there's nothing wrong with ethereum focusing on cypherpunk values. CROPS is dope. massive ideological differentiator. something the world desperately needs.
the real issue here is perfectly encapsulated by the literal visualization of miladies in a manifesto that virtue-signals its apolitics and refusal to support ethereum projects. i don't really care whether or not you feel personally aligned with milady, or are eager to defend the fact that they're no longer an anorexia suicide cult and seem a little less vocally pro-trump than they used to. all good! you can support whoever you like. step back.
i actually don't think it matters much that there's alignment with an openly political group in this manifesto. every blockchain is ideological, and identifying that ideology is important.
what matters is how it punctures the very premises of the manifesto itself, as it should. it's a perfect reminder that tech can be credibly-neutral, but distribution never is. someone is always getting support. vitalik is talking up projects, ethereum is retweeting private companies, and L2s that were evangelized by ethereum are marketing their apps.
and this is not a bad thing! attention is not zero-sum, and supporting one app publicly does not hurt another; it gives them a path and incentive to winning public support as well. giving attention to apps, i would argue, is also *the real mandate* of ethereum in 2026. every blockchain is an app store, both as a play to develop apps *and* a place to distribute them. abdicating all responsibility to distribute apps at all is not just a death sentence towards getting anyone to build on you, but purposefully ignores every lesson of tech from apple's iOS to video game consoles.
and this is the issue of the mandate. it tells us its real mandate is *not* to support apps and focus on the tech, somehow believing, despite all evidence to the contrary, that the users will come, and the best tech will win.
just incredibly sad slap in the face to everyone who's been building here for a decade.