Voting At The Polls

Growing up in the United States I was always encouraged to exercise my right to vote, but was told to vote only via one method.

I vividly remember 4 U.S. presidential elections in my lifetime (Obama 2x, Trump and now Biden). Every 4 years tensions rise, and I’ve seen people turn their backs on others who got along great during the other 3 years in between elections. Everyone is bitching and freaking out over who should be the next president. I mean like really freaking out. In high school, me and some of my buddies used to tell the leftist girls we were hardcore Trump supporters just to get a laugh at their embarrassing reactions. 

But seeing how people were reacting during the Trump term and the beginning of the Biden term — doesn't it make you think? If you’re this worried about whoever is in charge, then maybe that person has too much power?

I remember voting at the polling booths in the past and thinking “This is kinda useless. In a pool of so many people my single vote seems worthless.” Pretty quickly it seemed to me that voting at the polls made people feel like they were actually making a change and participating in something bigger than themselves, while doing absolutely nothing in their personal lives. I couldn’t see how voting at the polls made any impact on what I, Nik, wanted to see changed in the world. No politician currently pinpoints exactly what I want changed and done. 

So if I want to see change and improve things for myself and family, I have to take matters into my own hands. I’m a big fan of the quote, “If you want something done, do it yourself.” 

Vote With Your Money

Voting with your money is something I understood from a young age. It’s simple and it makes sense to spend your money on things you like and agree with, while not supporting things you don’t like and agree with. If you don’t like what a company is doing, take your business elsewhere. 

The revolutionary thing about Bitcoin is that it takes “vote with your money” to a whole new level.

Governments have a monopoly on money. They can print any amount at will.  If you try to do the same, you’ll get hit with a hefty fine and/or go to prison. They enforce their monopoly on money with violence, threats and coercion. It’s not in any way a system that I am proud to be a part of, so I opt out. I trade all my garbage fiat currency for a different system that backs my ethics and beliefs. A system that I am truly proud to partake in. 

Every dollar taken out of the fiat system and stored in bitcoin is a vote. A vote of utmost importance, because it is literally starving the fiat system while benefitting myself and my beliefs. Using Bitcoin to vote with your money results in real change. You gain wealth from Bitcoin’s price increases instead of losing wealth from fiat's unlimited supply. Every sat earned is a sat demanding change from the corrupt system currently in place.

We demand to be treated better and since politicians won’t solve anything for us, we have to do it ourselves.

Vote With Your Feet

It wasn’t until I found Bitcoin Twitter that I learned and understood the concept of voting with your feet. If you don’t like how you are being treated, PACK UP YOUR SHIT AND MOVE! Take your business to states and countries that are willing to compete with one another for your business. The state serves us, we don’t serve them. If I don’t like how the state is treating me, I give them the middle finger and go to where I am wanted.

If you’re a Bitcoiner and choose to leave your increasingly left wing state, like NY or CA, for a more welcoming place, then chances are other Bitcoiners are doing the same. Over the past year, I’ve noticed a large outflow of Bitcoiners from NY and CA to better states. They’re taking their business, wealth, and families with them. A wealth- and brain-drain is happening in front of our eyes from states that support all the bullshit going on in the world today. At the same time, states more aligned with the values of Bitcoiners are welcoming them, their wealth, businesses and families with open arms.

People not aligned with you are free to live their city life in the increasingly authoritarian states, so chances are if you move out, you won’t have to deal with them at all. You’ll most likely end up living around other Bitcoiners, whether you know they are Bitcoiners or not. They will probably share a lot of the same values you believe in, and eventually a strong community will form. Filled with neighbors who actually know each other, get along with each other and help one another out. 

What I’m Observing

For as long as I can remember, people aspired to live the “big city dream.” To go chase their dreams in the city and challenge themselves. In my opinion, most major cities have currently been turned into complete communist hell holes. And now, after the chilling authoritarian response to covid, a blatantly manipulated election and more, people are fed up with it. People are demanding change, and they’ve realized they’re not going to change anything by voting at the polls.

In a world of so much disinformation and uncertainty, people are desperately searching for signal. I’ve noticed that major cities are all noise and no signal. People are gravitating away from that, and more and more are returning to suburban areas and land deeper into the country. I sense a switch happening from the “big city dream” to a “farmland dream.”

I’m seeing individuals desperate to move away from the fiat, city mindset and adopt a more sound and traditional mindset. Traditional families are the backbone of society. The people who actually have something to give a damn about, whether it be family, wealth, freedom or property. None of this “you’ll own nothing and be happy” city mindset. These good people will fight for the right things. These are the people you want by your side.

People will continue voting with their feet by moving out of the city, and once they find Bitcoin, it’s game over. They’ll fall down the rabbit hole, thirsty for signal, and Bitcoin will satisfy all their cravings. They will push to adopt a Bitcoin standard along with the other Bitcoiners living in the same area as them, resulting in real change. Knowing we have money and wealth, they’re going to treat us well or else we move away! The state serves us, never forget that!