There’s a viral video going around of a woman who approached Post Malone’s car…
What’s up Post?
In the dark, in the dark, in the dark, in the dark, in the dark.
How are you? Good, how are you darling?
I’m Jennifer. Hi, Jennifer.
And I have three daughters: Courtney, Whitney, and Brittany. Can you just say, Hi?
Hi, Courtney, Whitney, and Britany Whitney wants to marry you!
How old is she? 23
Tell her I said hi. Haha, can I put this in front just so you
can hold it? There is Post Malone. We love you!
We love you too! Let me get in the picture.
At some point, I thought she’d ask him to scoot over, pass the blunt, and let her “take
this bad boy out for a spin.”
The most popular comments on the video had to do about how nice Post Malone was…
I’d argue though that his behavior was actually mean, in particular to celebrities and influencers
because clearly, she had crossed a line to clout chase.
And rather than set her straight, or at least ignore her, Post Malone rewarded her bad behavior
with the attention she craved.
When someone is taking advantage of you the ETHICAL response isn’t to let it continue
because you’re afraid of appearing mean or uncool, but in fact, it is to be “mean,”
i.e. have standards, so that they or anyone watching learns that taking advantage of you
or anyone else is NOT OKAY.
Post Malone is therefore inadvertently incentivizing a culture of disingenuous
and a culture of harassment.
Now, Kanye West
probably took it a tad bit too far because by showing any strong emotion he gave the
paparazzi exactly what they wanted.
But here's the deal: if someone harasses you then…
#1 realize they aren’t entitled to your attention even if they’re a “fan.”
#2 ignore them or keep engagement to a minimum so as to not reward the behavior too much.
Of course, that’s easier said than done for celebrities so I can understand them occasionally
conversing with or scolding aggressive photo-seekers. After all, they’re celebrities, and occasionally
taking photos with fans who interrupt their dinner or occasionally yelling back at the
paparazzi serves to further increase the celebrity's celebrity.
In fact, maybe I should hire a bunch of “paparazzi” to take pictures of me through my window at
4am shouting, “We love you!” so I can come outside with a shotgun to politely ask
them to get off my property. Maybe the video would go viral because people would think
I’m some big celebrity. Hmmmmm.
Another key point is that "motives matter." If Post Malone engaged with the aggressive
photo-seeker because he genuinely wanted to then that’s one thing, but if he’s doing
it out of fear of seeming “rude” then I’d argue it’s ruder to his fellow influencer
& human to reward an aggressive photo-seeker and it isn’t particularly nice to himself
to not have strong boundaries because he may end up like another “nice” rockstar Elvis
Presley who had to severely medicate himself just to get through all the "love.”
Now, what I’ve said thus far isn’t so much applicable to the average person so please
let me highlight a deeper lesson, which is that what I'm really explaining to you here
is the difference between first-order and third-order thinking.
I’m a political writer so let’s use a political example.
In America, young low-information leftists tend to be first-order thinkers. They see
Post Malone being “nice” or they hear AOC wants to give them “free” stuff and
they think these things are inherently good without ever thinking through the long-term
implications of such policies.
They don’t think further out because our education system hasn’t taught them to do
so. We were taught that the right answer is right on the page to be memorized and regurgitated.
No need to think too deeply about the space between the lines. And if you do start to
venture out into the realm of genuine free thought then the education system provides
a clear template for how to think about that space so as to prevent you from thinking too
far outside of the box.
I, however, encourage you to think deeper. I genuinely believe there are no stupid questions
so long as you don’t try to ask me while I’m rocking out with my friends.