The consensus so far today is that I’m a bitter blogger. Eh, if the shoe fits. My girlfriend, parents, and friends have said something similar. Then again, before I began blogging I was told that I was negative. The opinions of internet commenters and bloggers is no skin. The problem is that negativity is too often conflated with unhappiness.
Mike, the proprietor of the blog Danger and Play has some advice for me. He prefaces his advice by stating that I’m an “outstanding writer” but that I focus on racial issues too often.
I’ll talk about myself for a second and then proceed to the advice: The misconception is that I’m fundamentally unhappy. I can’t convince anyone through this medium that I’m not an unhappy person. You’d have to take my word for it that I’m of above average happiness. My job is very low status, but I make good enough money to be able to pay my bills and do other things that I like to do. My blogging which is generally reactionary has little to do with the current facts of my life. I believe it is possible to hold two views of the world – there can be an incongruency between your view of the external or distant and the internal or proximal. I consider myself a negative optimist. Or maybe a positive pessimist. My recent writings on being frustrated with our education system and the empty degrees it churns out is not a complaint about how my current life sucks; it’s a complaint about a system through which I’ve traveled. A system through which a lot of people have traveled. These complaints would still exist despite how much money I had in my bank account. Perhaps if I just made money off of my criticisms then everything would be copacetic? Yes, that is my ideal, and I’ve worked at making that happen.
There is nothing wrong with Mike’s advice, per se. It has worked for many people. He thinks I should perhaps start a personal finance blog, perhaps one specifically geared towards men. “Promote your blog to your manosphere buddies.” “Write an ebook”. And then he suggests that I start promoting the “iHerb coupon code.”
My responses to those suggestions, in order: I didn’t start writing and blogging just to write about anything; I can’t just switch gears to start writing about a topic that I have no desire to write about; I’m not calling myself Hemingway, but imagine telling him to write about stocks and bonds and how to get out of debt (if he had any). I could also start selling insurance. I’ve met some cool people and some good men in the years I’ve been blogging, but there is a lot of fluff in the manosphere. The manosphere, in general, is overconfident. Only a few writers in the community have had any noticeable impact. Most of the rest is just a “hustle” – a word Mike uses. That dovetails into ebook writing. There are way too many ebooks coming from the internet in general and the manosphere in particular. Not everyone should write a book, and I’m not content to create a book and then pass it like a soppy joint among members of the manosphere who are obligated to read it and tell me how awesome it is just because I scratched their back with the same veracity. And I don’t know what iHerbs are, and I won’t be promoting them just to earn cash.
See, blogging and writing is my side gig. For me, it is its own end. I came to blogging and writing from a deep personal need to express myself, not to make money or to be a positive influence on anyone or to enact change in the world. While I do sincerely appreciate all advice and feedback and readily admit that what Mike has written and what others have noted about me may enter some hidden vault somewhere in the back of my mind and express itself at some point in the future, I have to say that at this point I’m going to do it my own way.
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I’m dubious on the average blogger’s ability to really monetize. Maybe one can find a niche and carve out some passive income, but how many people would really pay for most of what bloggers have to say?
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Danger & Play is such a horrible generic manosphere blog, please don’t follow his advice. Blogs like that are a dime a dozen.
The vast majority of your readers seem to be older than you…so that’s your natural “market,” but not one that’s good for generating buzz and high traffic.
Being “bitter” and “negative” should be a badge of pride for you Chuck. Those words tend to connote a man. Not some affected ‘happy-go-lucky’ bullshit. Real men have the gumption to be mad, bitter, judgmental, etc. The rest can take their faux slap-happy nonsense and stuff it up their sweet (but not bitter) asses.
“negative and bitter”???
Disagree. I enjoy reading here because your humor.
An optimist says this is the best of all possible worlds, a pessimist is afraid he’s right. My rule is you are allowed to bitch about politics if you voted, if you don’t bother to vote you can’t bitch. As a hobby writing on line makes as much sense as anything. No different than BSing over beers with friends, just a wider audience.
get a paypal and I will donate…
Dear GLP: I get the same complaint in my Teacher Education program. On multiple occasions, I’ve had professors call me out in class as “unhappy” and “prone to gloom.” I always counter that I am personally quite content: married to a good man, pregnant, neither rich nor poor, healthy, etc., but that doesn’t mean I am blind to some real societal problems for which I see no easy solutions (especially in education). No one believes me. I haven’t yet determined why this seems like an impossible idea to academics, but it does get tiresome having to convince people who don’t really know me that I’m not a bitter depressive.
