Self-Help for People Who Hate Self-Help- Marcello Recommends: “The Plus” by Greg Gutfeld
I always enjoy a good conversation with an intelligent person who is open-minded enough to appreciate perspectives other than their own. If, during that conversation, that same person can be entertaining, sarcastic, and make me laugh multiple times, then I’m a big fan.
Former editor of Men’s Health Magazine and current co-host of “The Five” talk show, Greg Gutfeld fits the aforementioned description to a tee.
The Plus featured some thought-provoking topics and perspectives on education, mob mentality, social media, Peloton, Donald Trump, the pandemic, cancel culture, goal setting, and why you should laugh more.
These were a few of my favorite excerpts:
“If you aren’t getting happier as you get older, you’re doing it wrong.”
“In order for us to become better people, we have to identify what makes us inherently bad. Once we do that, we can choose a better path. And what makes us bad is schadenfreude. No, it’s not just speaking German that makes us bad, although that helps; it’s that we take pleasure in the unfortunate problems that afflict people more successful than we are, as if their success is a temporary aberration standing in the way of our own success.”
“It turns out that we are all the same, except for those whose imprint is larger. That’s not a shoe size, it’s a social status. How big is your social footprint? Ask Instagram. Because society has instagrammed your worth. The number of followers dictates your value. And if that sort of fame is not present in your lifetime, then for those left bitter and alone, infamy is the next best thing.”
“I always check the bios of those who denigrate the looks of others, or unload brutal insults on me or a friend. I have found that religion plays no role— in fact, agnostics and the religious can be equally petty. God or no God— we all engage in jerky behavior. Hypocrisy is the unifying factor— for it seems those who preach tolerance (the agnostic approach to religion) and forgiveness (the Christlike avenue) can make fun of your weight or forehead crease equally. Social media levels the playing field in making us all blithering fools. (By the way, I’m not entirely against such body shaming: it got me to lose weight, and get a new haircut.)”
“I call it the opposition toxin: the inclination for the media, academia, and entertainment industries to see two groups, or individuals, as always in conflict. Men vs. women, black vs. white, gay vs. straight, left vs. right. That simple equation allows for the production of an endless supply of opposition toxin, otherwise known as ‘news content’— especially if the writer of such content has an agenda, a lack of humor and goodwill, and a limited imagination (and these often go together.) Do you want to see how this toxin can change a simple story into something polluted? Then the Peloton commercial is perfect.”
“If you’re in the same place you were three years ago, wake up.”
“The high cost of fame can be measured in many ways—in money, time, and self respect. Usually all three. And for what? A tiny spark of recognition when you buy your movie ticket so you can sit in a dark room surrounded by people who aren’t at all interested in you? Measure your worth by the people around you who know you, not by the people “out there” who don’t.”
“You cannot reason with an unbending mind. The goal of that mind turns you into either a minor speed bump you gently roll over, or an obstacle. It is smarter than you, for it has not need for smarts at all. It only has one mission, and it’s the opposite of pragmatic. It’s alive in both machine’s voice and murderer’s eyes. When you watch videos of protesters blocking the path of subway trains taking orderlies to hospitals, parents to their sick kids, dads and moms to visit their parents at the home, what you see in the protesters’ faces is an unbending mind, as well as a bad case of acne. The unbending mind lurks everywhere, and once in place is almost unstoppable, sometimes, (often times maybe), deadly.”
“If you feel you’ve been wronged by society, and you find thirty others who agree with you, you’re no longer a lost soul. You’re a movement. In fact, you don’t need to be oppressed; you just need to identify an oppressor and appoint yourself the vindictive payback machine. Then run for office in New York or San Francisco.”
“Citizens in Baltimore and Ferguson didn’t take their anger out on city hall. They burned their cities’ businesses and looted their own neighbors’ stores. They destroyed the very places that keep their community alive. Does that person running out of Kmart really need twenty rolls of toilet paper? Does that dude really think setting fire to that Korean bodega helps his case as a victim of injustice? Can you reason with people as they work against their own interests, violently, and seemingly gleefully? Have you ever tried to talk someone out of doing something stupid that, for the moment, has no immediate consequence? Maybe, if you were the best man you have. But the mentality of the mob, be it violent action or mass theft, has its own goal set: mass destruction.”
“We are afraid to talk, to joke, to vent, to express an opinion in general, because who knows who or what might be lurking around the corner, with a smartphone and score to settle?”
“Within cancel culture, the life creates it own punishments, but also its own rewards. We are incentivizing victimhood— and creating a new kind of theatrical stab for recognition.”
“Avoid the loudest people in the room. Each side is made up of all kinds of people, and generally, within that side there’s about 5 to 10 percent who are complete jerks. They’re also the busiest and and loudest on social media. That’s because they’re usually jobless and alone. But just as you don’t want to be judged for the idiots on your side, don’t judge your adversaries for the idiots on their side. Don’t waste your time on either.”
“Fact is, death is the bullet and it’s on the way. So move it. Like most people, you probably don’t reach a goal unless you start doing stuff bit by bit— staring at a goal from far away offers you little beyond an intimidating sense of possible failure. Scott Adams has made this point first: outsized goals suck because you’re bound to fail. Start with easy success. You don’t need to rule the world before lunch. You just to make your bed, as Jordan Peterson keeps reminding us.”
“I like to remind people that jokes are just jokes— even when they aren’t funny. Especially when they aren’t funny. Because jokes usually only strike you as ‘not funny’ when they strike too close to home. If you believe a joke offends you— laugh. What doesn’t offend you makes you stronger. It’s more about our responses to jokes than the jokes themselves. For we seem to be creating, even celebrating, our purges and our not-so-secret policing, and the results could be long-lasting and highly destructive. And certainly, a lot less funny.”
If you like Greg’s style and delivery, click here to order your copy of The Plus.
Next up on the “Marcello Recommends” book review list, ‘Golf is Not a Game of Perfect’ by Dr. Bob Rotella. *Thank you, Rob Johnson, for the suggestion.
Cheers,
-m