Absolutely no one faults you for selling your bitclout tokens for Bitcoin. Wow did you waste a lot of time accusing us of that! We all had BCH in 2017 so don't waste your breath!
Absolutely all maximalists fault you for CLAIMING the profile, because the process that bitclout made you go through to do so. They put in place a process which you agreed to go through, and knowingly did so. On this very page you admit:
"The trick here is that bitclout counts on this tweet to be an endorsement"
- And you then endorsed! Simple as that. You wanted the coins bad enough to endorse a shitcoin to your followers, and no amount of warning labels destroys that endorsement. That's the main reason. Stop blaming red herrings.
Something else you did here, in the beginning, that really ticked me off. You tweeted about a project, albeit neutrally, before you knew anything about it. Let's look at this act in some other industry, say, medicine. What if a doctor tweeted about a new prescription drug that the pharma reps are pushing on him but he didn't take the time to read 10 words about yet. How does your tweet look in that context:
"Would love to hear what my patients all think about ScamRx. I'll be taking a look at it over the next week - the first non-FDA approved drug I've looked at in a while. Here's my affiliate link to the drug's rep: BuyMyShittyDrugs.rx"
Sure, you warned them that it was an affiliate link and you haven't researched it yet, but you PUT THE LINK IN FRONT OF THE WORLD. You publicized their scam. The easily scammed could have a dozen different (bad) reasons to click on that link and you enabled that. Would they have without your help? No. Not while reading your tweet.
Face it Robert, you're a smart guy with a real gift for words, but you made a couple of bad decisions here. And no, I don't want you to "Bend your knee." I don't even know how you could do that in any useful way. All I can do is point out where you screwed up and hope you do better in the future, but sadly for you, it also means I won't listen to your -previously appreciated- writing/podcasts as often if at all. You've lost my trust & you're now exposed as a lessor thinker than I once had you pegged for.
Good luck on regaining that trust from your listeners, it won't be a quick process.
You seem to agree that "toxic maximalism" is a spectrum. You have called out the most toxic in this post but agree some level is vital for bitcoin to survive and fend off attacks.
So can you now address all the level headed maxis and at least give some sort of apology for your clear dishonesty? You were a hero to many and one of the most thought provoking speakers in the space and to lose an important figurehead at such a pivotal time kinda sucks and hurts many who held you in high regard.. hence the outrage.
To recap - what it looks like to many:
- You posted the initial link to profit for yourself - any other reason is disingenuous
- Disguised it as "research" (before even looking at it for yourself?)
- Got called out (obviously) and took it to heart
- Then tried to cover it up further, making it seem you think your audience is easily swayed
- Kept doubling down and being untruthful to your obvious original intent
- Now trying to establish damage control by donating it to core devs
- Wrote this whole article making out your intentions were always for the greater good - I doubt this from your earlier video admissions of thinking about buying shitcoin on the next cycle to dump on the uneducated noobs
- So many contradictions throughout this whole ordeal its hard to even process
You have let your ego and greed rule this completely and let it convince you that it's your free mind that's thinking. It's a true shame to see you go like this.
Please stop trying to convince yourself that you were doing a good thing in the name of research all along.
Yes we all like airdrops, easy money and forked coins but a person in your position should think carefully how public they are with their approach. Perhaps do the research for yourself first next time like I'm sure you do in 99.99% of your other studies.
Great article. I'm thankful to have stumbled across you as I began my own intellectual investigation into bitcoin. Your ability to articulate the truth of what you've discovered in your inquiries is a gift to mankind. As I watched this episode develop I was reminded of this Teddy Roosevelt quote. "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
Your ego is gigantic and your self awareness is near zero, the only people messaging you support are either scammers or morons that have made the same mistakes and also have huge egos so dont know how to say sorry. You shilled a scam and profited, just own it and everything is fine. This long winded nonsense only makes things worse.
Hmm, that was a long-winded explanation. You could have simply said, I cashed in on this scam coin. Not unlike the bitconnect scam, get out while the getting is good! Other people get hurt? Who cares, I made some scam money!
