You deserve good things

Friday 7/18/25

A popular video yesterday involved a cheating couple being exposed on a "kiss cam" at a Coldplay concert. First off, why anyone would go to see Coldplay is beyond me. I feel like a person doing so would be all of the information that I'd personally need to know about them.

The guy is the CEO of a tech firm, the woman doing this cheating with him--they were both married--had recently been promoted (of course), and this other woman next to them who knew all about it--I mean, she's right there--was laughing in a kind of "OMG! Cheating is so wacky! But it's all good cheeky fun!" way. She's in HR at the company.

I mean, it's just so...everything. How we are now. Almost everyone is a loathsome snake. I like snakes in actuality. Beautiful creatures. Mysterious. Invaluable cogs in the wellness of the environment.

Minus the snakes, the natural world would have problems. Less so the world of people, though.

I believe people would be shocked if they knew the real reasons for why almost everything happens. Just as they'd be shocked if they truly knew anyone else. Or even just knew them enough to know what they were really like, what their motivations were, the true nature of their character or lack thereof, how they behaved when out of view.

I'm always baffled when people express surprise to learn that someone was awful, like with an athlete, actor, or musician. If you don't think someone is awful, chances are it's because you don't know them well enough. If you did, you would.

People viewed as "good people" are typically just those who are best at keeping the most--and the most of themselves--back, and also knowing the very easy things you need to do to be "one of the good ones." What you need to say and pretend to care about.

Do you not get how easy that is for a Bruce Springsteen or Pedro Pascal? One broad gesture, one broad statement, and you have millions and millions fawning over your outstanding morality. You needn't mean it at all. It can be completely for show. It can take five seconds. You needn't do anything else. Not the real work. The roll-up-the-sleeves-and-help-humankind work. That's how easy it is to play people who never think and are typically incapable of thinking if they wished to.

Today I saw a post that began, "No one fakes anxiety..."

Cue the applause, right? This is how you play--pander--to the crowd.

People will fake anything. Especially now. They have no scruples when it comes to faking something if it gets them points and attention. People will do, and usually do do, whatever they feel is required for those two things.

But a post like that will bring in the followers. And then you can sell them your "life coach" bullshit, and have a line in the bio about how you post "relatable insights on anxiety."

The biggest racket in our world right now--which is also the crux of commerce--is the selling of lies that people so very much want to believe.

How can someone not see this?

Well, we basically can't see anything. Which is good for business, as such.

I click on the profile by this person, and every last post is a trite-ism. Because that's how you have to talk/write now in order to be followed, to have your brand, your "numbers."

If I get in your car and it’s 90 degrees and you don’t let the windows down… I’m just gonna assume you don’t like me..

Because no one with anxiety survives a hot, silent ride.

What does that even mean? Because what it means at the level of the sentence is that people with anxiety try to commit suicide in the summer by driving with their windows up and also attempt to kill their passenger this way, too.

You think DeWayne is aware of that?

I'm going to say, probably not...

Then these people just hammer the same stupid little bromide thousands and thousands of times. It's the same shit in each post. They simply keep repeating themselves because they have nothing else to say. Nothing to say.

Wouldn't you feel weird doing that? It'd be like me posting

Do you write today? Let's write!

Everyone write today!

Good writers make sure to write!

Raise your hand if you wrote this morning!

It's eight o'clock...do you know where your writing is?

Only you can do your writing.

over and over and over and over again. Hundreds of times a month, thousands of times a year.

And then I'd have 25,000 followers, allowing that I sucked at everything else and it'd also be helpful if I had an extra chin.

Because that's achievable, baby. You have to be seen by others as achievable. Whether you're DeWayne here or David Remnick.

This is how it is. The business model. What you need to have in place.

If you really want to strike it rich re: followers, then just post things like, "You deserve good things," because any idiot out there who sees that, whether they're a murderer, a child molester, any variety of scum bag, will think you're talking to them and them alone, and they'll feel heard and seen--or whatever idiotically oily thing people say--and validated and they'll like that.

They won't think, "Huh...I'm not sure that's true, I just touched a kid" or "Even though I'm a bigot?" or anything like that. Or, "I just Lorin Steined someone on my desk!"

Or even, "They could be talking about anyone."

Here's another one from someone else:

Real personal development isn’t aesthetic.

Again: What does that meaning? It has no meaning. It's someone who has no clue what the word "aesthetic" means. Don't let that stop you, though. Or anyone from "liking" that or following. The whole point is that it has no meaning. It could be anything. It can be whatever you want it to be. Just so long as it's not actually...something. (I'm seeing this a lot lately, by the way. We are no so dumb that we think the words "aesthetic" and "artistic" are synonyms, but you're extra smart if you know "aesthetic" and use it instead.)

People want to be lied to. The lie doesn't need to be clever or believable. It can be the most generic platitude in the world. They'll pay to be lied to.

But the truth? No. People wouldn't spend a penny on the truth.

In order for this to be the case, there has to be a retrenchment of morality, a surplus of ignorance, the inability to think critically, an absence of the strength required to look inwardly accurately, a surfeit of narcissism, and a preponderance of other people who are the same way, and having people who are only this way in your life, so that no one gums up these dysfunctional works with...gasp...the truth. And the unholy horror that is...reality...and not fantasy and delusion.

What a world. Isn't it wonderful how you don't need to make any sense? The words coming out of your mouth can just be random, nonsensical words. So long as they are. So long as you are not making sense, being incisive, being cogent, and being smart.

That's the trick of it! Babble. Babble. Babble.