[FoRK] Radical Honesty

[Gary Stock]

Since others weighed in, I'll pile on.  I didn't want to read that article.

When I realized the other day that it was written by A.J. Jacobs, I 
expected it would be worthless -- since his writing usually is.  That 
turned out to be true, as usual, so my first decision NOT to read it was 
the correct one.

Jacobs makes up stupid tasks for himself -- like reading the entire 
encyclopedia then claiming to have been on a "Humble Quest to Become the 
/Smartest Person/ in the World"-- so he can have ~something~ to write 
about, because he's never had an interesting idea of his own.

He seems to be a very good self-promoter, though.  Somehow, he's managed 
to convince people at NPR that he's clever, so they invite him on for a 
ridiculous, insipid interview every now and then, after he gets done 
living biblically for a year, or wiping his ass with the other hand for 
a change, or whatever artificial garbage he came up with to generate 
another book or fulfill another open-ended contract.

As for the rude dipshit, Brad Blanton, who espouses Radical Honesty, you 
only need to read one line on page four of the article to understand his 
world.  After meeting at length with Jacobs, and exchanging a lot of 
email, he insists that Jacob will:

    "still need to take a workshop (price tag: $2,800)"

Namely, Blanton's workshop, which is the reason Blanton continues to 
push his selfish shitfuck lifestyle.  Regardless of Jacobs' assumption 
to the contrary, Blanton is, by definition, full of New Age Sewage.  He 
sells his selfishness to other people who don't have an original idea 
about how to be, and aren't interesting enough, or smart enough to be 
THEMSELVES even for a moment, and who feel "full of life" and 
"authentic" when told exactly what to do, and exactly how to be.

People like A.J. Jacobs.  See how that explains what happened here?  
Jacobs isn't a real person, and Blanton instructed him how to be one -- 
if ever so briefly -- so Jacobs did it, and now is pretending it was 
interesting.

What a load of incredible shit.

Actually, page three of the article provides Jacobs' single relevant 
(though stupidly inaccurate) insight from the entire five-page waste of 
time:

    "I have a theory: I think Blanton devised Radical Honesty
     partly as a way to pick up women."

Partly?  See?  There's the proof Jacobs is not very smart.  Blanton 
didn't devise shit.  Blanton is just a rude motherfucker, and realized 
that even when he was rude he could pick up ~some~ women, so he did it 
that way, and called attention to it (because he also likes attention, 
which makes him feel like his rudeness is somehow "interesting).

Then he realized he could make money by telling other guys it was OK to 
be equally rude.  That asshole didn't devise ~SHIT~.  He's just a 
fucking con man who likes anonymous sex.  Nothing new there.  Congress 
is full of them.  It's amazing he ~wasn't~ elected!

By the way, I have exactly the ~problem~ that Blanton says is a 
desirable trait:  I say what I think without filtering it very much.  
And people hate, hate, HATE that shit.  It ruins intimate 
relationships.  AND it makes it pretty goddamn hard to work with anybody 
who's NOT a genius.

So, I STRONGLY advise against this Radical Honesty stupidity.  It's a 
bullshit theory reverse-engineered by a bullshit artist who couldn't get 
his dick wet by being a decent human being.

If that wasn't radical enough, I don't care.

GS


On 1/2/12 1:19 AM, Stephen Williams wrote:
> I've sort of run across it before, but hadn't found the full dose before.
> Doesn't seem like I hold back too much.  (Hopefully I'll get time to 
> write up my discussion with the assigned officer for my complaint 
> before my trip.  He made a surprisingly clear admission.)
>
> http://www.esquire.com/features/honesty0707
> TL; CnC  (Too long, couldn't copy.  ;-) )
>
> sdw
>
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