I have been invited by The Diva to provide my thoughts, opinions and views on all things travel, crypto and living a free and private life in a world more concerned with surveillence and control. I'm not interested in puling any punches; my posts may even be controversial but some things need to be said.
But, who is The Grumpy Traveller?
Like The Diva, I'm a traveller. In fact, it is The Diva who introduced me to the idea of travelling on crypto. In fact, my partner and I are even travelling a similar path to The Diva at this very moment.
The last time I travelled, extensively, was over twenty years ago. This was a time before "smart phones" and "apps" and "social media". This was a time when "surfing the net" involved a trip to an internet cafe (which, strangely, usually didn't serve coffee). Travelling in the late 90s was still an adventure, especially if you were travelling off the beaten track. You still had to find your way around using maps and your own wits and you would (horror) have to learn some basic phrases in another language. Travelling two decades later and things are not as fun. Every street you walk down now has the typical "phone zombie" who you barely avoid because they are totally disconnected from what is right in front of them. And people, who sat in parks or on street corners, chatting and reading books or newspapers have been replaced with thumb-scrolling. Fortunately, there are still experiences to be had but they are more limited now, and the overall "feel" of the world has changed...for the worse.
But, enough about that, more about where I'm coming from. As I said, I was introduced to cryptocurrencies, mainly Bitcoin, by The Diva about 5 years ago. From there, I've tried to educate myself about its strengths, and, more importantly, how to go about using it...now...today. And with The Diva's help, I have managed to not only accumulate some, but also use it to fund my travels.
So, where am I coming from? Well, I'm very interested in privacy and have taken an on-again-off-again interest in politics which has led me to be very distrustful of politicians and the bureaucrats that support them. I think banks are slavery and think the current housing market is a ponzi scheme where the only losers will be "we, the people". Billionaires and three letter, unelected organizations are both our enemies and their own. And the majority of people are asleep at the wheel (or are, at least, unwilling to acknowledge there's a problem, content in burying their heads in the sand), happy to be controlled as long as it means shirking responsibility and self-determination. In fact, I'm convinced the whole system we currently have is systemically corrupt, run by incompetent morons who have no clue what they are doing or the dystopia they are dragging us towards. Oh, and I think that CBDCs are one of the biggest threats to modern civilization (like I said, I'm not pulling any punches).
And what, exactly, will I be writing about? I'm going to document a lot of the contradictions and hypocrisy I'm seeing during my travels. I'm going to discuss the corruption of the system and the way that it is undermining the rights and liberties of the every man. And I'm going to highlight some of the positive outcomes I'm seeing at the grass roots and suggest how they can be improved and built upon.
Ultimately, my opinions and views will be my own. You don't need to agree with them, in fact you can vehemently disagree. And The Diva doesn't necessarily agree with everything I have to say either, but...how does the saying go...she defends my right to say it.