Bravo Robert. I’m certain the world is and will be indebted to your level-headed critical thinking. It is something that is sorely missing especially in political, cultural and academic discourse. Please keep up the great work, for many of us it truly is the light in a sea of darkness. 🙏
Robert is used to being almost universally admired and his feelings have obviously been hurt. Whether he could have done things better or not the reaction was a sign of the immaturity of a segment of the community.
Start thinking of everyone in the space as normal, complicated people and then you won't be so distraught when your expectations are defied. Some, like Robert, have what many of us see as a disproportionate share of interesting ideas that he is able to communicate in a clear manner. Don't let the halo effect lead you to overextrapolate about his other qualities. It is an unhelpful habit to cultivate for one's own sake and it isn't fair for the anointed saint.
This incident will have ZERO bearing on Bitcoin's success or failure.
Great article Robert, thank you for posting. Toxic Maximalists are stumbling over each other to write toxic comments which serve to perfectly solidify the evidence of your thesis. Toxic pride is dark, destructive, ugly—it’s scarcity—low energy, contaminated; distasteful. Humility is an energy of light, truth and power reserved and possessed only by the self-aware; its nature is abundance—those that have it, receive more of it. Pride is slow-motion implosion. Humility opens up unlimited possibilities, options, inquiry, innovations, knowledge. Here’s to Freedom Maximalism!
If Twitter used names like Fb or LinkedIn people would respect your right to free thought. Nyms give them a mask to be brutally honest and even exaggerate the truth. If you take nym criticism of your nym it’s not as harsh. Twitter is a battleground of ideas, not people.
I'm not even on twitter i hold a diversified portfolio and even this post is way to useless and long. So shallow breedlove. God knows who you think you are. Take a break it would do you some good. You aren't a god
Absolutely no one faults you for selling your bitclout tokens for Bitcoin. Wow did you waste a lot of time accusing us of that! We all had BCH in 2017 so don't waste your breath!
Absolutely all maximalists fault you for CLAIMING the profile, because the process that bitclout made you go through to do so. They put in place a process which you agreed to go through, and knowingly did so. On this very page you admit:
"The trick here is that bitclout counts on this tweet to be an endorsement"
- And you then endorsed! Simple as that. You wanted the coins bad enough to endorse a shitcoin to your followers, and no amount of warning labels destroys that endorsement. That's the main reason. Stop blaming red herrings.
Something else you did here, in the beginning, that really ticked me off. You tweeted about a project, albeit neutrally, before you knew anything about it. Let's look at this act in some other industry, say, medicine. What if a doctor tweeted about a new prescription drug that the pharma reps are pushing on him but he didn't take the time to read 10 words about yet. How does your tweet look in that context:
"Would love to hear what my patients all think about ScamRx. I'll be taking a look at it over the next week - the first non-FDA approved drug I've looked at in a while. Here's my affiliate link to the drug's rep: BuyMyShittyDrugs.rx"
Sure, you warned them that it was an affiliate link and you haven't researched it yet, but you PUT THE LINK IN FRONT OF THE WORLD. You publicized their scam. The easily scammed could have a dozen different (bad) reasons to click on that link and you enabled that. Would they have without your help? No. Not while reading your tweet.
Face it Robert, you're a smart guy with a real gift for words, but you made a couple of bad decisions here. And no, I don't want you to "Bend your knee." I don't even know how you could do that in any useful way. All I can do is point out where you screwed up and hope you do better in the future, but sadly for you, it also means I won't listen to your -previously appreciated- writing/podcasts as often if at all. You've lost my trust & you're now exposed as a lessor thinker than I once had you pegged for.
Good luck on regaining that trust from your listeners, it won't be a quick process.
You seem to agree that "toxic maximalism" is a spectrum. You have called out the most toxic in this post but agree some level is vital for bitcoin to survive and fend off attacks.
So can you now address all the level headed maxis and at least give some sort of apology for your clear dishonesty? You were a hero to many and one of the most thought provoking speakers in the space and to lose an important figurehead at such a pivotal time kinda sucks and hurts many who held you in high regard.. hence the outrage.
