Bitcoin Is the First New Religion of the 21st Century

Re:Bitcoin Is the First New Religion of the 21st Century by tacitusarc on Monday January 04, 2021 @01:57PM (#25636169)

In another thread, a commentor used the term nocoiner, which was the first time I had seen the word. It's pretty obviously part of "in group" jargon, used pejoratively to describe people that disagree about the efficacy of Bitcoin. Anytime I see made up terms used in a derogatory manner, I assume the user has gone too far down the ideological rabbit hole, and I can dismiss whatever it is they have to say without much consideration.

I think it does parallel a religion to some extent, in that it's like being called a heretic by a religion of which you are not a member. It's just hard to take seriously.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Bitcoin Is the First New Religion of the 21st Century by ur-whale on Monday January 04, 2021 @02:25PM (#25636560)

>describe people that disagree about the efficacy of Bitcoin

That's not what most people mean when they use the term.

It specifically means: people who do not own Bitcoin and are very sour to have missed a once in a lifetime opportunity and will attack it out of pure spite.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Bitcoin Is the First New Religion of the 21st Century by SideburnsOfDoom on Monday January 04, 2021 @02:36PM (#25636724)

That's not quite true. it's the mentality of "The only _possible_ reason why this person doesn't like bitcoin is that they are very sour to have missed a once in a lifetime opportunity etc."

Using that kind of pejorative term for anyone who's not in the inside, is very much cult-like thinking.

it's the same framing device as if I referred to "People who have turned their back on Jesus" instead of "atheists".

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Bitcoin Is the First New Religion of the 21st Century by weare138 on Monday January 04, 2021 @04:35PM (#25638447)

I've seen multiple bitcoin advocates make comments using that trope to counter any criticism of bitcoin no matter how sound the critique was.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Bitcoin Is the First New Religion of the 21st Century by ccamrobertson on Monday January 04, 2021 @02:15PM (#25636412)

While I don't doubt the term started as a pejorative, there was a recent post by a self-proclaimed "nocoiner" who apparently took ownership of the term: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25626184

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Bitcoin Is the First New Religion of the 21st Century by patorjk on Monday January 04, 2021 @02:50PM (#25636897)

That jumped out at me as well. I'd never heard the term, but it was instantly understandable. I'm not sure I'd dismiss someone for using it. From a communication standpoint, it does a pretty good job at concisely expressing an idea.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Bitcoin Is the First New Religion of the 21st Century by griffoa on Monday January 04, 2021 @03:46PM (#25637657)

I was into Bitcoin all the way back in the days, when they were free (I believe I read about it here on HN) and we had faucets and all that up until they were worth around $300. I had great hopes for the technology and was mostly just following stuff on r/bitcoin while also trying to built little proof of concept projects on the side, that could maybe turn into some useful gadget like a payment processing device or similar things.

I got out because it turned into exactly a religion. There was no room for questioning the technology or considerations about whether this was really as useful as we thought it would be.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Bitcoin Is the First New Religion of the 21st Century by armoredkitten on Monday January 04, 2021 @02:48PM (#25636877)

Even worse is the term "precoiner" (i.e., someone who hasn't "found the light" yet or whatever) which strikes me as about as insulting as saying to someone, "oh, you're not gay, you just haven't found the right woman yet"

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Bitcoin Is the First New Religion of the 21st Century by ppf on Monday January 04, 2021 @02:14PM (#25636395)

I saw that. I happen to know what "nocoiner" means, and immediately stopped reading.

[ Parent | on HN ]