November Recap
Great debates & small steps
Dear friends of the Libre Solutions Network,
Despite attempting a mini-hibernation, I have quite a few updates to share! I was lucky to be given the opportunity to participate in very important and timely conversations and continue to make significant progress on my weight loss. I hope you’ll find lots to dig in to!
Geopolitics & Empire 🌟
It was my honor and pleasure to make my debut on the
podcast by joining to discuss the many potential futures of Bitcoin. I think you’ll get a lot out of it, even my own mother found Mathew more compelling than I was.
After the discussion, I’d looked into what MicroStrategy has been up to in the so-called “Infinite Money Glitch”. In short that the company is trying to position itself as the major institutional leveraged on-ramp to Bitcoin for all kinds of purposes. Like all ambitious financial strategies, there’s always a way for them to blow up in spectacular ways. If MicroStrategy is successful for significantly longer, my concerns will grow that Max Azzarello may have been right about there being a “economic doomsday device, intentionally made to shatter the world economy.”
That aside, the important question to me is how the Bitcoin community and wider ecosystem operates in the bigger fight against tyrannical governments and abusive corporations. There’s a lot of optimism in the space, and I hope it is followed through with decisive action. One of the more interesting things going on in the Bitcoin space these days is Nostr, the communities project at building a decentralized social media network. Regardless of how I feel about most cryptocurrencies these days, there is still a lot of reason for optimism. Thankfully, I find many cryptocurrency enthusiasts still very much interested in advancing liberty, digital and otherwise.
The Independent Media Alliance also recently hosted their own round table on the future of Bitcoin, which you might find interesting.
The Impending Global War Hypothesis 💣
raised an interesting question in Gates v. Musk - Competing World Views. Is MAHA being allowed to enter the halls of power for potentially nefarious reasons? We had a lengthy back-and-forth in the comments. I’m very grateful for hosting the round table and refining the different angles of our points.
I’ve been convinced that many of the assaults on the public, but especially ones that impact health are no accident. Which despite wanting to see these reversed, leads me to be suspicious about the sudden interest in going in a different direction. It’s notable to me that many of the out-of-nowhere figures becoming prominent will occasionally emphasize the impacts health has had on military recruitment.
I’ve realized that the ongoing “recruitment crisis” in not just NATO but around the world isn’t really a new phenomenon. In fact, Obesity has been a serious concern for recruitment as far back as 2010. Canada has already tried novel approaches to get more people in uniform. This all leads me to be very concerned about a renewed push for mass democide in the form of sending more young people into the meat-grinder of senseless wars.
In addition to all this, there is simply the basic ethical considerations of mass public health initiatives. In my own personal health journey, it’s clear to me that there “are no shortcuts” and that health can only be a self-driven personal pursuit. I am highly concerned that one of the major long-term consequences of the Covid Crisis is the complete abandonment of medical ethics. It’s clear that when public health initiatives prioritize a single metric above other considerations, ethics is usually one of the first things to go. While health is a good thing, it has never been so clear that the desire to optimize health on a population level can enable all kinds of terrible abuses.
Technocracy doesn’t just mean scary digital tools. Technocracy is in its simplest form a scientific dictatorship. I’m not quite sure a military dictatorship is much of an improvement. It’s possible that technocracy only ever exists as a “velvet glove” for the iron fist of military might. There are many digital tools I find highly concerning in the quest for health. Body sensors are themselves a very powerful tool of the technocracy that can be used at minimum to collect extremely invasive information about people.
Talk about a short-lived hibernation…
I really just can’t pull away it seems. Next time I talk about taking a break you all have advance permission to call me out on it and laugh. Just bear with me as I continue to push through until the new year. I’m still considering what I think is important to focus on in 2025 in terms of what I want to say and how. I really want to make 2025 the year of building. Finishing my RSS reader, and making other tools that may have a real impact.
Personal Health Updates
While I’ll keep them relegated to these monthly updates, documenting my weight loss journey is a high priority for me moving forward. I’ve gotten the feedback that the way I share my in-the-moment process has been helpful for others, so I plan to continue doing this.
I’m on track to reach my end-of-year goal! (100lbs down by 2025) Glad to finally be below 500lbs. Still have a long way to go, but I’m grateful to be making significant progress. I’m very optimistic about 2025 and where I can be by springtime. Getting up off the floor is something I can do easily now, up from not being able to do it at all when un-assisted. I’m learning a great deal, and I’m incredibly thankful for those who are part of helping me push through. It will be nice to see where I end up in 2026!
Walk with me
One of the new things I’m trying out is recording myself on walks. If I can get better at producing audio while being active, it can be a significant win-win for my productivity. If you’re interested in this kind of thing, I’d highly recommend following my personal site’s RSS feed with AntennaPod.
Glad you posted this Gabriel. I had somehow missed your appearance on Geopolitics & Empire. I'll have to watch it asap! Keep up the great work.
I have very much enjoyed joyed both of those conversations and am so over the moon with how well your health journey is going! Keep on pushing, friend! Your dedication is inspiring! ❤️