There’s a lot to be said about the shit we’ve been seeing in the world — and much more of the ugly stuff is seen now that the curtains have been drawn back. Apparently men are seen as stupid and worthless and all this other stuff. I know you guys see it and I know many of you newcomers are waking up. To that I would say congrats, but it’s just kind of a miserable outlook if you look at it for what it is: a hostile world fueled by some bullshit agenda driven to make people either a) hate each other and/or b) hate you.

I’m 29. When I moved where I live now, I ended up in a group of friends about 5 years younger than me. Friday was great — hung out with buds, drank and played DnD. It was GREAT. Last night, though, I hung out with them, they brought girls and I guess people who were in their social circle. Reason I say this is because if you haven’t already guessed, adding women to almost any situation just causes chaos. It was just completely different than Friday — people behaving like animals, talking about dick sizes...stupid — utterly worthless crap. They played drinking games where they basically rated people in the group on their attractiveness. Yes, that’s a great idea, people who are friends are basically ranking each other now. One person basically told me “You’re not attractive — no offense.” That shit really, really got under my skin. Saw guys who felt hurt about it, girls were basically only asking about dick sizes, who fucked who, whatever. Never have I dealt with this in male-only group friendships. So I just left at midnight. They were like where are you goinggg — “Just tired. I’ll catch you guys later.”

It sucks. I mean I’m just a normal person but to hear a drunk person basically peg someone as good looking or ugly or whatever is just...soullessly cruel. Especially among friends! And for the veterans here, you guys know to not care what other people think. But for everyone else, when someone blatantly tells you “Eh”, it does affect you. It did to me. And while I’m sort of salty about it, I know what it all is — they’re young(er), obsessed with fucking, and want to get tons of attention. I mean, I don’t blame them, but I got that out of my system several years ago.

The reason I’m explaining all this is to get it out of my system because I’m still kind of pissed about it, and to also remind people that this is how THEY see you — either as an object to fulfill their needs, or a trophy to lay claim to. And the ones that don’t meet their impossibly stupid expectations are tossed like a half-eaten meal in the trash. You just don’t matter.

You need to remember this when you’re working with people, or being polite to people, or walking to the store, or paying for your groceries. Nobody gives a shit about you anymore unless you can do something for them. And you also have to have resilience when someone does come along and say something stupid to you, or when you find yourself in a group of people where their ideas of fun don’t match up with yours. You need to remember that for the most part, you have to watch out for you and protect yourself. Or you’ll get swallowed up in things that might otherwise be modestly significant, but will bother the fuck out of you because everyone else puts such significance in them.

Sure, it’s great to be good looking and have a huge fucking dick and make shit tons of money. But really, you should have those for yourself and nobody else. And it sucks because not everyone gets that stuff. I wish we all did. But the important thing in this, is that it doesn’t make you any less of a man if you don’t. You still have your life, your hobbies, maybe a dog, whatever.

Are you gonna let someone make you feel bad about yourself, like I almost did, just because they said something you didn’t like hearing?

Hell No!!!

Having that happen last night ignited a fire in me. I’m getting new running shoes today and running, and lifting (only had lifting shoes before so I couldn’t run well in them). I’m going to maintain my strength and lose a bit of weight. Not for them, but for me. Because when the day happens (and it will) when someone gives me compliments about how good I look or how awesome my lifestyle is, I will say thanks, and remember that every “you’re ugly”, every “how come you don’t make more money”, every “why can’t you do X” — those things helped me be better than I was. Because we work toward our goals and we surpass our competition.

Because we are men. Don’t let anyone — EVER — make you feel bad about who and what you are.