I created this blog as an excuse to write every week, and believe it or not, I've gotten back on track with regular writing work as well. I'm not going to abandon this blog, but hey, maybe it's time I don't post every week since I had a few excess posts anyway. But until then, here's some life lessons that are relevant to early 2017:
1. Content creators should understand both love and criticism but you don't owe them anything:
I'm getting sick of "taken out of context" from Internet celebrities and other personalities who think that means a free pass for constructive and other meaningful criticism. I'm even more sick of fans who will defend them no matter what just because they liked the material they've made. These chucklefucks think they can say whatever they want because they're famous, when in reality not only are they very obscure to the majority of people, but fame and celebrity does not excuse horrible words and especially not actions. And look, my college years were full of Internet content creators who I admired, but the second I learned harsh truths about them I separated art from creator, knowing I could still like the product but know what a sack of scum the creator was. Any shithead who can show the brains to make something I like is still a shithead, they didn't earn the right for me to defend them, and that goes the same for anyone.
It especially baffles me for the Internet celebrity. For fuck's sake people, this is an industry that thrives on being topical and relevant. You do enough stupid shit like this and the world forgets you in two months. The people who are defending when they can't be defended, they're Internet content creators, you are defending someone who's already made sure you won't even remember them soon enough. And no, the journalists are not "targeting" them, they aren't "jealous of their success", they're doing their fucking job. And this is coming form someone who has openly criticized news media on this very blog. It was over before you tried to help them, and they never earned your help in the first place. Let them bury their careers and move on to something you might care even more about. Oh, and be careful if you try to cozy up to them because you defended them, they may just decide to be horrible to you anyway, and that's not the right way to learn this lesson.
2. Be very careful on the subject of counter-spies and other leakers
Leaks have become a huge thing, especially in the last few years. Lots of people trust them, be they about video game releases or politics. I choose not to believe any unless it's from someone who is not only refutable, but can pin-point exactly reasons why this might or night not be true (And I stay skeptical anyway), or when it's been proven true by that point anyway.
I didn't think Red Dead Redemption 2 would be named Red Dead Redemption 2 no matter how many people linked a source saying so. It read like gamers completely forgot about Red Dead Revolver, that the series was a franchise before the most well-known installment. Instead Rockstar is capitalizing on it's success and being a direct prequel, so I believe it now but I'll stand by my original reasons for disbelieve. Things like that.
When it comes to politics, oh my God, seriously just look at where the source is coming from. If you don't trust big government spying, then why are you not remotely suspicious of spy organizations that do the exact same thing and can be paid off? So you completely hate spies that answer to the safety and security of a government but you completely love am independent spy organization who is openly looking for blackmail? You know the group I'm talking about, and see how much people hate them now versus during the election. I dare you to see people completely flip when they could have known how trustworthy they were from the beginning, even former members spoke out against them.
People in real life are shady, yes, but this isn't a movie. Most scumbags let the world know who they are without having to probe their computer files. Again look at advice number one and double-check with me how open people are about how douchy they are. Especially from groups that will make up the results if it benefits the people paying them.
3. Popular people tend to just be attractive and sometimes don't actually contribute the things that jealous self-hating types think they do.
I used to hate myself. Big time. I was very jealous of the people who would always get people talking about them when they were in the room. I always admired how much they seemed to get people's attention without seemingly doing anything for it.
And that was it, they did fucking nothing. This is only relevant in high school and college, college moreso believe it or not. People get popular because people want to fuck them based on looks. People get popular because they can throw around some spare money (and they don't have to be rich either). Hell, people get popular sometimes because they like all the overly popular stuff that populistic society tells us to like so we just sometimes assume they must know how the world works or some fucking stupid thing like that.
Look, popular people are just as lonely and cowardly and pathetic as you think you are. They are normal people who just so happen to get more attention, and honestly they rarely ever fucking earned it. I remember taking a break from college, coming back and finding all the popular kids were gone, and everyone honestly seemed to get along better and work things out better.
I'm not going to say if I'm still friends with any of these popular people, because that's how smart people realize this thing called PR, internet creators should look into that word, but it turns out that so many times those popular types are shambling messes and might even be more creepy or stupid or dickish or useless than even a self-hating person thinks they are. Again, experience here.
4. Don't sign up for a job you'll hate but don't be afraid to do a job you won't love.
One of the reasons the United States has a problem with jobs is not really the fact that jobs plummeted years ago. For one, unemployment did get cut in half, so there's that. My father's always put it this way: "We have more jobs, but a lot of them are fast food and nobody wants to work at McDonald's."
He's not wrong. There's this weird pride in America, that you have to aim for the highest skies no matter who you are and nothing else should be even looked at. It's kind of bullshit. Follow your dreams of course, but shit, calm down with yourself and realize sometimes you just need to survive, especially if you have a family.
If you know you'll hate it due to prior experience dealing with that sort of thing, than by all means don't put yourself through that again. If you've never done it, well, I'll give an example:
My first job was walking around town in a dress shirt and tie, handing out flyers. Everyone who took this job for class credits (which I did at first until I applied for work study and could do it for actual money) never even picked up their flyers, they assumed it was awful. I did it each time, and had my fun with it. Enough so that my boss loved me since I not only actually did the job but I was professional and good at it, and when I moved on to my next position I even started at highest wage because of experience and good words from my former boss.
For handing out flyers, sometimes in the rain, in a tie.
Maybe Wendy's don't sound too bad now, huh? Maybe the Mexicans aren't stealing jobs, maybe that was just a lazy racist spreading rumors so he didn't sound like a lazy racist. Ya see what listening to those people got us? Are ya fuckin' happy?
5. Life ain't completely fair but you just got to make the best of it.
Everyone dies, you can't always succeed no matter how hard you try, some people get away with anything.
That all sucks, but don't give up. Cynics, I've discovered, are not people who've seen the light and believe fate can't be fought. They're people who read the above and decided it was a good reason to never get off their ass.
Optimists have their flaws, as in not understanding the above at all, but their views on outcomes can help you understand the philosophy of realists, such as myself.
Life is what you make it, you will succeed eventually or at least go down swinging, and not everyone evades karma forever.
That last bit is looking to be relevant from what I'm seeing. :)
Goodnight everyone. Love thyself and try to be as good as you can.