To recap - what it looks like to many:
- You posted the initial link to profit for yourself - any other reason is disingenuous
- Disguised it as "research" (before even looking at it for yourself?)
- Got called out (obviously) and took it to heart
- Then tried to cover it up further, making it seem you think your audience is easily swayed
- Kept doubling down and being untruthful to your obvious original intent
- Now trying to establish damage control by donating it to core devs
- Wrote this whole article making out your intentions were always for the greater good - I doubt this from your earlier video admissions of thinking about buying shitcoin on the next cycle to dump on the uneducated noobs
- So many contradictions throughout this whole ordeal its hard to even process
You have let your ego and greed rule this completely and let it convince you that it's your free mind that's thinking. It's a true shame to see you go like this.
Please stop trying to convince yourself that you were doing a good thing in the name of research all along.
Yes we all like airdrops, easy money and forked coins but a person in your position should think carefully how public they are with their approach. Perhaps do the research for yourself first next time like I'm sure you do in 99.99% of your other studies.
Your response was far worse than the deed itself, by all accounts.
Great article. I'm thankful to have stumbled across you as I began my own intellectual investigation into bitcoin. Your ability to articulate the truth of what you've discovered in your inquiries is a gift to mankind. As I watched this episode develop I was reminded of this Teddy Roosevelt quote. "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
Your ego is gigantic and your self awareness is near zero, the only people messaging you support are either scammers or morons that have made the same mistakes and also have huge egos so dont know how to say sorry. You shilled a scam and profited, just own it and everything is fine. This long winded nonsense only makes things worse.
Hmm, that was a long-winded explanation. You could have simply said, I cashed in on this scam coin. Not unlike the bitconnect scam, get out while the getting is good! Other people get hurt? Who cares, I made some scam money!
Bravo Robert. I’m certain the world is and will be indebted to your level-headed critical thinking. It is something that is sorely missing especially in political, cultural and academic discourse. Please keep up the great work, for many of us it truly is the light in a sea of darkness. 🙏
reputation REKT.
Robert is used to being almost universally admired and his feelings have obviously been hurt. Whether he could have done things better or not the reaction was a sign of the immaturity of a segment of the community.
Start thinking of everyone in the space as normal, complicated people and then you won't be so distraught when your expectations are defied. Some, like Robert, have what many of us see as a disproportionate share of interesting ideas that he is able to communicate in a clear manner. Don't let the halo effect lead you to overextrapolate about his other qualities. It is an unhelpful habit to cultivate for one's own sake and it isn't fair for the anointed saint.
This incident will have ZERO bearing on Bitcoin's success or failure.
Great article Robert, thank you for posting. Toxic Maximalists are stumbling over each other to write toxic comments which serve to perfectly solidify the evidence of your thesis. Toxic pride is dark, destructive, ugly—it’s scarcity—low energy, contaminated; distasteful. Humility is an energy of light, truth and power reserved and possessed only by the self-aware; its nature is abundance—those that have it, receive more of it. Pride is slow-motion implosion. Humility opens up unlimited possibilities, options, inquiry, innovations, knowledge. Here’s to Freedom Maximalism!
"toxic maximalism that goes beyond preservation of the core protocol rules becomes a self-negating cultural dynamic"
That is simply wrong. The core protocol rules evolve, as does our understanding of what Bitcoin is and what it should be.
All publicity is good publicity. You were played by a dark marketing scheme and don't even realize it.
what a load of shit. 100% unsubscribe. the toxicity will increase, not decrease. hope the 60k was worth it.
If Twitter used names like Fb or LinkedIn people would respect your right to free thought. Nyms give them a mask to be brutally honest and even exaggerate the truth. If you take nym criticism of your nym it’s not as harsh. Twitter is a battleground of ideas, not people.
Thanks for writing this all down. I am on my own journey and those who have gone before help those who come later.
I'm not even on twitter i hold a diversified portfolio and even this post is way to useless and long. So shallow breedlove. God knows who you think you are. Take a break it would do you some good. You aren't a god