Quote from: elggawf on July 12, 2011, 02:03:30 PM

That thread is pretty much an indication of everything that's wrong with Bitcoin's PR, and with these forums specifically.

I know of at least three small businesses that entertained the idea of accepting Bitcoin, until they looked at the political discussions on these forums. It's off-putting to many real business owners to read what people say here. They don't want to be associated with hard-libertarianism, tax evading or government conspiracy nuts. It's almost turned me off a few times myself - I don't want people to think I'm only associated with it to avoid paying taxes, I'm only associated with it because it's a cool technology and a cool experiment in human trust.

I was having a discussion with a fellow on IRC a few weeks back, because he's a full-tilt liberal and I'm a moderate with slightly-libertarian economic leanings... he brought up about how misogyny is so prevalent in the libertarian camp, and that thread just provided ample ammunition for his case. "I don't often give my respect to whores" indeed.

I agree, mind you Mises and his pals didn't consider women to have anything worth bringing to the world other than their uterus's anyway. Libertarians are generally pretty misogynistic in my experience, they strike me as basically radical ultra-conservative in outlook, with private patriarchal power front and center over and above all over considerations, although this is never put in those specific terms.

I've often been put off from bitcoin by the dark undertone of bat-shit Randism that's so thick around here. Normal people giving the forum a look for the first time may easily dismiss the whole idea out of hand. The technology is a great idea but I worry it's biggest fans will eventually stove the things skull in with political vanity and rabid self-contradictory rants against Banksters, Keynes, Regulation, Fiat and Government.