algernonsidney

I actually think it will still be at least twenty years before the dollar "goes to shit." Most of the countries in Central and South America guarantee that, for example. There are many other currencies that stink worse than the American dollar.

Smart contracts and other things are also a part of the crypto space now. I am largely convinced that Ethereum will take over Bitcoin in a few years. Bitcoin was the first big one, and it was a great pioneer. Many of the other cryptocurrencies are learning from Bitcoin's mistakes. Litecoin tried to do that, but it's not been that successful. It is definitely going to get interesting. By the way, LTC still hasn't passed its all-time high in 2017. BTC and ETH passed that 2017-2018 high long ago.

Right now, all the Bitcoins in the world are worth more than all the Russian rubles in the world. BTC is #14. It's going to get higher: https://coinmarketcap.com/fiat-currencies/

Well, how do you get to a truly free economy? Do you think it will ever happen via the ballot box? HELL, NO. Do you think the billionaires will ever allow a truly free economy to happen? HELL, NO. Do you think the politicians will ever allow a truly free economy to happen? HELL, NO. Do you think college professors will ever embrace a truly free economy? HELL, NO. Cryptocurrency goes all around all these problems, and there really isn't much that can stop it. XRP (Ripple) has actually made a huge comeback recently, in spite of a crash caused by US regulations. The only way to have a truly free economy is to have an economy that can not ever be subverted by governments. Maybe it won't happen with cryptocurrency, but it's the best hope by far.

If you are interested in learning more about this stuff, I recommend this channel. This guy is really good and very passionate. He has uploaded hundreds of hours of quality content: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz5VudS3Xfile_p3OR7dQtw

You can speeding tickets in Japan with cryptocurrency.

You can buy Bitcoin at ATM's. There are anonymous ways to get it. You can get your own wallet and keep it on your phone or your computer. Bitcoin is being used a lot in places like Venezuela. It is also become a haven for people who have been de-platformed. Wikileaks started taking Bitcoin when everybody else kicked them off. That included credit cards. I do think we need an "AOL for crypto." We haven't had one so far.

Back in the 1990's, it seemed like Objectivists were on top of all the new technologies. When I went to the IOS seminar in 1995, about half the people had email. I had never met so many people with email addresses. I got onto Compuserve that November, and it opened up a new world. I also noticed that many of them were into Linux and open-source software. Now, I see the Objectivist movement and can't seem to find anybody interested in cryptocurrency. While they hate fiat currency, they ignore one thing that has the potential to destroy fiat currency. Perhaps, I haven't met the right people. But I do wonder: Why don't Objectivists seem to care about cryptocurrency?

Yes, I do find it interesting that there are some Objectivists who just dismiss EVERYTHING as a "conspiracy theory." Well, conspiracies have always been a part of history. They always will be as well. Here is the definition of that word: 1. the act of conspiring. 2. an evil, unlawful, treacherous, or surreptitious plan formulated in secret by two or more persons; plot. 3. a combination of persons for a secret, unlawful, or evil purpose:He joined the conspiracy to overthrow the government. 4. an agreement by two or more persons to commit a crime, fraud, or other wrongful act. 5. any concurrence in action; combination in bringing about a given result. Are Objectivists seriously trying to tell me that everything evil that happens in the world is because of a single actor? Are you going to tell me that Frank and Jesse James were both acting on their own and hasn't conspired to rob people? Rand herself called the Communist Party a "criminal conspiracy" to overthrow the government. Are you going to tell that gang rapes are just random acts?

Are you saying that conspiracies don't exist then? For example, do you think the four hijackers on 11 September 2001 were all acting independently? Was it just a coincidence that they all just hijacked planes on that same day?

People from West Virginia don't travel much, and people don't go there.

When and where did ARI support the bailouts of 2008? Please provide a source for this.

Richard Salsman has been very critical of the destructive lockdown policies, which any sane and rational person would oppose. ARI and some of the people there have been wishy-washy about them. Ultimately, I'm not particularly disappointed with ARI. That''s only because my expectations are so low. ARI actually invited this guy to speak at the virtual OCON. Here we have an "Objectivist" gushing over a man who has spent 50 years as a bureaucrat. During OCON, Amesh Adalja called Anthony Fauci "a hero" at least three times. He hardly ever said anything about free markets in medicine, although he did bring up the issue of certificate-of-need laws. After watching all this, it is safe to conclude that epidemologists are even more incompetent at making predictions than investment advisors at picking stocks or meteorologists at predicting the weather.

