Fundamentals of Fundamentals

Share on social media:

In this solo rip, I unpack why the term “Plebslop” resonated so hard and use it to frame a bigger critique of purity tests in Bitcoin culture. I trace how the pleb meme drifted from useful humility to low-signal tribalism, how post-FTX call‑out dynamics hardened into gatekeeping, and why “protecting plebs” became a trap for engagement farming. From my own journey—years leading in woke circles, failing their ultimate purity tests, and breaking with that world over the vaccine—I argue that the only test that matters here is accountability to your best self and the signal you ship, not your faction, identity, or rhetoric.

I lay out a standard for participation that rejects moral grandstanding and embraces ruthless accountability, rising standards, and real work. Bitcoin isn’t a moral credential; it’s concrete that must hold. So ditch the purity tournaments, stop consuming Plebslop, and surround yourself with people who will hold you to your word and help you clear the ever-rising bar. Episode one of “The Fundamentals of Plebslop” is a call to build culture that wins—by eliminating purity tests and choosing signal over slop.

• 'Rock Paper Bitcoin' podcast (host’s show): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rock-paper-bitcoin/id1686471174
• 'The Bugle Weekly' : https://www.bugle.news/podcast/

[00:00:01] Unknown:

Hey, everybody.   It's fundamentals. How is it going? So,   I am gonna do   a couple of these now.   Very motivated   to, explain. There's a lot of things that need to be discussed and explained.   The, overarching   conversations   surrounding Bitcoin, in my opinion, right now   are super low signal   and need to be raised   a lot, like a lot.   So I'm just one guy, but,   you know,   I think I have a a pretty good grasp on at least   what I wanna discuss.   So this episode, I think, is gonna be called the fundamentals   of Plebslop.   And that is really just an engagement   title,   but   because I really wanna talk mostly about purity tests.  

And   I think that's hard to do without the, great innovation   of two words called Plebslop.   And I have a lot of people asking me what   the fuck   is Plebslop?   Why, why am I seeing Plebslop everywhere?   And so, you know, we got a shout out first of all, the great   Rob Palmer   who,   you know,   I don't know how much people really know who he is, but,   you know, the superpower   this guy has, I think,   is   figuring out   a turn of a phrase that really   describes what we're all thinking.   And, you know, even if what we're all thinking is sometimes   unidentifiable,   doesn't have words,   and   it's just a feeling. And then the identification of it is like turning the lights on all of a sudden.  

The phraseology,   Plebslop,   to me, really captured something that a lot of us had been thinking for years.   You know, I got in   I really came into the game in '22, and that's, like, when,   you know, my consumption   of pled material   was like   Cafe Bitcoin, Simply Bitcoin,   and I loved it.   Not just that, all the books behind me, if the if I do this, if I put this out in a video, all the books behind me, the Bitcoin Standard,   Price of Tomorrow,   Visa, Rothbard.   These were formative   these were extremely formative   material   for me in 2022.  

But   in the sort of the podcasting game where it's like,   I don't know, a little more narrative and a little less substantial.   You know, '22 was a big year for, like, calling out shitcoiners   and,   you know, the probably the most well known one was Corey Klipson,   who, you know, just turned out to be   sort of a shitcoin minded   guy when it came to his narrative and it came to the way when it came to the way he ran his company. And   I've you guys already know if you're in if you're listening to this, there's an episode maybe five or six episodes ago where I   said my piece on   Swan, Corey.  

And,   you know, so you can all go listen to that. I'm not singling him out. I just he I think he I think he was probably I think he had the biggest platform probably for   communicating   with people that identify as plebs. And then there was this famous   slide   that was supposedly out of their IPO deck that said, we own the plebs or something like that. And, you know,   a lot of people going to meetups at the time started saying, you know, what's going on? Like, what's going on with that company? What is, like, what's what's going on with us?   You know, we all feel pretty good about Bitcoin even though we just crashed to 17 k. We all still feel pretty really good about it. You know, we're all going to our meetups. We're all   chugging along. Right? But we're like, there's something going on. This there's something going on in the conversation,   and we don't really know what it is.  

I started   my podcast.   Business cat and I started our podcast, Rock Paper Bitcoin, right, you know, few within a few months of that,   and we started talking about it immediately on episode one.   We call that a plebs life, and we were but we, you know, we were just talking about really what he and I do every day, but we talk a lot about   how,   like, I don't need the leaders in the community to be plebs.   You know? Didn't need that at all. Like, I kinda like the meme.   I was a big fan of the meme pleb. I really liked coming from a trad five background,   coming from a place where people, you know, needed that humbling, I thought that was very useful.  

