What Bitcoin Did

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A Bitcoin Civilization with Ragnar Lifthrasir

Peter McCormack

Interview | Description | Timestamps | Show Notes

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A Bitcoin Civilization with Ragnar Lifthrasir - WBD471 Peter McCormack

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Location: Los Angeles
Date: Saturday 5th February
Company: Guns N’ Bitcoin
Role: Chief Range Officer

Pro-freedom principles are deep rooted in the Amercian psyche. Liberty is a cornerstone of the US Constitution, which seeks to protect individuals from arbitrary and unreasonable restraint. The Constituion codifying what freedom means for the individual and the state, yet debate on the surface level extents of freedom in modern America mean deeper reasoning is lost.

Polarised discourse misses that freedom expects from the individual as much as it provides. An individual must hold and display certain values within a working pro-freedom society. This ideal comes from the ancient Greeks philosophy of stoicism: citizens should apply the virtues of wisdom, courage, justice, and temperance. As Aurelius would put it “be a good person”.

If the citizens and the state can both respect each other and act with values that are in concert with each other, then a pro-freedom civilisation is possible with all the benefits that this brings. But if the state is oppressive, the rationale actions of the affect individuals, and the long term consequences for their civilisation, are obviously going to be antithetical to progress.

In our fast-paced ‘fiat’ system where debate is dominated by short form communication, we are too quick to prejudge and pigeonhole people. Pro-freedom advocates are associated with far right politics. Yet, any long-form conversation with pro-freedom advocates indicates this ideology appeals to a wide political spectrum as it is predicated on sound and sustainable principles.

In short, slowing down and spending time with people we find our commonality exceeds our differences. That is the Bitcoin way.

In this interview, I talk to Ragnar Lifthrasir from Guns N’ Bitcoin. We discuss what it means to be pro-freedom, the role of the state, the importance of values to build good civilisations, Bitcoin groupthink, printed guns and the safe gun culture.

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00:04:17: Introductions
00:04:58: Recovering from the worst of times
00:11:05: Pro-guns and pro-freedom
00:14:35: Ancient Greek city states and the Roman Empire
00:17:13: The fall of empires
00:19:00: The downsides to city states
00:22:07: Pro-gun culture and broken civilisations
00:31:04: Fiat money reflects current society
00:38:38: Guns N' Bitcoin
00:40:11: Support for Monero
00:43:05: Defining sound money, and Bitcoin's volatility
00:47:49: Stacks blockchain
00:50:19: Bitcoin is cypherpunk money
00:51:31: CBDCs and free banking
00:54:12: The problem with maximalists
00:57:51: Twitter's role in the civilisational collapse
01:02:49: 3D-printed guns and general US gun laws
01:11:16: FreedomTech Conference 2022
01:12:38: Risks of exporting gun culture without safety education
01:16:54: Final comments

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