How To Grow: Be Brave, Bold, and Unpopular?
The latest advice on Medium is to write without a filter.
With 400,000 paid members on Medium, how do you stand out?
According to the articles suggested this week, you stand out by writing without a filter. We need to stop pleasing people, according to articles like this.
Is unpopular the new popular?
There might be some truth to that. You know what people say about comfort zones, so how will you grow and expand your comfort zone if you only express popular, ‘safe’ opinions?
As a psychology graduate and horror writer, I know we don’t all agree with these ‘popular’ opinions… you’re dark and twisted deep down inside, like the rest of us ;)
Thankfully, I came across an article about two topics you should avoid on Medium unless you want an angry mob:
Religion and politics.
That makes sense. They have started more wars than anything else.
On that note, here are three unpopular opinions that will help me grow as a person:
Religion
I wish I were religious. It looks comforting, knowing someone will always love you and forgive you, but…
There is no convincible, scientific evidence of a deity watching over us from afar. Hell, merely the existence of a universe this enormous, this complex, contradicts the whole concept of religion. I’ll go as far as to claim if religion was abolished, the world would be a more peaceful place to live (how many wars have started because of religion?).
Speaking of hell, it was a threat used by Christianity to keep people in line. At best, hell is an emotion, a fleeting feeling caused by unique, horrible circumstances, like the death of a loved one.
But(!), religion is good for keeping people in line. Forget the panopticon. Nothing works better for civil obedience than the threat of an omnipotent, omniscient authority figure.
Gun Control
Nobody but trained officers should be armed. That’s right; your constitutional right to bear arms should be removed. Farmers and hunters, hand back those rifles and shotguns as well. In 2021, with the climate crisis and animal rights, nobody should be hunting for anything.
Why no guns? Because history has made it clear that the general public cannot be trusted with firearms. Work two months in retail and it’ll become abundantly clear why live ammo in the hands of the average Joe is a terrible idea.
If you want to fight with someone, use your hands. Or better yet, don’t.
Abortion
Only women should have any say in abortion rights. That’s right, I said it. Sharpen your pitchforks; there’s an opinionated feminist behind this keyboard. Keep religion out of the abortion debate as well, for that matter, unless you’re hoping to create Gilead.
In 2021, as a society, we should not be sending women to prison for a miscarriage. What’s next, penalise women for having a period because it ‘wasted’ an egg? Punish men for masturbating because it ‘wastes’ sperm?
If only these politicians intent on removing ‘choice’ fought this hard to punish sexual assaults…
Final Thoughts
The beauty of opinions is that we all have them, and as other writers have said, writing to please others is wasted writing. The only opinions we should keep back are those who harm others.
