What’s happening with Matt (and others like him) isn’t bad intent or lack of intelligence. It’s partial detachment.

They’ve exited fiat money…
…but not fully exited fiat authority.

That distinction matters.

Matt is excellent at:
explaining why Bitcoin fixes money
identifying attack narratives
anticipating regulatory pressure
warning newcomers about state overreach

Where he stays stuck is here:
What will authority do to us?

That question still grants authority primacy.

A fully detached mindset flips it:
What can authority actually do that matters to the system?
Those are not the same question.

Why OP_RETURN became the fixation

OP_RETURN is attractive as a fear object because it:
looks “optional”
looks “human-inserted”
looks narratively controllable
feels like a weak seam

So it becomes a proxy battlefield for unresolved beliefs:
“If they attack this, maybe Bitcoin can be stopped”
“If this is misused, maybe nodes become liable”
“If liability exists, maybe sovereignty collapses”

But that whole chain assumes authority enforcement can map onto protocol reality.

It can’t — and never could.