To quote the great philosopher Carl Johnson “aww shit, here we go again”. This is another amalgamation article. This franken-article is made up of several smaller articles that wouldn’t be full-length pieces on their own. However, if we have learned anything from being a young person in the 21st century, it’s that no thought is too unimportant as to suffer a fate of dying in obscurity. With that said, sharpen your pitchforks!
In Partial Critique of “Bad Therapy”
Recently, I listened to an episode of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck Podcast that featured the author of an upcoming book (Respect!). The book, Bad Therapy, sounded like an interesting read because it was advertised as a social critique of a widely-defended American hallmark (something I can relate to). The author, true to Mark Manson’s trigger warning, didn’t give an absolute fuck regarding who got upset at what she said. At the end of the episode, I knew I had to pick up a copy. While it was a vastly interesting book and was definitely worth the time, I couldn’t help but to share a few nagging complaints of mine, however minor they may be.
Essentially, my main gripe with the book is one of sampling bias. While I agree with many of the points she made in the book, the author never outright touches on the fact that this is a problem of the privileged. She mentioned briefly the financial incentive to see mildly angsty teenagers as patients rather than those in-crisis, especially when “the family pays on time” and “as long as insurance will pay for it”. Little attention was paid to those with low-incomes who struggle with mental health but cannot afford to shell out $250 per session that she quoted in the book. Being over-therapized is a high-income problem, though the author tries to paint it as universal when it clearly isn’t.
While never directly stated, I couldn’t help to shake the feeling that the issues she discussed fall along racial lines. The author spilled a lot of ink discussing the lack of parental authority in modern America, and all I could think about is how many racial minority friends I have/people I’ve met that have absolutely not had that experience. My anecdotes aside, the data bears this out. Again, the author assumes universality where it doesn’t exist.
She also brought up how modern Americans task adolescents and teenagers with responsibilities versus other societies. Don’t get me wrong, this was necessary and it drove the point home. However, my main issue was with her labeling of Japan and Russia as low depression societies. I damn near fell out of my chair when she read that out loud (yeah…I like audiobooks, judge me) and my second reaction was struggling to contain my laughter. On what planet are Japan and Russia low depression societies? Lady, are you fucking serious right now? That’s as ludicrous as saying that America doesn’t have an obesity problem.
With that said, do yourself a favor and read the book anyways; it absolutely fucking slaps…
A Recent Backhand Was Actually A Compliment
Every week, I consult someone who’ll I refer to as the Village Elder. During my weekly consultation with the Village Elder, I disclosed my newfound career goal. The other end of the phone went silent just long enough for me to wonder if the call was disconnected. Suddenly, the Village Elder expressed disapproval with my newly-minted desire. In fact, the rejection was so fierce that the Village Elder claimed that if I ever took office in the Capitol, that “another January 6th would happen”.
The reference to January 6th was obviously meant to be a harsh rebuttal, however it is anything but. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say that it was an accidental compliment for several reasons. Chief among them being that a repeat of January 6th (besides being my favorite historical event) as a reaction to my victory inherently assumes my victory in the first place. The Village Elder, who disagrees with several of my views, essentially conceded that I’m capable of winning a seat. The odds of an American making it to Congress are 1-in-600,000. For context, it’s more difficult than hitting a hole in one,. You’re far more likely to be hit by lightning or a meteor or find a four-leaf clover than you are to get elected to Congress. It has roughly the same difficulty as living to 100 and winning some Olympic bling (how ableist of me!). The Village Elder essentially called me an Olympian without realizing it.
I’ve been pretty transparent about running as a Libertarian, thus the Village Elder’s prediction carries another assumption; that the Libertarian Party will become a prominent player on the national stage. The Libertarians, as implied by the Village Elder, would be able to secure the women’s vote and win the Black ballot as well, becoming a force to be reckoned with. In doing so, they emerge as the leading third party in the nation; a party clearly capable of launching star candidates like myself into office. A supreme compliment, indeed!
Finally, it assumes that my presence would be too enticing for the public to turn away from. In fact, it is the greatest compliment that a candidate could receive considering that Matt Gaetz got an entire documentary made about him and his election victories do not illicit that level of a response (and he’s a pretty polarizing guy!). The January 6th reference tacitly acknowledges that my ideals are so tantalizing that my campaign would easily turn the average American into a pretty useful idiot.
Your diss track failed to destroy me…
An Ode to John Oliver (No, Seriously…Stop Laughing!)
My disdain for pundits is pretty well documented at this point. However, pundits aren’t completely useless either. Sharp and manipulative minds like mine are capable in seeing the value that others bring to the table, even if they are nothing more than a resource for me to plunder. To the long term readers of mine (all three of you!), I can practically hear your cries now “Dan, is it because you’ve added John Oliver to your fleet of canaries?”. While I love where your mind is going, no. John Oliver serves a different, though not entirely unrelated purpose.
Don’t get me wrong, John Oliver’s use isn’t due to his inherent value as a comedian; fuck no. Him and his cohorts are painfully unfunny. His show is useful to me, cringe-worthy as it is, for an entirely different reason; it helps me maintain FutureSense. Yes, you read that correctly and yes, I’m serious. John Oliver’s weekly far-left propaganda segment serves as a great exercise for me to test if my power of FutureSense is still working, and if so, how accurately. While I disagree with many of his views, I watch his weekly so-called-comedy show, as I am often able to predict down to the minute when he’ll use his catchphrases of more government oversight is needed and Black and Brown communities are disproportionately impacted.
In fact, I can tell which phrase is going to be used before I even watch the actual episode (it’s either-or with him). All I need to do is read the subject line of the episode and FutureSense tells me if it’s a more government oversight episode or a Black and Brown communities episode. It’s essentially a low-effort practice session to be used in addition to putting in the actual work. For this reason, I rarely miss an episode of his dumb fucking show.
He is the dyno to my rally car…
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