You don’t come across as bitter at all. You seem a calm and analytical type. If anything, your writing strikes me as dome by someone who keeps a measured distance emotionally from the subject-matter.
When someone says that you’re unhappy and then tells you to stop writing about something, I smell concern-troll.
The list of successful HBDers is quite long. As you say the social problems exist independent of the messanger. As I’ve gotten more successful these problems have actually bothered me more.
Chuck, your stuff on Trayvon or the media watchdog posts are good to read from a thought provoking perspective as well as pure entertainment. Monetizing a blog rarely works. Didn’t Half Sigma just mention how little the amazon links were earning him? Do what you enjoy; more income will come when it does.
People who say you focus too much on X, usually want you to switch focus off of X because conclusions and evidence about X make them uncomfortable. I’m not shocked the crowd saying you focus too much on race stuff brought it up in the first place.
It is possible that the world can become so messed up and the solutions seem to hopeless that being pessimistic is the rational attitude. In such conditions the optimists would have the maladjusted attitude.
BItter? Maybe
More importantly why did they never ask if you were correct?
The manosphere, in general, is overconfident.
And they’re basically selling overconfidence. “My life is awesome! Buy my e-book and hawk some herbs and you can be just as awesome as me!” The market is saturated with financial books and no one would give a shit what a waiter in Iowa would have to say about finance.
I salute you Chuckie. At least you aren’t getting involved with the ebook hustle.
I don’t get a bitter vibe from you at all. A “fed up” vibe, maybe. A “this is DEFCON level 1 bullshit, here” vibe… but that’s a whole other ball of chillax.
“The market is saturated with financial books and no one would give a shit what a waiter in Iowa would have to say about finance.”
Depends. Waiter by night, high-flying trader by day has a nice ring to it. One day, our hero waiter gets arrested for revealing insider secrets to a generously tipping patron. Hijinks ensue.
Of course, if you were black you would have gotten a nice affirmative action job right out of school just like VK.
I think it’s natural for a smart guy like you to be bitter about having a low status job.
Did VK agree that the IQ gap is partially due to genetics?
Sparks – “My life is awesome” leads to some silliness. The debates over — the deconstruction into minor parts as though minor imperfections really matter that much — the hotness of various girls is where the bullshit comes through. Many of us who read/write/comment are in our thirties. Katharine Webb and Kate Upton are fucking hot. When people start acting like such chicks are merely average then I call shenanigans.
If VK does think the IQ gap is partially due to genetics, then I think this kerfuffle is largely a matter of misinterpretation. What VK perceives as hostility is not directed toward blacks, but toward a society that makes discussing these differences so punishable, and organizes itself as if they don’t exist.
For example, I always had the feeling that Chuck started the blacks behaving badly series in response to “eracure.” In my interpretation, Chuck wasn’t trying to shame blacks for their disproportionate share of crime, but rather respond to the media’s policy of reclassifying black crime as “youth” crime, especially amidst the new trend of “beating the shit out of people for no reason (not even robbery)”.
Another example – most (all?) of the time Chuck talks about differences in academic performance he is doing so because the rest of the world is operating as if these differences don’t exist, which results in complications, unfairness, and inefficiency. Like in the case of black students who are admitted into elite universities over far more qualified whites/Asians but then struggle/drop out and probably would have been better off somewhere they were more qualified for.
In both these cases, as well as many others, it’s the system at fault, and I think that’s where Chuck’s focus has always been. For that matter, I think that’s where the focus of the other bloggers in this sphere has always been. Now, I can’t say the same about some of the commenters at these blogs, but that’s another matter entirely.
What you say about being happy rings true and matches my own experience. What some may perceive as bitter or negative, I see as the ability to see reality, to see passed the BS. I am pessimistic in general about the direction the country (and world is going in), so when I comment, it surely sounds negative. But in my personal life, I’m not that way at all. I’ve lived a good life, and am comfortable that I see reality about as well as I can. It is what it is, and my being PO’d or sad won’t help. Day to day, things are good, so why not enjoy.
Making money. My wife is a great cook. People often say to her, “why don’t you open a _____________ and make some money selling __________. She says, hey, I’m enjoying this, I don’t want to ruin it by making it a job.
Why does everyone feel the need to give you advice (VK, Mike)? You seem to be doing fine to me.
Reality is often taken as “bitter” by ignorant, delusional dopes. And since the reality of America today is so relentlessly grim and trending worse, steeper and faster by the day, then anyone that traffics in that reality — such as you — is going to be seen as “bitter” by the skittles and rainbows crowd. The only way to “win” that scenario is to put on the same blinders they wear and march staunchly into the Great Progressive Future (copyright, Hope and Change Inc.).
