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/

On 3/22/2021 at 9:20 AM, Strictlylogical said:

BUT once in a truly free economy why should I want to have anything to do with the stuff?

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:

On 5/10/2020 at 5:54 PM, jts said:

Has the Objectivist movement deteriorated so much as to take conspiracy theories seriously?

 

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?

On 3/17/2020 at 2:01 PM, Peter said:

I wonder if elevation has anything to do with West Virginia reporting zero cases? Does elevation have something to do with it? Nope. Colorado has 160 cases. And “Rocky Mountain High” or smoking Maryjane has nothing to do with immunity but it may make you more susceptible. WV is sparsely populated too.

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:

Quote

LISTEN TO THE EXPERTS!

You should have listened to the experts when they told you to wear a mask! ..... and when they told you not to.

You should have listened when they said the mortality rate was over 4%! ... and later when they said is was less than a tenth of that.

You should have listened when they said that even asymptomatic people who have Covid-19 can spread it! ... and when they said maybe they can't.

You should have listened when they said that touching surfaces touched by someone with Covid-19 can give you it! ... and when they said it probably can't.

You should have listened when they said the goal was just to flatten the curve! ... and when they kept advocating shutdowns (for no apparent reason) long after the curve was flattened.

You should have listened when they said no one has had this before and no one has immunity to it! ... and when they decided that millions of people have already had it, recovered, and developed immunity.

You should have listened when they said that once you get it, you won't get it again ... and when they changed their minds about that ... and then when they changed their minds back again.

You should have listened when they said that this just showed up in March and we should all have panicked then ... and when they decided that it was already here many weeks before that.

But most of all, you should DEFINITELY believe that, based on the ever-changing, random and arbitrary declarations of these supposed "experts" and their routinely bullshit "models" which are constantly WAY off, we should throw away freedom and our ability to make our own choices, and let "government" control everything!

I mean, what could possibly go wrong if we do that?

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:

15 hours ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

Chris,

Here is the thread I made that prompted the guy to show up.

A Different Kind of Objectivist Romance

I looked this up because the name Socrates rang a bell from videos I had seen, then I remembered the name Anthony Johnson.

The thread dealt with one weird case to me. Johnson was proposing to breed certain kinds of women out of the human race and claimed that blow jobs were not sex.

He really did and I'm funning in the way I framed it, but I felt for the guy.

He didn't post on OL, though. Instead, a person from San Diego named "Mike Olberding" got in touch with me offline soon after this thread went up. He wanted to talk personally with me about some issue involving coauthorship for a book on golfing or something like that. But the personal message thread was called "Relationship," so it was pretty obvious that this was Johnson. Anyway, we talked on the phone and his real issue was about writing an autobiography, but I don't remember it well. The questions he had involved storytelling. I know something I said clicked and seemed to have solved a problem for him in framing the story. He soon signed off and we have not communicated since.

That's about all I've got on Anthony Johnson.

I tried to watch the videos you posted, but I couldn't get through more than about 10 minutes of each. I saw that these people got wound up--that the matter and personal spats were important to them. I just don't resonate with this niche.

In fact, during the Rand Branden split, I imagine people outside of O-Land who looked in felt the same as I do about this manosphere feud.

The main theme from the outside appears like squabbles over money and fame and power within a small space, but from within the space, people treat it as massive betrayals that threaten the future of mankind.  

I don't mean to make light of this for insiders. After all, within the Rand-Branden thing, I played a small part when that awful book by Valliant came out.

Right now, I'm merely reporting what I see when I look at it from different perspectives.

Michael

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:
 

4 hours ago, Brant Gaede said:

Your stew might work except for the bag of sugar you threw in.

I guess Trump owes his success with women to being a billionaire.

Nathaniel met Barbara before either met Ayn. And Ayn went bonkers over him before any "cult" came into existence.

His third wife, Devers, was about as far from cult stricken as imaginable.

 --Brant

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.

On 1/21/2020 at 12:23 PM, Brant Gaede said:

Nathaniel Branden was very successful with women. His second wife died tragically. If not for that he'd likely had just two marriages.

--Brant

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.

On 1/21/2020 at 10:35 AM, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

Chris,

I don't mean this to be critical of you. It's just the way I try to see things at first.

Enough preface and here goes.

Why take any side in a breakup?

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?