Firethorn, it doesn't matter, being all factual and stuff...
The whole point about certain people excitedly going on and on about Dread Pirate Roberts conviction and sentence is just a proxy for being upset at the idea large numbers of people can simply bypass the state and do as they please. Despite the veneer of factuality, it's really an emotional argument that you're dealing with.
Because of course, lessons were learned, and Silk Road 2.0, then 3.0 will be made better and more secure and anonymous each time the state finds a way to take it down.
The wisdom of using drugs recreationally, or abusing them because one is addicted aside, much like the nascent cottage industry of printing guns, or how the porn industry was one of the largest driving forces in the early days of home VCR's, and the Internet... it shows there's at least the possibility people will leverage technology to find more and more ways to disregard, bypass, and ultimately obsolete the state.
Granted, this can be tougher with things like "roads", but even there might be a solution. There the state can still use the physical threat of force, death, or imprisonment. But it gets difficult if those agents of the state are not getting paid. If Bitcoin, or something like it becomes popular to the point it attains critical mass, and people use it en-masse to avoid taxes, and employers and mainstream businesses start using it...
I'd never be so bold as to say this will one day be fait accompli, but anything that moves the needle even a tiny bit in this direction is very threatening to people with a certain type of personality. Low self-esteem, or other issues, some people can't judge their own self-worth without an external benchmark of some sort. Be it "God" or religion, a parent, and for some the state serves this function.
Some people just instinctively look to the government and the police for that pat on the head and to be told they're a "good boy".