Really, the honest and accurate response is: “I’m not bitter. You’re just a clueless idiot.”
And I agree completely that one can voice anger, even rage, at the state of the world (and you know, oh, the ongoing genocide of my race), but still enjoy dinner and watching this week’s “Downton Abbey” and reading in bed and whatever. Because if you’re not a Progressive then the personal ISN’T political, so I can be perfectly happy even while the Constitution is burned to ashes.
The Alt Right: We Can Keep Two Ideas in our Heads At The Same Time. Perhaps that is the new slogan.
well,
well put. i like to think that’s my point of origin on racial topics. if bitter is a word that has to be used, much of the alt-right is a “bitter” response to “pretty little lies” we, as a society, have been fed. it’s not a reaction to the group under discussion – it’s mostly a reaction to the people trying to blow smoke up our asses.
K I think you just made the point that D&P was making. Chuck believes he is talented and it is unjust that things turned out the way they have, and someone needs to recognize it. Well, life doesn’t work that way except by dumb luck. You need to prove to people that you’re brilliant if you want for them to pay you what you think you’re worth. That, or do it your own. Being negative is empty mental calories, it is the equivalent of drinking soda.
People think you talk about race too much? WTF!? I thought what we needed as a country was more talk about race. Maybe what they mean is that you are talking about the wrong kind of race/racism. Take a guess which kind they’d rather hear about?
Your writing/research on Trayvon is exactly why this blog is now on my daily surf list. Don’t change a thing, especially if you are reasonably happy with what you are doing. Ditto on the paypal, I’ll through some duckets your way too.
“I’m an “outstanding writer” but that I focus on racial issues too often.”
See Chuck, he is just looking out for you…
blogging is inherently somehwat bitter and whiny
By the way: “The Lion of the Blogosphere?”
Lolzzzololzzzlolzz
Eric Holder was right, we Americans are cowards when it comes to talking about race.
“blogging is inherently somehwat bitter and whiny”
So is fiction writing. Goddamned that whiny Hamlet.
“By the way: “The Lion of the Blogosphere?””
Full Shtetl Alpha.
“it’s not a reaction to the group under discussion”
Though of course, any offending group is fair game. When you had the BBB series going on, I put the spotlight on the ‘decent, law abiding black folk’ as complicit in violent blacks’ crimes against whites.
“By the way: “The Lion of the Blogosphere?”
Full Shtetl Alpha.”
See Lion, he is just looking out for you…
Don’t worry about black-centric outrage. Always uppity like that when it comes to all things black. Just wait til the talented 1/11th Negroes like chichoir show up and tell us all about shit that no one asked them to spill.
Disappointed in you, CH. You’re the lion. Don’t let Sigma taint the reputation. It’s like someone saying, “I’m the baddest motherfucker around here,” while the real baddest motherfucker chuckles at the fool. Sigma is so conscious of status and he tries too hard, that Jew. Here’s a better alternative: Heart of the Lion. The commentators can call him Aslan. Lionheart. Shit, even The Lion King has a nice ring to it.
Keep up the good work …..Its an inheritance….and anytime I say something negative about this society I live in, its usually considered negative when all I’m doing is pointing out the facts. Oh! excuse me I have to run my shows coming on “Housewifes of Atlanta” cant miss it, its so uplifting
Strong second to others’ comments that if anything you show an impressive capacity for talking about rage-inducing topics in a calm & measured manner (Sailer also has this gift). One nice result is that you come across as a mature human being with a relatable point of view rather than a shrill zealot spewing talking points, which too much internet commentary boils down to.
Also: I feel visceral revulsion for people pimping the whole Tim Ferriss “set yourself up as an expert by blogging for 6 months, then sell an e-book” scam. The internet is flooded with shitty generic blogs trying to pull that same con, which is disgusting considering that you can read the entire archives of world-class blogs like Moldbug’s or Roissy’s for free. Better to have people wondering why you haven’t monetized an excellent blog, than why you even bother writing one just to hustle for a few affiliate marketing bucks.
I put the spotlight on the ‘decent, law abiding black folk’ as complicit in violent blacks’ crimes against whites.
Which I never quite understood (I still don’t see how someone else’s sin is my fault). Until that point I thought you were fairly reasonable. That absurdity I simply chalked up as your excuse to decide that all black people are pariahs.
Pessimism and optimism are a look back or a misunderstanding of things. Both are outside of what is going on right now.
Being hopeful and optimistic, or dreading and pessimistic – either posture can work or not; and neither is apprehending.
