Bitcoin ETFs were just approved by the USA SEC for the first time.

Along with generative AI (the rise of LLMs + Diffusion Models), I believe we are witnessing significant and historic inflexion points. The last time I felt this was 7th Feb 2018 (Sydney) when I witnessed the launch of Starman (pictured).

Today, my rural life is only possible because Starman became StarLink. I've had thousands of conversations with people predicting Tesla's 'imminent death' (I worked there in 2017) and many other conversations claiming that Bitcoin and generative AI is a fad.

Bitcoin, Machine Learning and electrified transport are not fads or second layer gambles (like NFTs or sh*tcoins can be). Though scams and fads layer on top, at their very core they contain first principles innovations and value that cannot be extinguished.

I also notice that the strongest opponents to these innovations do not understand what they criticise. 'Bitcoin is a ponzi scheme going to zero!' is case in point.

But it's not about Bitcoin. It's about the relentless momentum of humans seeking out independence, growth and self-actualisation that Bitcoin satisfies.

It's not about saving the planet through 'clean' (lol) electric cars. It's about the engineering reality that electrification of work output is far simpler, more efficient and enjoyable than fossil-fuel based designs.

As a farmer, there are many things that still require dead dinosaur juice but the most pleasurable and human-centric inventions are electric.

Honestly, who cares about 'carbon reduction offset blah blah'. Humans just want their devices, tools and vehicles to be freaking awesome at their job and pleasurable to live with. This often means electrification.

Who cares about Satoshi's 2024 planned halving of the block reward to ensure BTC is a deflationary asset. Humans just want a store (and medium of exchange) of wealth that is immune to the corruption of politicians and corporations that run our lives in 2024.

Who cares about the transformer architecture and the arms race due to the quadratic compute scaling limit. Humans just want the Star Trek Computer that makes our lives easier and supercharges our natural abilities.

Now...if you're under 50 years old, you've got a lot of decades remaining. You will reap a real return educating yourself on the 'weird' terms I've dropped above.

Start by googling 'inflation' and 'fiat currency' to begin building your defence against those who would rob you blind of the wealth you've worked so hard to accumulate.

Every year between Christmas and New Year's Day we release a community message for the year ahead. 

A year ago, and during a time many were predicting a ‘return to normalcy in 2022’, we warned that 2022 would in fact get darker and it was important to ‘find lights’ and ‘hang around those lights’.

Our Christmas message this year will revolve around the idea of ‘being the light in every place' in 2023, and you can catch it on all of our social channels soon.

The Victorian election was a brief but false hope. It was important for the entire Western World because Daniel Andrews, Justin Trudeau and Jacinda Ardern represent the peak of insanity and authoritarianism in policy making (always for our own good, of course).

The people's reaction to their rule will determine the course of history as leaders everywhere learn lessons from their bold, conviction style of [bad] leadership.

The 'day of reckoning' never came for Daniel Andrews (VIC) and strong endorsements were given to Annastacia Palaszczuk (QLD), Mark McGowan (WA), and Justin Trudeau (Canada). How wrong we all were about Commonwealth citizens and their disengagement from the weighty matters of ethics, true equality, the rule of law, democracy and responsibility.

The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. -Frederick Douglass

This is how the world descends into darkness...with a grumbling but consenting polity who might wake up one day when the chains are heavy enough, but more likely will be anaesthetised into an numb state of dependency.

We've never had such effective technological anaesthetics as Netflix, Work From Home (WFH), and propaganda media to explain away the consequences of failed governance, failed education, and failed logic.

3 Steps You Can Take

1. Remember the Truth

We've had a powerful lesson in history making. Yes, ‘the victors write history’, but the truth is always preserved by brave souls who remember what happened, even whilst revisionist history wars are waged.

We cannot rely purely on institutions, experts and the media to preserve our memories. Censorship and propaganda are now endorsed from the heights of government and down to the hearts of everyday people. 

It is likely we will forget. In fact, it's already happening with faulty recollections of lockdowns and vaccine mandates.

So, do what you can to tell stories, remember, and preserve the truth.

Support truth telling projects like our Discernable Time Capsule - 120GB of un-censorable conversations on USB in a hand made gift box. We designed them to be palatable to even the most uninformed person, so you can buy these as gifts for friends and family.

2. Prepare Your Life

Dependence = Vulnerability.

This should be the number one goal of any wise human in 2023: decrease dependence and vulnerability, and increase self-reliance.

In this context, ‘self’ reliance include community networks and small, nimble structures that can out-fox encroaching governments and busy-body neighbours (mostly NPCs).

Distinct from the ‘prepper’ movements of years past that relied on suspicion of anyone outside your own home, self-reliance is all about taking responsibility for who and what your life interacts with: the friends you keep, the businesses you support, the ethics you deploy, the standards you uphold, the communities you grow.

