I mean, the problem here is that - wholesome as Gary is, young men don’t want “wholesome”.
I know that when I was a young man, I wanted to get the fuck out of my home town, have crazy adventures, improve the world on my own terms, and fuck every attractive women that came within 1000m of me (For the record, not much jas changed…).
And Gary is a nice guy with an unattractive wife, a steady job, and two kids. He spends his free time at the bar or mowing the lawn, getting fatter by the year. He likes to talk about the vacation he took to an all inclusive resort with his family a few years ago as if it was the great adventure of his life. Gary doesn’t have the most amazing life, but he has enough, and he’s happy.
And my response to Gary as a young man would have been to appreciate his encouragement, and take his advice with a smile, and then ignore all of it because fuck that nonsense, I am getting the fuck out of this shithole. I am not going to end up like Gary! I am not going to settle for a life of bullshit mediocrity, drinking myself to an early grave while every dream I ever had whithers on the vine. And I am absofuckingloutly not going to follow in his footsteps. Come hell or high water, I will die before I end up with such a piss poor excuse for a life!!!
Point being - if you want young men to take your advice rather than the advice of toxic influencers, you need to validate their desires and ambitions, rather than dismissing them and telling them to want something else. “Oh, you have goal X? Well that’s wrong - you should have goal Y, and here is how I got there” is not an effective way to offer advice to anyone
NoForwardslashS@sopuli.xyz 2 days ago
tldr - Gary gives bad advice because he only offers happiness and contentment. This message doesnt work on young men because every single one wants to get rich and fuck women innately without any outside influence implanting that idea of “you are not good enough”.