson that Bitcoin is "digital energy" (this became a popular meme): https://youtu.be/iJ85fyWx-Ck


I could probably dig up more stuff about Bitcoin being a "battery", "digital real estate", "element zero", "digital alchemy", and all sorts of silly metaphors. But the concerning part is that people take them seriously.

Smart enough to toss a Charged statement to elicit an emotional reaction in order to garner content which is then Cherry picked for more Charged statements in order to promote said podcast. 

Dishonest persuasion until proven otherwise.  That's the sorry state of the media today. 

Sorry not sorry.  Yes I am deliberately ignoring your rope attempts as well. 

Note my underlines.  I can do it to.

[kryptqnick]

I'm happy that there's this sort of intellectual content about Bitcoin and the context of different political and economic approaches. I was hoping an article would have some highlights from the video interview, though, for those who, like me, prefer to read than to listen. Also, it's very helpful for big videos to have timestamps on the main matters discussed, so that if a person doesn't feel like spending 2 hours 40 minutes on the whole thing, they can still get a general idea of what the interview was about and watch the fragments which are of most interest to them. I'd, for example, listen to arguments on why he views Bitcoin community as a cult, but I'm not interested enough to spend hours on it.

[Vlad BTCTKVR]

I'm happy that there's this sort of intellectual content about Bitcoin and the context of different political and economic approaches. I was hoping an article would have some highlights from the video interview, though, for those who, like me, prefer to read than to listen. Also, it's very helpful for big videos to have timestamps on the main matters discussed, so that if a person doesn't feel like spending 2 hours 40 minutes on the whole thing, they can still get a general idea of what the interview was about and watch the fragments which are of most interest to them. I'd, for example, listen to arguments on why he views Bitcoin community as a cult, but I'm not interested enough to spend hours on it.

Currently working on time stamps. Will be ready in a couple of hours!

[uneng]

The pros of having a bitcoin cult is that this group of people is going to defend bitcoin's principles on its essence and original purpose. This group is active since the beginning of bitcoin. They are early adopters, have some technical knowledge the average adopter doesn't have and aren't just speculators looking for get rich overnight schemes. Therefore, bitcoin cult is here to stay doesn't matter the market's situation, they are loyal.

On the other hand, the cons is that bitcoin cult doesn't accept criticizes or suggestions on what could be done to boost adoption and usage. They despise every cryptocurrency besides bitcoin and centralized platforms like exchanges. They don't see or don't care centralized services are needed in order to bring more adopters to this financial universe.

[Vlad BTCTKVR]

Nobody should be engaging media without proof that the media in question is honest.  =>

Talking points such as these are why smart people don't engage you.

You can argue that I'm debating in bad faith and be as subtle as you want in terms of implying that I'm too dumb to deserve replies to the inquiry.

But let me ask you this: did you watch/attend any of the Miami conferences? Or the one that's currently taking place in Amsterdam?

I won't make any assumptions, but I'll leave a few samples here. Before you consider using "these guys are in a minority" argument, I'll remind you that these conferences have more attendees than BitcoinTalk forum accounts and the amount of followers that the talking heads have should also be taken into consideration.

Max Keiser's "fuck Elon" moment: https://youtu.be/GC_h_tz44uw

Michael Saylor telling sovereign individuals what they should do with their own money: https://youtu.be/8ZcFahsvFyI

Saifedean explaining to Jordan Peterson that Bitcoin is "digital energy" (this became a popular meme): https://youtu.be/iJ85fyWx-Ck


I could probably dig up more stuff about Bitcoin being a "battery", "digital real estate", "element zero", "digital alchemy", and all sorts of silly metaphors. But the concerning part is that people take them seriously.

Smart enough to toss a Charged statement to elicit an emotional reaction in order to garner content which is then Cherry picked for more Charged statements in order to promote said podcast. 

Dishonest persuasion until proven otherwise.  That's the sorry state of the media today. 

Sorry not sorry.  Yes I am deliberately ignoring your rope attempts as well. 

Note my underlines.  I can do it to.

Sir, we can appeal to our subjective realities all day long and question each other's honesty or good faith. But how about you watch this week's Amsterdam conference (there's a free livestream) or book a flight to Miami next year? We can talk about the cult-like status of the community after you experience these large conferences first-hand.

[NotATether]

Sir, we can appeal to our subjective realities all day long and question each other's honesty or good faith. But how about you watch this week's Amsterdam conference (there's a free livestream) or book a flight to Miami next year? We can talk about the cult-like status of the community after you experience these large conferences first-hand.

I can't speak for others, but I would absolutely love to (physically) attend one of these conferences in the coming years. There's a lot of things I have in mind that I think are worth sharing.

[Piesel]

Nobody should be engaging in media without proof that the media in question is honest.  =>

Talking points such as these are why smart people don't engage you.

The media have become a channel point for much misinformation lately, and I don't listen to them anymore nor do I engage anyone with the argument of Bitcoin members being cult-like. And I don't want to also believe without any fact that points to the activities of members of the bitcoin communities engaging in any cult activities and even the original Bitcoin idea is privacy and decentralization this is something that can not be an attribute of a cult group, cult don't operate privately.

[Vlad BTCTKVR]

I'm happy that there's this sort of intellectual content about Bitcoin and the context of different political and economic approaches. I was hoping an article would have some highlights from the video interview, though, for those who, like me, prefer to read than to listen. Also, it's very helpful for big videos to have timestamps on the main matters discussed, so that if a person doesn't feel like spending 2 hours 40 minutes on the whole thing, they can still get a general idea of what the interview was about and watch the fragments which are of most interest to them. I'd, for example, listen to arguments on why he views Bitcoin community as a cult, but I'm not interested enough to spend hours on it.

Added timestamps to the YouTube video. If you're interested in listening to the conversation about Bitcoin being a cult, skip to the parts between 01:13:10 – 01:45:00 plus 02:07:00 – 02:24:30

Hope the conversation in this thread will be more topical and will make fewer assumptions in regards to my takes on the issue. To save you from scrolling to the first post, I'll repost the link: https://youtu.be/7W7EJkQa7s8

[Lucius]

Sir, we can appeal to our subjective realities all day long and question each other's honesty or good faith. But how about you watch this week's Amsterdam conference (there's a free livestream) or book a flight to Miami next year? We can talk about the cult-like status of the community after you experience these large conferences first-hand.

I honestly don't care what anyone says or does at these conferences, because none of these people can speak as some sort of official representative of the Bitcoin community. Although I will not say that there is no positive side of such gatherings in terms of finding business partners and exchanging ideas, the perception that I or someone else should feel like part of a cult is completely wrong. A private investor like Saylor can say what he wants and can buy as much BTC as he wants, but he and all other investors do not represent the Bitcoin community.

I think you've mixed things up a bit too much, and that your theory about some kind of cult is as pointless as that economist who gave you an interview.

[YellowWitty1]

It’s a technology, not a cult. There was a time when smartphone users felt like a cult, now they are the norm.  With time, people will understand its importance and will use it more often.