Anarchist Larken Rose sums up all this bullshit quite beautifully. This is how a rational person uses reason and logic:

I gave up on Jim Peron years ago. He has only gotten worse since then. He has been bashing Sweden for not violating the liberties of their citizens as badly as other countries.

Here is Anthony Johnson with Piers Morgan. Janice Fiamengo also makes an appearance:

I should have posted this earlier. Here is a summary of the Anthony Johnson video about Rollo Tomassi. It's only three seconds:

Yes, that is the same Anthony Johnson. He was constantly obsessing over Medusa and how she had wronged him. I don't know a lot about their relationship. I only watched the videos because I wanted to know the truth. There are lots of people claiming to be gurus, coaches, philosophers, and self-help experts. Many of them have lives that are a mess and should not be taken seriously. Would you hire a personal trainer who is 50 pounds overweight? I watched Anthony's video. I was just thinking: "Yes, this guy is an Objectivist." Anthony's behavior isn't that shocking because I've seen it in the Objectivist movement. There is a lot more than just dating and relationships at the 21 Con. Men talked about starting business, fitness, nutrition, clothes, and law. It really was about being the best man you can be. There was a lot of useful stuff that I have never seen at any Objectivist events. By the way, here is Yaron Brook speaking at the 21 Con:

What kind of success is this anyway? Both men have at least two divorces. Divorce is the biggest failure a man can experience. Most divorces are initiated by women, and most men lose a lot of money in them.

Branden was only successful after he took on the role leader of a guru. Cult-leader game has been known to work very well--see David Koresh. Peikoff himself is also on his third marriage, I think.

That is a good question. First, Anthony made some charges against Rollo that were very much the same tone as the charges Rand made against Branden. Here is a video Anthony made, and it is quite silly: Here is the response from Rollo Tomassi, which includes a few others: I have not totally disavowed Anthony Johnson. There are still some speakers I would like to see at 21 Con, but I doubt I will go back. I also won't be surprised if Anthony and Molyneux have a bad break up in the future as well. There is just way too much narcissism there.

I have an interesting perspective on all this. I was born in 1971. My parents were born in 1931 and 1934. My grandparents were born from 1894 to 1906 (I think). So, I had parents and grandparents who were all married before the so-called 'sexual revolution." The "system" that we had before all that was far from perfect. It worked about as well as any system we've had though. It look me a long time to realize that things had changed. Incidentally, the biggest redpill for me were some things that happened at the seminars at the Institute for Objectivist Studies in 1995 and 1996. It took me a very long time for me to make sense of what had happened and why it had happened. I still don't exactly who said what or why they said it. I do have a much greater understanding of all this now. I don't think it is that common for women to lie in court to lie to the police. There can be legal consequences there. I do think it is very common for women to lie or exaggerate in social groups, clubs, networks, and other things like that. And, of course, it doesn't have to be a lie. If a woman says something like, "That guy is creepy," the organizers of an event will bar the "creepy guy" from the event without asking for any facts. Guys like Neil Strauss, the seduction community, the manosphere, and other things are all a response to this kind of garbage. MGTOW is just one section of the whole men's movement. Unfortunately, Anthony Johnson also exhibits some of the most negative traits of some Objectivists. In 2019, he decided to rebrand his conferences and company. This lead to him parting ways with Rollo Tomassi (I don't know if this name is real or fake). The breakup was very ugly with Anthony making accusations like "conduct unbecoming a speaker", etc. It was something that seemed way too much like some of the bad breakups that have happened in Objectivism. Now, Anthony is embracing guys like Molyneux and Mike Cernovich. Many people (myself included) have taken Rollo's side in the breakup. In fact, I have gained a lot of respect for Rollo and the others for how they have handled the schism. As far as I know, Anthony has never been to ARI or similar events. I haven't asked him. Many of the men in the redpill scene are as much about self-improvement as anything else. They would agree with Francisco when he said that a man who chases women despises himself. One of the men at 21 Con said that "you will never lose women pursuing excellence." I found a lot of high-achieving men at 21 Con, and they were also guys who were high achievers when it comes to women. I have met a lot of men who are high achieving in their professional lives at Randist events. These same men are also very low achieving when it comes to women. Nathaniel Branden went through four marriages. I think Jimmy Wales has had three. Some guys are successful, but they seem to be the exception. I have not read Rollo Tomassi's books yet. I have listened to him a lot though. Rollo has not read Rand, although I do think Randists can sympathize with the name of his books. Rollo has been married to one women for 23 years and has a college-age daughter. Go here: https://therationalmale.com/

