I’m dreaming.. of a whi — AHEM..
No, that’s not right.
I’m dreaming of writing under a pen name. Multiple, actually.
The past few years have been crazy. 60,000 followers as a writer. Half a million followers as a vlogger. $200,000+ made as an online course creator.
It’s safe to say I’ve done a lot online.
In all my articles, I tell you the 100% honest truth. I don’t hold much back, and I’ve been very proud of that.
But there are opinions I’m starting to flirt with that scare me. They don’t scare me because I’m a crazy person.. They scare me because they rail against the “popular” opinions we see so much of online.
And they rail against them pretty hard.
Want to hear something crazy? Many times in my life I’ve had my message discredited because of my skin color, level of privilege, and various other personal details.
I make a lot of videos about the Philippines. Sometimes when I’m critical of something here I get a lot of comments like “You’re just a privileged white foreigner — what do you know about the Philippines?”
They have a point, but to be honest who I am and where I come from shouldn’t matter at all. The argument is the only thing that matters.
Am I right or am I wrong?
A pen name would help readers focus on ONLY that.. what’s right and what’s wrong. Not my skin color. Not my nationality. Not my level of privilege.
Let’s just talk about if I’m wrong. If so, then that’s fine with me.
Writing Under A Pen Name Is Cowardly, I Know
Let’s get that straight. Writing under a pen name, in some instances, is cowardly.
I’m not talking about if you have a job and you don’t want your boss to see your writing.
That’s fine. Don’t worry about that.
But to use a pen name as an outlet for your more “unpopular” opinions? That is a little cowardly, I think.
That’s part of the game and I’m fine with that.
Nobody Can Discredit An Idea Based On ‘Who I Am’ Anymore
Batman conceals his identity. So does Spider-Man. It may be cowardly to hide your identity behind a pen name, but to me it’s not as simple as that.
It’s actually a way to force people to focus on the idea and the idea alone.
In V for Vendetta, the main character — V — says he represents an idea. We never see his face for the entire film, since it’s hidden behind a mask. Near the end of the movie after getting shot a billion times he says “ideas are bulletproof.”
Evey, the other main character, says “We are told to remember the idea, not the man, because a man can fail. He can be caught, he can be killed and forgotten, but 400 years later, an idea can still change the world.”
You really need to see this movie.
Like I said, too many times my ideas were discredited because of WHO I am. Now my ideas won’t get discredited. They will be judged + graded on face value alone.
I Want To Get Back To The Ideas
When you make it big online, you sort of “become” a certain person. It puts a cage around you. If you venture out of that cage too much, your day 1 audience will vilify you. If you get too political, people will unfollow you.
That’s the downside of all this.
The more popular you get, the more your creativity gets stifled.
People discredit Lebron James’ ideas because “he’s a basketball player.”
“Shut up and dribble,” was one of the things somebody said to him.
No. Let’s focus on his ideas. Are they right or are they wrong? Isn’t it a logical fallacy to attack the bearer of the message instead of the message itself?
I’m sick of dancing with that fallacy.
I want to start from day 1 again. I want to build a different audience. Writing for me has never fundamentally been about the money. It has always been about expressing myself.
What I set out to “say” four years ago is much different than what my heart is aching to say today.
I wanted to give hope to recent graduates.
Now I want to call out bullshit. I want to call out bullshit that so many people believe for some reason. I want to put some counter-echoes into the echo chamber.
I want to tango with ideas that might get me cancelled, because I know that most people just ignore them — like I have myself.
I’m sorry that it’s cowardly to hide my identity. I know it is. But spreading needed ideas in and of itself is not that cowardly at all.
Isn’t it cool that the most refreshing thing I could do for myself creatively is to detach myself from my creations?
It makes me damn excited. Maybe you’ll read a piece from me soon that you don’t know is from me.
I wonder whether you’ll vilify me. Then I wonder whether you’ll read MY latest piece the next day on my personal page and praise me.
killer post here man