Social pressure to be optimistic might be considered feminine, or yin; but pessimism is not masculine. Masculinism would be before either stance. It may be irrelevant to consider the gender or yin yang quality, on the question of how life is characterized, but it seems in line with passivity and acceptance of things not right, not in one’s interests, the calling out of the contrary voice as negative or cynical. It is implied personal criticism.
Optimism and pessimism both are secondary considerations, especially and certainly when considered as feelings or moods that one can cultivate. When considered as postures of apprehension, rather than the resultant feeling, they are closer to the source, but still something else. Either attitude is appropriate at different times.
The last sentences of my third paragraph are a little vague, but the question was on the validity, or the nature, of complaining about things, such as the world and the state of it, and one’s position in it.
Using the word “complaining” is failure right there. If one is complaining, that is defeat. But if one is describing and writing and throwing out ideas, that is not complaining, that is working.
The question becomes, Who brought the negativity to the table? The big topics are fraught with worry, and wiser men might say what is there to talk about. But death and race and sex – the culture here, meaning contemporary society in the united states of america, for an example, is not dealing with these things.
Death? Go to the mall, buy some stuff, have a beer. Race? Yeah. Sex? What the fuck.
@Suburban_elk…contemporary society has never wanted to deal with such things and now we are suffering the consequences.
I second the motion: get a pay pal and I will donate.
Just keep doing what you are doing very well. You are able to discuss contentious subjects in a careful yet entertaining way. You are a talented writer.
Those blogs you linked to are absolutely insane garbage. Both seem to be caricatures of their BLOG GENRE Stick to what you like doing and don’t worry about making a dent in the world. Enjoy the little things. Zip a dee doo dah, my oh my what a wonderful day.
“The problem is that negativity is too often conflated with unhappiness.”
Indeed.
A negative outlook is not incompatible with a good sense of humor. I laugh as much as the next guy, I’m just generally laughing at someone instead of with them. Nevertheless, I’m still laughing.
If you believe things are going to hell, you won’t be happier if you try to pretend that everything is roses.
But if you believe things are going to hell for predictable and obvious reasons, it’s rather entertaining to laugh at everyones’ refusal to see the obvious.
Let’s be honest, you’re not going to save the world (or any individual) from itself (or himself). You might as well raise a glass and enjoy the show.
Of the bloggers I read, here is how I guess they rank from the most sanguine to the most gloomy in temperament
Mindweapons
Mencius Moldbug
Heartiste
Gucci Little Piggy
Steve Sailer
Foseti
Firepower
Larry Auster
Whiskey
Thrasymachus
This is one of four blogs I read every day no matter what is going on. I visit many more, but not religiously. All four are single proprietor blogs that consistently have great insights and are very well written.
A couple of weeks ago I searched all over this blog in vain trying to find a way to send some $$ Chuck’s way, then realized he is about the only regular blogger on the internet one can’t donate to. So please set up a Paypal button!
This is silly. Looking at the world and seeing that it’s not a perfect place — That in fact it’s a place filled with stupidity and blind ideology and tribalism and driven largely by unconscious and biologically derived impulses and motivations is not “bitterness.” It’s clear seeing.
Rhetorically this is the first sort of salvo in an assault on your character Chuck. First they ignore you, then they notice you and try to welcome you back into their fold. Then they smear you.
Its sad that Nexxtlevelup got so bad so quickly.
VK can only really write on working out and bar-hopping, and there’s not much else to say on those topics that hasn’t already been said.
I’ve been reading you for a long time. You have always struck me as the “happy warrior” type, not unhappy at all. Seems pretty obvious to me. Derb gets the same thing from people who misunderstand him, and has written as well that “no, I am in fact a very happy guy, my glum topics notwithstanding.”
If I ever find myself in Iowa, I’ll give you a complimentary handie out behind the Olive Garden. No homo.
“VK can only really write on working out and bar-hopping, and there’s not much else to say on those topics that hasn’t already been said.”
To be fair, pointing out liberal insanity is pretty played out too. And so is repeating “chicks dig jerks.” [Both are true, but the point's been made.]
young:
except political, cultural, and social occurences have some dynamism to them. lifting weights never changes and bar-hopping is pretty stagnant too.
“except political, cultural, and social occurences have some dynamism to them.”
Yes, the left keeps pushing leftward, so there’s always something to react against. But the fundamental truths remain unchanged, e.g. chicks dig jerks and blacks are more violent. There will always be examples of liberal insanity and black dysfunction to point to, but the underlying principles of race and sexual realism have been repeated ad nauseum.
No one’s coming up with a new paradigm, only continually pointing out that the fully hashed-out paradigm is a powerful explanatory tool.
