arguing with slashdot trolls surely is a fate worse than death

money is nothing but an abstract representation of the value of a society. without society, there is no money. any society that is going to have good currency is one that also has good governance

therefore, the very idea of thinking about currency, divorced from good governance, is an absurdity

to pursue currency without government is simply a symptom of bad social skills, horrible indoctrination/ terrible education, and or/ mental illness, something in the realm of paranoia

i'm not entirely sure when faced with the same mental vomit over and over again why it is my responsibility to find a new creative path to sanity for the crackpot. it is the crackpot's responsibility to make fucking sense

i know the answer won't be found in the realm of financial kookery, that's for sure

you do understand processing any opposition to your worldview only according to a simpleminded cartoon only demonstrates own failures, right?

when you can only process opposition to your worldview in simpleminded cartoon stereotypes, you might have a problem

there are malcontents in every era of man

where they have a legitimate gripe that resonates across the masses, you get revolutions. where they have loony complaints that leaves people rolling their eyes, you get cranks

bitcoin is the crank's currency. cranks don't do legitimacy

so bitcoin will lose its lustre with those who launched it onto slashdot's front page for the past few years

look out for the rise of the new utopian idealization project:

"bytecoin", or "bitdollar"

or heck, just go with "crankmoney"

the worst lightning strike will not cause the extinction of mankind, but there are asteroids out there that could do this

if you ignore lightning, people die every year from it in a statistically dependable way. so you can ignore lightning and personal tragedies may come and go, but there are no society level tragedies. ever

meanwhile, if you ignore asteroids, you could go 100,000 more years and never have a problem more serious than the tunguska event

or... the entire species could cease to exist in a few years

no one knows

the regular rate of devastating asteroid strikes is far far far lower than a lightning strike

but the potential scale of destruction of an asteroid strike is far far far higher than a lightning strike

people do this all the time: construct horrible, failed analogies to explain phenomenon in their world, then use the horrible analogies as a rhetorical or cognitive stand in for the phenonmenon, thereby misrepresenting twisting and otherwise lying about the meaning of the phenomenon

there has to be a term for this sort of horrible analogy failure in the realm of logic and rhetoric. it seems like a regularly recurring motif

for political causes, this sort of analogy failure is probably done on purpose by the malicious, and then taken as truth by the foolish

so go make your own society, where such controls don't exist

and after you get ripped off, by... get this... criminals... learn your lesson the hard way

criminality exists in this world. i'm sorry this bothers you, and i'm sorry in your naive rage you blame those who pursue criminality rather than criminality itself

of course, many types of actions should not be classified as crime, and many tactics used to fight criminality should be changed, discarded, or improved

but this doesn't change the fact that criminality is real, if unopposed it grows, and the vast majority of society has no problem with tactics like this to fight criminal organizations

welcome to reality

deal with it

or throw your useless tantrums shouting "fascist!" like an ignorant spoiled teenager whose dad didn't let him have the car keys

if the opposition fighters, all of them, were radical hardcore fundamentalists (which isn't true, even of the religious fighters), this would still be better than Assad the butcher

in this world, you don't get to pick between absolute evil and shining pure good

in the real world, on any political choice, in every country, forever, you get to pick between

1. shit, and
2. slightly better than shit

but unfortunately this doesn't stop certain fools from judging all political forces from the point of view of idealism

thus rendering their opinions useless

the best way to punish ugly abuses (swatting), is not to champion ugly abuses (prison rape)

if someone violated my family in such a way, i would have violent fantasies about them getting their comeuppance too

but we're talking about governmental policy here, not private revenge fantasies

when the state itself is in the business of violent revenge, then the state itself is the worst offender

it also teaches society how to function, how to handle yourself: with brutality. the state sets the tone for how society should solve its disputes

you actually end brutality by structuring society's punishments so they are neither retributive nor punitive, but more like grey cold empty chill out sessions

there's no punishment worse than a boring, mundane, pointless existence. but inflicting pain, psychologically, focuses the mind, it gives it something to organize the meaning of life around. it turns criminals into martyrs, at least in their own mind, and it makes them and others who sympathize with them (and when you inflict pain, you always find sympathizers) organize their lives around finding meaning in being your enemy and inflicting YOU pain. you basically starting up a cycle of violence

TL, DR: your approach backfires

I have a giant TV and an expensive AV setup, but I still watch streaming videos on a tablet. Watching The Daily Show is part of my morning bathroom routine and it's a lot easier to carry my Galaxy Tab from my bedroom to my bathroom to the kitchen than it is to turn on my TV, Amp, Receiver and then wake up the PC that I use to stream internet content.

On the other hand, I really dislike Netflix's streaming videos. I might watch an occasional documentary that way, but I prefer to get nice, rippable discs from the snailmail service so I can at least get the full experience for the movies I do choose to enjoy.

seriously. it's not even an interesting collection of complaints, it's a quite common and mediocre litany

i suppose the fuckwit actually believes the US govt will persecute them for complaining about lack of universal healthcare?

i've insisted we should have universal healthcare quite emotionally in a number of posts, and i'm not behind 14 proxies

so the US govt is going to drone strike me now? this is what this fuckwit seems to believe

what the hell is wrong people, how can they be so fucking deluded about basic reality?

they don't seem to be stupid, so it must be a sort of psychological problem, this insistence on being persecuted as an aspect of their reality, when obviously there is no such persecution

it's nice you said all of that

and no one in the US govt cares

you can criticize the govt all you want

no one in the US govt cares

you'd have to threaten the presidents life before they actually began caring

in China, Cuba, or Iran, if you persistently and vocally criticize the govt, they DO care, and WILL find you and WILL punish you

you don't have freedom of expression in those countries, ESPECIALLY on political issues

that is a real, substantive fact. and it means nothing to you, exactly as you make full use of your rights

absurd, hilarious, ironic

if you were intellectually honest with yourself, you would admit the teensy tiny difference on your rights

again, as i already said, your litany of problems with the USA are real. and still having nothing to do with the topic at hand: freedom of expression

you do notice the topic here is sneakernet in cuba. do you need a sneakernet here in the usa? oh right: 14 proxies

what a spastic twit: you don't NEED THAT shitwit. NO ONE FUCKING CARES about your whiny crap. it's not even interesting, it's a quite common litany of complaints

but somehow basic reality doesn't fit in with your persecution fantasy, so it has to be ignored

you can't, or you won't, admit the blindingly obvious substantive difference in rights, exactly as you make full use of them

which makes your entire temper tantrum tell us nothing except you are an ignorant child

please note you just freely criticized the us govt, from within the usa, and no one stopped you, no one watch listed you, no one knocked on your door, no one cares

understand the difference?

you should. and you should value it. because it actually is a significant, material difference between the usa and repressive countries

in your whiny clueless post you have exercised a luxury many people in this world wish they had. and you don't even fucking notice. what does that say about your level of awareness and knowledge about the world?

the usa certainly has problems. the usa is certainly not perfect. but on this measure: freedom of expression, especially on religious and political matters, the usa is heads and shoulders above the likes of cuba

i am certain there are whiny clueless characters like you in china, iran, cuba, etc too

the difference between them and you is they are petrified with fear to say a damn thing about their governments

don't be ignorant and count your blessings