And then I think I just noticed   over time   that   it just got very weak and low signal. This meme called Pleb became very weak and low signal and I started noticing it to become kinda tribal.   Now   just as personal background,   I never I never did anything with shit coins. I never did it. Never paid attention to them. Never cared about them.   I probably got caught up in the pleb rhetoric   around, you know, stay away and all that stuff, but, like, I was away anyway. I just, like, maybe learned   to be re really cautious.   I don't know. I I think there is this demonization   of anything related to shitcoiners that went on,   you know, particularly after FTX towards the '22. And then naturally as the,   the ordinals and the inscriptions started up, it was like, you know, get the fuck off my this is my house. Get the fuck out of my house. Like, you guys are trying to fuck my house up. Right?  

And,   clearly there were people that were doing that. Right.   But I just wanted to give background that, like, I'm someone who never shit coin, never cared about it.   Noticed   didn't really like it, didn't really like what I was seeing, but I was just noticing a tribal   just a tribal instinct. And then, you know, you look at people like Corey, who I think is the top of the food chain on this one thing, which is, like, I'm gonna protect you   from shitcoiners. Right? I'm a call them out. And he really like, I have friends,   like, good friends who   tell me, like, they owe   they owe, like, their livelihoods to Corey   for getting them out of these shit coins in time.  

So, like, you have to give him that.   But what I saw is this other little sinister little thread running through the community, which is,   like,   you know, we can't have nice things if there's gonna be a shitcoiner out there that might enjoy them.   Now I think that has been taken to an extreme   in what   I guess, I'll for lack of better terminology, I'll call this knots debate even though I think it's fake debate.   And I'm not sure I really wanna get into that here. Right? I just wanna say this is all to say that there's a there is a moment where,   like, useful   podcast rhetoric   turned into something we have identified   as Plebslot.  

And I gotta give it to Rod   for coming up with the words because we were calling it all kinds of things   before and they just weren't landing.   Low signal bullshit,   you know, engagement farming.   These things were just not exact   enough because   I'm sure everyone listening to this has just knows the second they heard Plebslop, the lights came on. Right?   It was like, oh my god. That's it. That's the thing. And these you know, words are really important.   You know, we went through, like, the dumbest period   that many of us   can remember   during a time where, like, people weren't allowed to use the word retard.  

Now,   you know, everyone uses it now and it really pretty much has lost its meaning. But the reality is not being able to say it opened the door   for   people to take advantage of our fucking stupidity. And you couldn't you couldn't in an economy of words, like one word, just   just dismiss the whole thing.   You know, that that that's just an example of, like, the, you know, the power of that word. The power of that word just saves us all a lot of time, you know. Just you can just dismiss   a lot of stuff as retarded.   Well, you can dismiss a lot   of things now as plex lot,   and   it's important to do so, but it's actually not that hard to do so. See, once the word was created, everybody now knows. Everybody hears it. Everybody knows what it is. You kinda know it when you see it.  

And, Plebslop is like the kind of the substrate of all of to me, all of the problems I wanna talk about.   So the problem I really wanna talk about   today   is the problem   of purity testing.   And so this kinda   I find this purity testing   thing to be, you know, one of the biggest and most consistent problems I see   in the Bitcoin space.   And, again, by way of background, I am a,   I hate,   I, I absolutely hate purity tests and I'm going to say something no one's gonna like,   which is I am above them.   So I make myself intentionally   above purity test. Now you might ask, who the fuck are you   to be above my purity test? Fuck you. You're not above my purity test. And I'm I'll say you're free.  

You are free to think that my friend. Okay?   But   I can go into who I am that I   that I say this.   So, you know, I think if you   I'm gonna take a step back before I do that though. So I just wanted to tease get, you know, I wanted to give a little tease and a little controversy, maybe a little provocateur,   little provocativeness   just to set this whole thing up and why I think it's it's important.   You know, I was I went through a very woke phase   before I got into Bitcoin. And when I say phase, I mean, like,   you know, I met my wife in, like, the year 2000.   I actually met her in 1999. It was December.  

But   2000 and my wife is, Ecuadorian   and   I am   white.   I'm also Jewish.   You know, that matters in this conversation and you'll you'll understand why later on.   But, you know, it's the first time in my life I started thinking a lot about,   like,   I'm probably gonna marry this person. I'm gonna have kids   that I'm gonna have to deal with this shit,   you know? And like, what is there even to deal with? Well, it's actually, you know, I don't know. Not nothing.   I I thought I was I thought I was ill prepared to deal with having, like, Latino children, you know,   Latino wife and this family, like, what I need to learn and understand. And that just took me down this, like, if you thought that propaganda, you know, if you thought it was like a psyop   in the year 2020,   you know, it's, it, it, it's been going on for a long time. And so I got caught up in it in my early twenties   in the year 2000.  