In essence, this blog exists for the author’s self esteem and not for any productive purposes? The ability to see through Leftwing propaganda (rape graphic) and relate personal stories (restaurant encounters) are the only work done on this blog. The constant posting of IQ and race metrics are statistics mixed with heavy speculation and resentment (a la Roissy) that are lazy and dishonest. If it’s about forming a Reactionary political band or cultural response, then complaining that you “don’t get what you deserve” is code for “I can’t do it, let’s complain.” Politics and morality require catching bees with honey, and opening up your solutions to the will of the people.
Everything is health, wealth, and justice. You try to write about justice (namely liberal injustice) and then intersperse that with esteem boosting statistics on racial IQ and a personal plea to be pitied which is a siren call for the discontented to massage your ego.
This is not about you, this is about what you can offer to the world. You are a not a precious, little, snowflake. The fact that you try to hide behind “it’s what I want to do” smacks of pretentious entitlement. Meanwhile, wealthy charlatans like Hugo Schwyzer trample over justice on a daily basis. Your smugness and racism empowers him to continue his charade. If you did good work you’d drop the self pity and reform your tone so as to accomplish your goal of presenting the overlooked side of the case. Mike was not necessarily correct in saying that you had to write about finance when you write about justice, but he was write to call you out on self loathing and speculative racism. Bring race statistics to the table if they can help produce justice, not if they make you feel better about yourself.
Billy Smith,
you ramble. tighten your comments up and also start be dropping the premise that i and others who are sympathetic to HBD begin from the premise of needing to feel better about ourselves. that’s Ricky Raw’s argument but all he’s done is assert it rather than provide much evidence that it’s true or that it is the causal factor in most HBDers or HBD sympathizers coming to HBD.
I would imagine many HBD sympathizers came to it the same way I did: I developed an interest in evo-psych ’cause of some bio-anthro courses I took, which then led me to the well-known writers on the subject. From there it’s kind of hard to avoid. But my primary evo-psych interest is art/storytelling/humor. (Best example being On the Origin of Stories by Brian Boyd, also The Art Instinct by Denis Dutton, and looking forward to The Artful Species by Stephen Davies; currently reading Inside Jokes by Dennett et al.)
(@ Billy Smith)
For the record I’m not opposed to HBD. However, I can tell that C.R. often comes from a point of resentment. Also, the argument that you just do this for yourself and for no other reason is ridiculous. You want to frame political debates in a more neutral way, and in order to be successful at that you need to re-examine the way you approach certain topics. Making a blog about race and HBD will never catch onto anything worthwhile.
Well done, but the subtlety of your rebuke will be lost on a dude who earnestly advises you to start hawking iHerb products as the key to life. Come on man, just watch my short 90-minute presentation…
A better move would have been to ignore him as beneath notice, let your work speak for you, and let your admirers testify in your behalf. When I tried, even mildly, to put in a contrary word, they hissed at me, edited my comments, and then banned me. This is the quality of your critics, take them with a bullion cube of salt.
That NEXXXTTTTT LEVEL!!! link is even worse. At least DANGER presented his charlatanism earnestly and without sophistic pretension. The nagging fear of talking bluntly about race is the last cowardice they will ever be able to detect in themselves. The culture is too polluted and they are too supremely confident in their fortune-cookie wisdom to allow a straight-up examination of Capital-V Verboten topics. It’s easier to pretend they soar majestically beyond the need to discuss such déclassé topics driven so obviously by impotence and shame (watch the Eyes Wide Shut clip, and you’ll see!).
This episode also demonstrates why reticence about personal specifics, pseudonymity, and/or anonymity are preferable on a faceless medium. Self-testimony about positive traits are disbelieved/ridiculed by envious haters while self-testimony about negative traits are exaggerated into a bill of particulars for your summary condemnation (or worse, into an argument for pity).
Better to keep them guessing and filling in the blanks themselves: the content of their imagination is an insight into the fears and insecurities that drive your critics to superficial — and, let’s face it, bad — criticism. “I’ll bet he’s just like me, and this is what I did to fix myself.”
Matt
Matthew:
You’re exactly right about the asymmetric information between the blogger who opens himself up to his audience and the bloggers or commenters who don’t. i’ve always compared it to guerilla warfare. the guerillas know a lot more about their target than the targets know about the guerillas. that’s what makes it effective.
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Doubtless you’ve seen Derbyshire’s dismissal of the NEXXT LEVEL charlatans here:
http://takimag.com/article/arriving_late_to_the_hbd_party_john_derbyshire/print
High praise to GLC, considering the source.
Matt
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