In late 2018, I attended an event called the 21 Convention. One big reason is that the founder is a guy named Anthony Johnson. He is definitely an Objectivist and has said so on his show The Red Man Group. He started the 21 Convention when he was in his teens and is now around the age of 30. Yaron Brook has also spoken at the 21 Convention in the past. During that time, he has re-invented his event several times. He initially invited men from the seduction community like Ross Jeffries and Steve Mayeda. He has also over the years focused on self-improvement, inviting fitness and business gurus like Drew Baye and Elliot Hulse. The conference has become more focused on becoming an anti-feminist or even a male supremacist conference. In 2018, it was clearly a RED-PILL conference. Unfortunately, Anthony has also shown some of the same narcissism that Rand showed. He has had quite a few bad breakups with speakers--most recently Rollo Tomassi and Richard Cooper. His breakup with Tomassi has been about as silly as the one involving Rand and Branden in 1968. Personally, I've taken Rollo's side in all this. He has gotten a lot of attention lately because of his upcoming 22 Convention. The 22 Convention is advertised as a "mansplaining event," with the goal of "making women great again." He has been getting a lot of coverage lately--almost all of it negative. Here are some samples: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-7838273/Make-Women-Great-convention-hosted-MEN-teach-attendees-ideal-women.html https://nypost.com/2020/01/02/mansplaining-conference-hopes-to-make-women-great-again/ https://www.dallasobserver.com/arts/florida-men-who-have-never-touched-a-woman-free-of-charge-want-to-make-women-great-again-11845861 Anthony's Facebook profile is here: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100024606491279 The 21 Convention is here: http://www.the21convention.com/ The 22 Convention is here: https://22convention.com/ Here is what 21 and 22 Convention speaker Stefan Molyneux has said about all this: https://youtu.be/PbuuSKLVWr8

Michael, It's not such a tall order. People from all over the world are travelling to Peru to go to retreats where Amazonian plant medicines are served in ceremonies. The biggest problem might be that the plants can only grow so fast. It's starting to boom, and some of the retreat centers are raising their prices because they can. The demand for medicine is definitely ahead of the supply. For example, kambo comes from a frog venom. Some people tried keeping the frogs in captivity. They found that doing this changed the frog's diet and thus changed the venom. It was no longer effective. I'm not really interested in jumping through the legal hoops to do this in the USA. It's been a herculean feat just to get marijuana legal in medical contexts. Why should I go through this when I could just go to Peru and avoid all the hassles in America? The most effective way people have gotten around the legal hurdles is to declare themselves to be churches. I don't know of any company which sells these supplements. If they are out there, none of my associates have mentioned them to me. I do know there are places who sell plants, which can then be brewed into the medicines. I know one guy who is going to spend a year with a foundation in Peru. I am Facebook friends with another guy who has been running a "medicine house" since the 1980's. I've also been to Peter Gorman's house twice. He used to be editor of High Times and first wrote about Amazonian medicines for the magazine back in the 1980's. There is also medicine activity going on in Ecuador, Colombia, and Brazil. "Mainstream" doctors in South America are also starting to take notice of what these Amazonian medicine men are accomplishing. I'm not sure of the legal status of the medicines in other countries like Chile. I'd like to apprentice somewhere in Peru. That would be the best start. The center of all this is in Iquitos, a town of about 400,000 on the Amazon. It's only accessibly by plane or by boat. The USA is a dying nation which doesn't seem salvageable at this point. South America will likely be the safest place to be in the next 100 years or so. Europe is totally screwed. Africa will still be Africa. I still remember Rand's essay "Don't Let It Go." Things have went way downhill since she wrote that.

Peru is where most of the world's Amazonian plant medicines come from. That will be my business. Do you have any helpful ideas or suggestions?