Ignition I have spent decades questioning almost every aspect of how we live, why we accept things being the way they are and why banks have become so powerful. I have an extensive knowledge of the greatest scam in the history of the world (guv issued fiat) that we've all been subject to for decades now and what a house of cards it involves.
I am not a person that has "this attitude that empowers the existing way of things".
I seem to be having the same difficulty here with everyone not peering down into the next layer of the argument I'm putting up here but simply returning to their comfort level around what THEY think DRK is all about.
I love what DRK stands for, what Evan's created and the potential for the millions who ABSOLUTELY NEED this technology to set them free. I'm not thinking from within the constraints of typical brainwashed westernised financial slavery that has trouble breaking away from rules, regulations and the status quo. I'm specifically talking about the risk to DRK from a runaway incorrect public perception. Just because we know what it's really about and we know the potential for good does not mean this is how it will be understood by society in general. At this point I would say the potential for it to be seen as an illegal network supporting criminal activity is way way stronger than it being seen as a tool to set people free.
A branding/positioning issue exists and all the techo/libertarian/cool conversations in the world aren't going to shift that. It needs consideration along the lines of Nthelight's posting above.
I've worked for the banks, for many years, at a senior level... I've seen the ugliness first hand and I'm fully aware of what they are capable of...
If we meet them head on, using the same tools, we will never win...
By changing the way people think, you cut the snake off at the head...
I hear what you are saying, completely, I just feel that worrying about it and trying to combat it at that level will be futile... We will need to think outside the box and try a different tact...
Already now, my girlfriend watches all the commercial dramas on TV, I listen in the background sometimes, for the last 6 months they have been linking Bitcoin to money laundering, terrorism and paedophiles... What you are saying is happening now and it's a very real problem...
What I'm saying, is if we change our product or strategy based on fear, they have already won...
Okay, great. Agree totally, reset the platform upon which this stuff sits/get people to "think" using different tools/techniques (but we'll still need one foot in the existing modus operandi of "marketing/product positioning" or we'll never connect to enough people to get some sort of critical mass). The important point is consideration of DRK's outbound messaging is fundamentally important and we need to get ahead of the situation before it "forks" off into unrecoverability (look at any failed political campaign and you can generally see where the political party involved lost control of their message early on and failed to recover it).
I think Salmion's suggestion to get this going as a discussion on Darkcointalk is good and Nthelight's invite to that thread on the same forum where he's already put forward many key points around this same issue is worth accepting/being involved with too.