And,   I think I got caught up in it as a child, you know, just watching TV. I watched so much TV and so much of what we were raised with in the eighties was   woke,   you know.   And a lot of it was really idealistic messaging, frankly. Right? Which is like, can't we all just get along? That kind of shit. Right? And so   I'd say it was fairly innocent and,   like, there's nothing wrong with caring about justice.   I think things just turned really sour.   Well, the reason I talk the reason I'm talking about it at this moment is   that   be like, the whole woke game is nothing   more than a gigantic purity test tournament. And I think that's what a lot of things   in socially in our life is. I think most people for most people, the game of social credit is a is playing the purity test tournament and survive in advance   through,   you know, every event and every event and every event. And it's, it's just in the last, like five, ten years that they've like   exponentially increased the number of events to keep, you know, to really accelerate this purity test. Right?  

You know, I failed the purity test. I, I, I was in this game for decades. I was a leader. And when I say I was a leader, I want people here to know there are more people in the world today that know me as a woke   leader than that know me as a Bitcoiner. Despite the fact that I've written this book, I talk about it and my pal, my podcast, there are still way more people who   remember me and know me as   that woke asshole   than,   you know, than what you than what you'll you see me as.   I was really good at this purity testing game. I wasn't trying to be good. I just,   like, really felt, you know, I was very anchored to something pure   in my soul about it. And I think a lot of people in the Bitcoin game   would say that about themselves,   and I would agree.  

I think most people who get caught up in purity testing do so because they're idealists.   They have a very pure view of what they are trying to do.   And,   but mostly, they lack the maturity   to understand   that   the world just doesn't work this way. Okay. So I think I think those three things are   big ingredients   of this purity test economy.   You know, I'm fifteen years into my woke journey, and it's all very, very pure.   And then I come to find out I failed the biggest purity test of them all, and it happened on the day I was born.   Cannot be white   and have any relevance in that game.  

And I didn't know that until I, you know,   really was reaching for levels of leadership that   that, you know, now came up as,   you know, unacceptable.   If you're white and you're in the woke game, it's like, dude, just give me some fucking money   and go away. I don't need you we don't need you to be a champion and ally. And I was like, wow. That's pretty wild.   But   I am pure enough to be above that, and so I just kept turning on.   The thing that really got me out of the thing that snapped me out of that game was a purity test on my part,   which was the vaccine.  

And that community never saw it as an injustice, and I said, wow. This whole movement is fake and bullshit,   and I moved   on. Or you might say I committed the   worst purity test. I'm I committed the worst sin there was by basically   saying, you know what? This   you guys are all larps and losers, and I would rather be with the fucking racists than you fucking people.   So,   you know, ultimately, that failing that purity test gave me a lot of personal empowerment. Like, I didn't have the empowerment to leave that to see that, like,   to see that movement for what it was when I was caught up in the purity of it.  

You know, when I was younger and immature.   And so   that that this is the experience   I bring to this space now.   And,   you know,   this issue of purity testing   is a totally unacceptable,   it's a totally unacceptable rubric   for   existing in the Bitcoin space. And in my opinion, this Bitcoin is way too important. I'm not gonna accept it.   So I'm here to tell everybody I'm not playing your fucking purity tests.   I'm not   even acknowledging them.   And I'll fail them on purpose just to test   who is worth   spending time with.   So,   you know, first of all,   you go into these social systems   thinking,   thinking you're passing all the security tests, and then you come to find out that you failed by birth,   you know, and it was never intended. So I, you know, be,   I make it a point to let people know in the Bitcoin space   that I'm Jewish upfront   because I already know it's a fail of a purity test. I already know that. You know, nobody's telling me.  

It's also   fucking meaningless to me, but I know it's not meaningless to other people. And I know it'll be   pretty,   it'll actually be damaging   to a friendship or to relationships   if just down the road, it becomes discovered.   You know? And it's like, oh, this guy, you know, this guy was hiding his   Judaism for all this time. Why would he do that? What kind of person would do that? Certainly not some but and you know what? So, like, I I just think that it's   I don't know. I can't really explain my values here other than the fact that   I want this failed purity test   that is kind of in, you know, it's irreconcilable.  

