Why I supported Trump, and how that relates to my interest in Blockchain.
I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's worth. Banks are going bust. Shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be.
We know things are bad — worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is: 'Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone.'
Well, I'm not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get MAD! I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot — I don't want you to write to your congressman, because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you've got to get mad. [shouting] You've got to say: 'I'm a human being, god-dammit! My life has value!'
So, I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell: I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!
I want you to get up right now. Sit up. Go to your windows. Open them and stick your head out and yell - 'I'm as mad as hell and I'm not gonna take this anymore!' Things have got to change. But first, you've gotta get mad!...You've got to say, I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE! Then we'll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first, get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it: I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!
- Howard Beale, a character from the film Network.
Sadly, that film was made in 1976 and it has never been more relevant than it is today! It ages like wine only due to its comparison to our societies gradual decline into both moral and economic bankruptcy (much like the value of gold or bitcoin compared to fiat currencies). Perhaps people have always felt this way throughout time, but this is the "age of discontent" as they say. I live in a first world country, but it's not what it once was. Greed has never flourished more so than it does today. With that having been said, you can start to bet that there has to be a tipping point (especially when you look at national debt, interest rates etc). You can only exploit resources for so long, and when that resource is "the people", when they finally wake up to it their rejection and consequent retaliation is going to severely alter the world as it is today. I don't really believe any system can last without the support of a majority.
In my mind, the theory of the MSM (mainstream media) having utterly lost all objectivity is spot on. Where once I would have laughed at Alex Jones' wild theories (and still do), I now realise that a lot of what he says is true. I'm half convinced that the reason Alex rants about interdimensional space alien conspiracies or whatever else.. is just so that he can be dismissed as a nutter and therefore not assassinated for his more precise observations. I recall my repulsion in 2003 for Fox News, but I'm now a die-hard fan of Tucker Carlson. It's not because I think Alex and Tucker are without bias, but because they still happen to believe in free speech that I love them. I laugh hard when Tucker rants on about the MSM because he's an anchor at Fox.. but he represents a counterbalance to the majority left-leaning MSM blackout.
For many years now we've been increasingly told what to do, what to think, how to feel, what's right and wrong and basically to "put out or get out" in relation to either adopting the mainstream thinking or becoming a recluse. For the most part our peers buy into the bullshit, but that's because they're playing it safe. All we have to do is wait for the impending economic disaster to unfold and people will start to challenge their beliefs. When there's no reason to play it safe for the promise of safety (in exchange) has disappeared, people come into their own.
There's all these double standards in popular movements to such an extent that under the guise of equality/justice, they're able to sneak in fascist ideologies which rip apart any righteous momentum which might have given rise to their trojan horse in the first place. You just get sick of it.. all the hypocrisy and utterly vile propaganda. The PC police which rule out any objection/challenge to their beliefs by immediately labeling you a bigot, sexist, racist, white male.. etc. For example, I happen to desire equality of opportunity for women, but detest equality of outcome. This means that I'm firmly against third-wave feminism and all their deceptively false and misleading statistics, and will be labelled a misogynist for my troubles.
I don't know about you, but I'm sick of mainstream politics. It's as obvious as dogs balls that politicians do not represent their constituents but rather the big money interests that pay for their rise to power... everyone knows this! I refuse to vote in Australia because I really do not see any difference between candidates/parties. They may claim to be for X unlike the other party, but you see that time and time again what they campaign for never comes to fruition once they're in power. Corruption is rampant! The absurd thing is I have never had a conversation with anyone in real life that could understand (or admit to) why I felt Trump was a better bet than Hillary. They're both a concern, but Hillary is corruption incarnate. She represents everything leftists supposedly despise, the explosive charge on the bulwark standing between us and dystopia.
In my view, supporting Trump is a good bet regardless of whether he stands by his promises. If he "drains the swamp"... wonderful! If he is the colossal failure everyone seems to believe he is then I think he has the strong potential to bring the system down with him. I think the best kind of progress is going to come from disaster, when the house of cards falls over and we're all left wondering why we ever thought such a system would survive. Trump can either change/improve upon the world for the better by being something unprecedented, or be the death knell of a system which revolves around debt. He represents change which is badly needed, for better or worse.
Bitcoin represents a move/rejection away from mainstream banking, and the blockchain technology which enables it has the potential to rip apart all kinds of monopolies which have been so increasingly pervasive. For so long I've absolutely resented the hidden fees at ATM's, the outrageous charges which you can do nothing about. The banks have been robbing us, encouraging us into debts which can't be paid. The banking system is basically a form of modern slavery and with blockchain technology we have the opportunity to free ourselves from their shackles. It goes beyond banking though. I can see a world fast approaching which can potentially avoid censorship, government surveillance and manipulation through preferences unbeknownst to us. What if YouTube, Google, Ebay and all the major corporations which have become so dominant were run by the users with no/minimal interventions from any central source? Completely anonymous with no reason or ability to profit from the sale of our private information? It goes beyond gigantic corporations though and into all the industries which exploit. Blockchain technology is potentially a big FUCK YOU to all those businesses that exist to rip us off.. removing/replacing the intermediaries of this world is one of the most revolutionary concepts I can think of!
To me it looks as though blockchain represents the potential for a future we all want, in stark contrast to the future dictated by the largest corporations. I admit that Trump is extremely crude in comparison to the potential of Blockchain, but what we want and need is the disruption of all the systems which seek to enslave us. While Trump may be nothing more than a puppet/moron, I felt that he at one point had the potential to be just as disruptive as Blockchain technologies and for that reason I supported him openly. Every time I think that perhaps it wasn't so wise to invest in Bitcoin or altcoins, I have to think that if such technologies don't survive or get taken over by the banks.. we're all fucked anyway. That leaving my money in the bank to collect minimal interest is probably the worst thing I can do and only contributes towards a future I can't stomach. We need to hold on the coins which have the most disruptive potential. When greed and fear seeks to disrupt the value of such technologies, I hope that more people hold as an act of rebellion against the system.