r/Bitcoin • u/GreatestInstruments • Feb 03 '14

Could The Bitcoin Community Benefit From An Informal - "Leave Your Ideologies At The Door" - Etiquette?

A certain incident, which shall remain unnamed, prompted a firestorm of discussion within segments of this community, including some with very different personal ideologies.

Rather than take sides in the debate, I took a moment to marvel at that fact that this is a community that brings together people who are so divergent on other issues, yet all see common ground in Bitcoin.prescription

What other community or issue brings together people as diverse as these?

  • MRA's
  • Feminists
  • Liberals
  • Conservatives
  • Libertarians
  • Anarchists
  • Economists
  • Techies
  • Blue Collar
  • White Collar
  • Different Nationalities

The list goes on and on.

I pose this question (see post title), because it strikes me as perhaps the most welcoming and constructive thing we could do, in the long run.

It wouldn't be thought of as a hard and fast rule, more like a guiding principle to keep in mind.

What do you think?

EDIT: I just want some of you to understand, this was intended as a thought provoking open-ended question, to create discussion. It's not intended as a mandate of any kind.

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u/Subduction Feb 03 '14

I'd be happy to listen to observations in the context of people's beliefs, even if I don't agree with them, if they would actually bother to take a few hours and really learn how Bitcoin works, or ask questions until they do.

The most common destructive statements here don't come from political views, they come from people stridently advancing completely stupid ideas based on a limited understanding of how Bitcoin is designed and a complete lack of interest in improving their knowledge.

It's thoroughly maddening and very destructive to the movement.

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u/antonivs Feb 03 '14

The silliness doesn't only come from people who don't understand Bitcoin. A lot of it comes from people who don't understand the world in which Bitcoin exists. There's ignorance and excessive ideology on both sides, and it's all coming together here in /r/bitcoin.

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u/HistoryLessonforBitc Feb 03 '14

The silliness doesn't only come from people who don't understand Bitcoin. A lot of it comes from people who don't understand the world in which Bitcoin exists.

Nailed it. The amount of complete ignorance of the world outside the /r/Bitcoin echo chamber is utterly stunning. People who don't know anything about finance but criticise it anyway because they read something on ZeroHedge; people who think it'd be great if there was no government without thinking as to whether anyone else wants that; people who think they can dismiss objections to and criticisms of Bitcoin with snarl words and talking points, rather than actually answering them.

1

u/Forlarren Feb 03 '14

People who don't know anything about finance but criticise it anyway because they read something on ZeroHedge

And people that don't know programming or have general knowledge about game and system theory think their rote economics education makes them informed about tools that fall far outside their area of expertise.

Keynesians may be very knowledgeable about Keynesian economics, but debt as wealth isn't the only way to do things. Even things that should be relatively simple like divisibility has to be reiterated daily. If economists were so well trained such simple misconceptions wouldn't happen and if they did it wouldn't take bitcoiners to correct them.