Exactly, as evidenced by individuals such as myself. But there is a hardcore contingent of libertarians who are turning this into a crusade against govt regulation, and I, as a BitCoin supporter myself, do not want to be painted by that brush. It makes it easier to attack politically, when we should be discussing BitCoin with technological concerns and on its technological merits so that people aren't blinded by politics when considering it.
Then a good start would probably be to not generalize "Bitcoin supporters" yourself :)
On a more serious note, there might be a group of 'supporters' who are 'libertarians', but the reality is that their existence or notoriety really don't matter all that much.
If somebody seeks to generalize to discredit Bitcoin, then they will do so anyway - whether it's one libertarian or a million, and whether they're 'hardcore' or hardly noticeable.
As long as these people do not try to take an "official spokesperson" type of position with their personal ideology, they can be safely ignored if you do not agree with their point of view.
That's the beautiful thing about Bitcoin: it exists, whether you want it or not... and what somebody elses political views are does not change whether it exists or how it works :)
I guess the problem is I seem to be seriously outnumbered by the libertarian contingent, who seem to be the most vocal, outspoken about it. If I knew of more "liberal-tarian" supporters of BitCoin I would be more hesitant to generalize.
It is true that BitCoin can survive on its technological underpinnings alone. But I think we should change the way we are conversing about it so that we don't immediately make enemies of a large group that has an ideological stake in the govt being the only authority for any and all currency.
I think this becomes a real danger when we begin to legislate on something. The nature of politics is that it frequently conceals the truth. Otherwise intelligent people are completely unable to see the best qualities of something if they feel it goes against their political ideology.
