I could make so much more money writing if I just told people what they wanted to hear. I already know I’m going to get into trouble for writing this, so why am I doing it?

I have this compulsion to tell the truth, or at least the truth as I see it, even to my detriment. And the truth is that there are a lot of cultural trends in society that are making people miserable and it’s obvious.
Not picking on him, but Tom Kuegler posted this Tweet the other day:
Let’s stop the false belief that you need to swear away porn, drinking, sugar, Netflix, and god forbid anything else that gives life a little fucking flavor in order to be successful.

I mean, I agree with the sentiment. But it’s not as if most people just dabble in these a little bit and stop just before the point these activities make them start to hate themselves. No, a bunch of people in society are run by these habits. Programmed. It probably is a good idea to swear them off for a while and get your shit together if I’m being honest.
There’s just this growing culture that nobody should be judged. We should all get to do whatever we want and suffer zero consequences from it. It’s a nice utopian sort of thought. But like all utopian concepts, it only works in theory, not in practice.
Do what you want to do. But if you engage parts of this list too much you’ll probably end up hating yourself to varying degrees.

Watching Porn
“A little porn doesn’t hurt.” Sure, I’ll grant you that. But how many people watch just a little bit of porn? It’s a major issue, especially for men.
Constantly ejaculating into your own hand from watching videos and images of other people having sex on a screen isn’t be good for your confidence, self-esteem, sex drive, any of it. Imagine a kid with a smartphone at age 11 with unlimited access to porn while going through the most tumultuous time in their genetic development. That can’t be good.

Having a never-ending stream of dopamine hits isn’t good for your brain either. I’ve had that experience watching porn — suffering from the paradox of choice with my dick in my hand. Too many videos to choose from for the ‘ending.’
Excessive porn use and masturbation have been linked to erectile dysfunction. It’s been linked to anxiety and depression. Clearly, it can cause issues in marriages and relationships. And a lot of men use it as a scapegoat to cope with the fact they don’t think they measure up with women in the real world.

Read the rest here: https://medium.com/publishous/stop-doing-these-things-theyre-making-you-hate-yourself-265096530275