Medium.com features a lot of crap. It’s just a blogging platform, with an added paywall feature and a limited amount of curation . . . and no editing.
I’ve also had limited success there. I’d be frustrated with the limited success, except I don’t get much frustrated by such things.
And besides, I’ve enjoyed my two years there. The proceeds from the paywall articles don’t even cover my booze budget—heck, they don’t even cover my hangover remedy budget—but I run across a decent article or two every week.
This past week, I ran across about a dozen. Two in particular stood out.
Remove Hate From Your Heart It’s Making You Spiritually Sick
First is my man Ayo. Ayodeji Awosika. This first-generation Nigerian from NYC kills it. He was the first writer I found at Medium. He loves to ridicule would be prose stylists like me, pointing out that online writing isn’t about style, and he’s right. And he has mastered the art of online writing. I read this young man pretty much every time I see a link to his article.
Added bonus: He’s worldly, from NYC with the experiences of an immigrant family, and avoids politics. If I had to guess, he’s a flaming L . . . Libertarian. This article that he published this week puts his libertarianism on full display, but in a way that non-libertarians probably wouldn’t even realize it. It’s excellent. His introduction:
Being bitter is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.
These days, my essays are focused on this cancerous spread of spiritual illness that’s infecting society.
We’ve lost the ability to see our fellow human beings as human beings. We spiritually disown people who don’t agree with our politics, who see the world differently, and who may have said the ‘wrong thing’ a few times.
What’s worse, all of this hate is manufactured.
You, most people, aren’t really filled with hate but when they engage with these forces that manufacture hate, they become hateful.
I can spot hoaxes and manufactured outrage immediately. It’s such a remedial playbook that so many people fall for over and over again.
I want you guys to all stop falling for this shit.
It’s an uphill losing battle, but I have this masochistic need to engage in it, so here we go.
A few of my favorite excerpts:
In reality, nobody actually gives a f*** about a black mermaid. We got bills and s***.This is a rhetorical trick people fall for over and over again. There are 365 million people in America. The law of large numbers leads to the conclusion that there’s going to be a handful of racist people who don’t like black Ariel. All you have to do is compile a handful of examples and make it seem like it’s a huge problem when it’s not.
If you want to be mad, don’t look left or right, look up.
Take responsibility for yourself. Hold yourself accountable. If you want your romantic life to improve, become the type of person someone would want to date. If you want people to treat you well, treat others well. Instead of making your fellow humans out to be your enemies, understand that you are your worst enemy and fix your self-sabotage.
I have a firm set of beliefs. There are ideologies I disagree with. But that doesn’t mean I have to be a dick.
Who is Andrew Tate?
Andrew Tate is the bizarro proof of Nassim Taleb’s observation that, if something is truly important, you’re going to hear about it even if you, like Nassim and me, assiduously avoid the news.
Even if something is truly unimportant, you're going to hear about it. I’ve ran across the name “Andrew Tate” way too many times over the past month. I had no idea who he is. Hudson Rennie gave me everything I (don’t) need to know about Tate.
Andrew’s full name is Emory Andrew Tate III, named after his late father Emory Tate II — a grandmaster chess player.
As the first black-American chess champion, Emory was a trailblazer. He also served in the military, practiced martial arts, and spoke multiple languages. A real-life superhero.
But, he struggled to make ends meet, living in his car for portions of his life.
When Andrew’s parents divorced, he and his brother Tristan moved from Gary, Indiana to Luton, England to live with their mother.
It was there that Andrew began his climb toward becoming one of the internet’s greatest villains.
Andrew began kickboxing and quickly fell in love with the sport.
For the whole of his twenties, Andrew travelled the world, competing as a professional kickboxer while regularly appearing on reality television shows such as “Big Brother UK” and “The Ultimate Traveller.”
Combined with a massive chip on his shoulder, these 3 experiences would foreshadow Andrew’s aggressive rise through the social media ranks:
Chess
Combat sports
Reality television
A dangerous trio.
After retiring from kickboxing in 2017 due to an eye injury, Andrew began making money on the internet — out of necessity.
Andrew didn’t go viral overnight.
Andrew has been creating content online since 2018, but didn’t start going viral until 2022.
He’s now being called the “King of Toxic Masculinity” due to his controversial opinions on patriarchy and gender roles. Here are some of his most controversial opinions (trigger warning):
“Women are intrinsically lazy.”
“Female promiscuity is disgusting.”
“Women shouldn’t drive cars or fly planes.”
“A lot of the world’s problems would be solved if women had their body count tattooed on their foreheads.”