Right? There's no world there's literally no world of Bitcoin   where   a person   who is Jewish is gonna basically be, like, invited into   circles other than, you know,   other than that they know he's Jewish and they know that he's kinda cool about it.   And because nobody fucking understands that, you know, I'm I'm not here. Like, I will have a fundamentals of Judaism   episode   at some point in time. I'm just saying all this to say that, like,   it's a fact that it's already a fail of the purity test. And,   you know,   you know, that's it. It is what it is. So   let's start   already. Let's start the game with that handicap, and I like it because then that really   makes me understand the bar.  

Okay?   I think a lot of people in Bitcoin don't understand what the bar is.   I don't mean the bar like that gives lawyers   their   credentials.   Okay. This is not a I'm not being comedy shticky or, you know, Jewish here,   but my brain is screaming at me right now. Like, you just went and talked about being Jewish, and now you're talking about lawyers and credentials.   It's not what this is.   And I'm not I'm not here trying to be funny.   So   it's it's just let's get this people don't understand that the the bar   is very high   to,   have signal in the Bitcoin space. And really, it's it's not just high. It's the like, there's a difficulty adjustment adjustment that's raising it all the time. And that's, like, the kind of thing that made that made signal from four years ago today's Plebslop   and why it's important to recognize it. If and if you're somebody who understands the bar and understands the difficulty adjustment and you're committed   to putting out signal   at all times,   then this doesn't offend you. This doesn't offend you at all. In fact,   you know, you might not understand why, what like, you just might understand a night might not understand why the same things that worked four years ago just don't work now. You might not understand that, but you have to you do have to understand that the bar   goes up every day. The fact the bar goes up every conversation.  

You know, part of the reason I don't do these solo rips too often is I have I don't   I don't always believe I can clear that bar. I never wanna put an episode out unless I can.   So in this episode, I really do think we're I'm going to clear something. I'm bringing something new,   and it's   fuck   purity tests.   Okay?   And, yeah, maybe it takes somebody who is already already knows,   you know, who already knows he's on the outside,   like myself,   that it just takes somebody like that to bring this messaging.   So let me tell you,   basically,   I don't give a fuck about your priority test, but you know what? I'm not like an idiot.  

Right?   I there is value.   So, like, I have to give you something. Right? Why would you pay attention to me?   You've already, you know, like, you've already deemed me as kinda, you know, a potential piece of shit. K?   So okay. So what do I do? What do I bring? I bring very high signal.   I bring a ton of I bring experience.   You know, I do the work.   And, you know,   I'm I'm really loyal to my friends.   And so, like, if you really wanna build in this space,   you know, you really wanna think about   selecting   people who are,   you know,   who are loyal, accountable, and don't respect fucking purity to to low   don't don't even accept low signal shit of any form.  

Okay?   This is, like, why I, you know, I love my guys at the bugle,   and all of my friends who I talk about because we fucking don't accept. We just don't   accept it. So here's where it really where I wanna take this conversation. Who the fuck am I? Okay.   So if you're a friend of mine, you already know this. If you're not a friend of mine,   you may feel it and you may not like it.   Okay? But who the fuck I am   is not a purity tester. What I test for   is whether or not you are bringing your best self.   So I run a meetup and I'm guessing most of the people in my meetup could could vouch for this.   If you're   if you bring weak something that's like if I like you and you bring some weak shit, I will kind of destroy you.  

You know, I'm not using this meetup to meet people where they're at, and I'm not using this life to meet people where they're at for the most part. I'm using this life to set the bar.   I'm like, I am,   you know, on the roof of this building trying to pull people up.   And, that's a hard thing to be, but I've accepted that that's that's just how god fucking wants me.   Not because I'm Jewish.   It's just, you know,   obviously, I don't know any other I I know very few Jewish people who think this way, to be honest.   I'm on the roof trying to pull people up, and the way I do it is by   is with a ruthless   love   for your best self.  

So   what I   and one day, I need Rod to think of a word for this so that it really resonates.   But what I provide is a absolute   ruthless   love   for your best self, which means a total   complete rejection   of anything else.   And people who know me know this.   I just don't have fucking room   for people to not be their best,   who who I care about.   So, like,   making excuses.   My fave one of my favorite ones is, like, at my meetup, you know, somebody who told me they'd be there. They don't expect me to give them shit for not coming. I I don't care. You know? I don't care if you come or if you don't, I want you to come. But what I really want you to do is keep your word if you say you're coming.   And then every once in, you know, somebody will come. So say they come, they won't, and then I'll follow-up with like, Hey, you said you were gonna come. What what happened? And they'll say something to me like,   Oh, man. Sorry. I was I was caught up at work. I was just orange peeling a   purity test   line   is a substitute for   the thing I care about, which is accountability.  