We created 2 resources to help you prepare. Our Business Town Hall which has already helped a number of people replace their full time incomes, and our upcoming Life Your Way Town Hall where an expert in self-reliance will be teaching us how it can be done, no matter whether you live in an apartment, in the suburbs, or on a farm.

3. Get Educated

This is the key to taking over the world. The reason why so many people have fallen for propaganda, faulty reasoning and broken ethics, is because of the collapse of classical education.

When was the last time your kids came home from school debating ideas like utilitarianism (greatest good for the greatest number) or John Locke's natural rights argument of ‘life, liberty and property’?

I'm not a fan of email subscriptions, which is why I send you so few emails. So trust me when I recommend you sign up for these free email subscriptions:

Reclaim the Net - to understand where free speech, individual liberty and online is going.

Common Sense with Bari Weiss - solid news aggregation from a former New York Times writer who resigned in protest.

Brownstone Institute - regular articles from academics and esteemed writers who cut through propaganda and fake science like a scalpel.

And for God's sake, learn ethics. This is perhaps the most broken part of our collective education. We have no idea what our own personal ethics are and consequently we are being taken for a ride by those in power (both government and corporations).

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. -Voltaire

There are free resources like CrashCourse on Youtube who explain ethics concisely, or the best resource: our Ethics Town Hall:

If you walked into 10 Victorians this morning, statistically, 3.7 voted Labor, 3.5 voted Liberal, 1.1 voted Green and 1.7 voted Other. On the street at least, it is most definitely not wall-to-wall #IStandWithDan luvvies.

Daniel Andrews did however secure a strong win for the Labor Party in Victoria based on seats. The swing against Labor was commensurate with what any 3rd term government could expect. Which is quite a feat considering the corruption scandals and constant media haranguing across media (including by us).

The anti-Dan wave was a gentle tide that saw Greens and Victorian Socialists pick up a lot more support. 

A small fraction of disaffected Labor conservatives ended up with the DLP and much of the Liberal Party's conservative base losses went to Family First or freedom parties. 

The Greens and Teals stole support from both Labor and Liberal and deserve congratulations on being consistent performers at elections, no matter what you think of their policies or principles.

The Nationals performed exceptionally well and looks like the Libs were a drag on the Nationals. Many conservative Liberal types will point to the Nats as evidence why a return to unabashed classical stances is the path to electoral victory.

Inside the Liberal Party however discussions must be centering around 'buck the trend' gains like James Newbury in Brighton which will inevitably drag the party left, to keep pace with what we must all admit now is Australian culture.

Yes it's inner city, but the trend over multiple elections in multiple states and federally says that Australia is racing left (we can argue over the merits of that another time).

On a seat basis Labor retains a similar lower house make up. Massive chunks of support were sliced off Labor in its exceptionally safe seats in the North and West without actually flipping seats.

Victoria has spoken loudly that it is not particularly critical of Daniel Andrews' handling of the pandemic, the health system crisis, the debt or corruption scandals.

The left wing of the Labor Party secured a solid victory, and should be congratulated. It retains and entrenches incredible levels of control in the public sector, in the social culture of Victoria, and in the Labor party itself. 

Socialist Left faction Labor strategy appears to be a winning brand of politics in Victoria.

Now many already accuse the result of being unrepresentative when a primary vote in the 30s forms government, and the leader of that government makes such sweeping statements and Overton Window shifts to redefine a new centre. Yes it is unrepresentative, but it would also be the case if the Liberals won.

This is clearly Daniel's party, Daniel's state and Daniel's story, even though of the 10 people you meet on the street, only 3.7 directly voted for him.

He is a masterful politician.

He is so skilled that he has many convinced he is a 'uniter', even as he spews invective at Victorians in his victory speech!

The very people he claims to give no thought to were high on his mind as he made scientific health claims 'Vaccines work!' and singled out anyone who was unvaccinated. 

This makes no sense in a victory speech over his rivals the Liberals and Nationals who are statistically all vaccinated anyway (Victoria is about 90% double dosed over 18 with varying but high levels of triple dosed).

It is also eerily reminiscent of dark days, for those of us who have survived traumatic abuse at the hands of trusted authority figures. The feeling of being told we are 'imagining things' as we are beaten for our own good and told we are 'loved' is all too familiar.

It would have been much more productive to simply say 'We may have gotten some things wrong, but our heart overall is to govern for all Victorians. No matter who you voted for, you matter to me and I will be a leader you can rely on no matter your choices in life'.

So whilst Daniel's direct vote does not reflect the sweeping tone he employs in all of his statements, nor the shrieks by #IStandWithDan Luvvies on Twitter, Victorians quietly approve - or at least allow - Daniel's vision for Victoria.

It seems the CFMEU may have nailed the tone: 'Dan may be a prick' but he's our prick.

Now, we must take collective responsibility for what Victoria is, and will become, both good and bad. 

Even if 4 out of 10 people on the street might hate what happened last night.