And I'm not doing this to shame them or anything like that. Everybody knows what I'm talk everybody who   everybody who's experienced that for me knows exactly what I'm talking about.   You the purity test   people   don't understand accountability   because if they did,   right,   they wouldn't walk around they they would be successful.   So that is, like, the basically the best way I could say it. The purity test people fail over and over and over again.   You know, these are the wokes. These are the fucking Marxists. These are people who think politics matter.   These are the people who play politics at work.  

Okay? Right? Do you ever notice that the people who are really successful at your job are the ones that, like, you're like, wait a second. I didn't know those guys were fucking friends. What the fuck? I thought they hate I thought that guy hated that other guy.   It's, you know, it's the people that can get over it   and have their eye on the prize, which is,   the way to do that is by ruthless   accountability   to your best self.   So people know I don't accept excuses. I don't like,   you're orange pilling. I give a fuck that you're orange pilling people. Like, don't   give me that affinity shit. You know? Right?  

Just say,   you know,   I gave my word.   I didn't keep it,   and I promise   I promise to not not do that again.   Simple as that.   No purity test required. Nothing moral about this. And here's the other thing. The purity testers love to moralize shit.   I,   it is so important to me that people don't moralize anything in Bitcoin. Bitcoin, I'm sorry for anyone who gets offended by this, but it's not moral.   It's not moral and you're not moral for,   participating   in it. You are not.   It is not and you are not. Bitcoin is no more moral than the concrete that holds up a bridge.   What the concrete to hold up a bridge needs is not fucking morality.  

It's needs actual strength. It needs to conform to the laws of physics.   Physics doesn't give a shit about morality.   Same way cryptography doesn't care about morality. Cryptography cares. Do you know the secret   or can I can I generate enough power to brute force it?   There is literally nothing moral about this. Now does it help, you know, does it help to have friends to be, to have share moral values? Yes.   But,   you   know, people get very carried away   and I think people are really bad   at moral framing in general.   And they'll think the less you do it, the better. So I don't even moralize keeping your word. I don't moralize   a lot of this stuff. In fact, interpersonal relationships tend not to be moral for me.  

They tend to be,   you know, are we helping each other? Are we better off with each other in each other's lives? Are we better off cooperating with each other?   And to what extent are we better off and to what extent should we,   you know, to what extent do I really want you to know how loyal I will be to you? Right?   Like   and I might love somebody   and not be able to work with them. You know? There's a lot of people I love, and I can't work with you.   And then there's people, like, I don't really like very much, but we share the same values for winning, and I can we can cooperate. I mean, this is like this isn't a new conversation.   Okay? This is all I have to say. This purity test bullshit   is bullshit.  

And it's time   to fuck it.   Ignore it. Ignore people who fucking do it and get it out of this fucking Bitcoin space.   And in order to do that,   again, you know, like, Plebslop   consuming Plebslop   is like consuming Plebslop and thinking you're gonna overcome the need to do purity tests is like,   you know, jerking off every day and thinking you're gonna, like, make an intimate connection with your wife or your girlfriend.   Like, it's   preposterous.   Right?   So you have to do the work.   So not giving up,   giving up the purity test means giving up the plebs slot.   And all of it means being being willing to be held accountable   by the people who want to do so,   and being willing to hold others accountable.  

See, in this world, we don't wanna do it. Right? We don't wanna hold each other accountable because we don't wanna be held accountable.   Right?   People in glass houses don't throw a stone. So if your shit isn't up to fucking par, what you do is you surround yourself with people   who agree tacitly never to call each other out on anything,   and   you just run around circle jerk each other.   And then you start imposing   purity tests on who gets to be in your little group. And the number one purity test is actually not holding you accountable.   That's something that everybody listening to this probably should think about. The number one purity test   that you probably   have that you don't know you have   is with other people is whether or not they're actually gonna hold you accountable. You they have to they have to be willing to essentially agree non verbally to never never really hold you accountable for shit.  

You know, just a personal side, man. Like   when my podcast partner   at rock paper Bitcoin   decided, you know, he had another child and decided we went to go to every other week instead of every week.   Fucking Rod Palmer is in my ear telling me that my signal just got cut in half and what am I gonna do about it.   Okay? This is what I'm talking about. This is what I'm talking about. The nope fucking plebslop, dude. This is like having your friends hold you accountable   for who you say you are.   Okay? If you're in a purity test community, it's it's just,   you know, just like, oh, Plebslop. You know, you can be anything you want. You don't have to podcast every week. You can podcast every other week and it'll be the same.  

You know, you can just do things or you could just not do things and, you know, it it you need people focused on winning and that are gonna hold you accountable.   Eliminate the fucking plebslop.   Stop the purity tests.   This has been,   the fundamentals   of Plebslop   episode one,   purity tests.