Seattle Problems 2

This is a follow up to my original Seattle Problems post. A friend of mine has bemoaned how terrible Seattle has become since the COVID-19 pandemic began with the resulting BLM protests. I have bad news for you: Seattle never has been, hasn't been recently, is not currently, will not soon be, and will not ever be a good place to live.

Historically from the days of the Alaskan Gold Rush up through the 1990's Seattle was filled with violent, drug filled and impoverished schools and neighborhoods. From about 2000 to 2010 Seattle's draconian anti-gang units had successfully cleaned up neighborhoods, but real estate prices were still low enough that Seattle was a fairly livable place. But by 2010 Seattle's real estate prices had jumped so high that the cool kids were all leaving for greener pastures, I myself finally giving up on 2015.

Seattle always has been a place to visit, but not a place to live. Specifically it has always been a place to come to reinvent yourself. University of Washington, Seattle University, Seattle Pacific University, Antioch University Seattle are all well recognized significant universities within Seattle city limits. Also in Seattle are employers everyone wants on their resume but no one in their right mind wants to retire from like Amazon, Boeing, and various down town medical facilities. There has always been a stream of out-of-towners coming into Seattle in a homeless condition, reinventing themselves, and then moving on to make the world a better place - that IS Seattle, that IS the legacy of the Emerald City!

For those who complain Seattle is less than ideal for family life, I tell you that Seattle isn't that city, never has been, and should never be that city. If you remain in Seattle, you become a townie of the biggest college town of all time. The world is a big place, and Seattle doesn't need more Seattle-trained heroes that it is already full of. 

My only regret about leaving Seattle is that I didn't leave five years earlier.

They/Them

One of the strengths of English is that nouns do not have gender assigned by default, as you may find in Spanish or French. However English pronouns have gender. Using gender neutral pronouns will make English stronger in this regard.

In slang English when it comes to pronouns, we often use the wrong plural to get around this very problem. It all starts with the gaping void of the you-plural, there is no you-plural in English. So instead we have variations of "you all" y'all and yunz. Likewise it is often inconvenient to be throwing in "he" or "she" into a sentence because gender isn't relevant most of the time, and it's often easier to say "they" or "them."

Many people into elaborate pronoun variations like to quote Noam Chomsky. But I think Noam Chomsky's most important point on language is this: academics often make language harder to use formally than how it is used normally. They/them instead of he/she is a common grammatical error in English already, suggesting, according to Chomsky, that perhaps this is actually the best way to use English.

I recently wrote that policy that is good for transgendered tends to be good also for heterosexual males specifically. In todays' world, "he" and "his" brings tremendous burden. First we have the lofty expectations thrown upon men in our society that are difficult at best to live up to. Second we also have all the negative stereotypes about men.

I personally do not want people referencing my maleness every time they use a pronoun to refer to me. It makes a lot more sense to just refer to me in the plural, even though I am 100% hetero male. I don't need the judgement, and I don't want the weight.

But I prefer EVERYONE to use gender neutral pronouns for EVERYONE ELSE as well. That is the main reason why my preferred pronouns are they/them. Don't mention my name and say "but he's become weaker as he's gotten older," or "oh wow, is he single?," or "he gets so toxic," when you refer to me, I don't claim to speak for all men, and I certainly am not going to apologize for them either.

If we are picking our own pronouns now, I am picking they/them, and I implore you to do the same (that's how I refer to you anyhow.)

Good for Trans is Good for Mans

I have noticed quite often and quite abruptly that trans-friendly policy is great for heterosexual males. For example, God's gift to politics, Kamala Harris, is being demonized by the thin skinned for supposedly killing trans-females by forcing them to stay in male prisons. We'll go ahead and ignore the obvious problem that she wasn't the driving force behind that policy, and take that claim at face value. Male prison is too dangerous for trans women.

But guess what, it's too dangerous for men also. Saying otherwise is promoting rape culture: "You broke into my house and stole my TV, but thankfully you got caught, and you'll have plenty of time to think about it with your room mate Big Bubba." When the legal system does not condemn someone to being raped or murdered, and that someone is raped or murdered in prison, that punishment went far beyond what the legal system justified. 

IF prison were made so safe that trans women would feel comfortable there, then guess what? That's right, it would be better for ALL of the men there. And it is like this issue after issue after issue.

Let's take Pence's favorite subject, bathroom politics. Trans want to be able to be able to use the bathroom wherever they go. A trans woman really should not feel comfortable dressed as a woman in a men only bathroom, because she identifies as a woman. I have used a bathroom before that was mixed gendered with multiple stalls. It was very awkward for me, but even more awkward for the women trying to use the same restroom as me. In reality when we talk of mix gendered bathrooms, we are really talking about bathrooms with one toilet and one sink like what is often seen in hospitals and doctor's offices.

And even though that mixed gendered bathroom with multiple stalls was almost unbearably awkward, it wasn't half as awkward and trying to pee standing up between two other males standing up. The standard urinal situation in most male restrooms is such an incredible violation of privacy as to demonstrate a distinct contempt for male comfort by society as a whole. A single toilet/single sink bathroom is vastly preferable for a hetero male than the usual public restroom arrangement.

And that is also the ideal situation for Trans. And so it goes with basically every Trans issue ever. A trans man I have known since before his transition recently confided "no one treats me like I am a real man." I responded "being accused of not being masculine enough is a normal part of the male experience. Welcome to the club." We don't have to run around emasculating trans men, other LGBT men, straight men, or even women for that matter. Emasculation is particularly harmful to trans men, but it's not great for straight men either.

What is good for the trans is good for the mans.

Kamala Harris

My top three picks for president this year were: Andrew Yang, Tulsi Gabbard and Kamala Harris. The most important political issue hands down, far above the environment or universal health care, is and basically always has been Universal Basic Income (UBI). I say that from a Utopian perspective like Elon Musk, not from a socialist perspective which demands instead a guaranteed jobs program.

Tulsi Gabbard eventually came around to the idea of a UBI but it was very late in the game. For most of the primaries it was only Yang and Harris that were talking about UBI. It is is very clear Harris is a more experienced politician than Yang and has her head around virtually every other public policy issue much better than Yang does, especially on the next two most important political issues: the environment and universal health care.

Gabbard is the president we wanted, Harris is the president we need.

Some say "Harris is a cop." This is the most childish statement of the last few decades I have heard. The most effective direction to change an organization is from within, and no other presidential or vice presidential candidate EVER understands the criminal justice system better than Harris.

Some will have an issue with her ethnicity. For those I ask you: have you met a harder working group of people than Jamaicans or people from the Indian subcontinent? She's BOTH of those, born in the USA, turned high level PROSECUTOR. Believe me, you do NOT have a problem with this woman.

Some say Harris is not loyal enough. The fact that Biden is willing to have Harris as as his Vice President shows that he's capable of taking serious, brutal feedback (unlike Trump.) When it comes to loyalty, you want the people who will tell you when you are walking down the street with your zipper down, the emperor needs to know when he has no clothes!

Harris is such an ideal presidential candidate that I am willing to hold my nose and vote for Biden in order to get her elected as Vice President. I would be able to say the same for Gabbard, Yang, and believe it or not Pence. Any of the other democratic candidates? Nope. Any other GOP besides Pence? Romney. (Pence and Romney are both pioneers of Universal Health Care.)

We need people who understand our era, who can put the constant culture war battles to the side long enough to work on the issues that make a REALLY matter.

I Am Not A Veteran

For reasons I don't understand, I am often mistaken for being a veteran. I am NOT a veteran. I have never tried to imply for any reason under any circumstances that I have ever been in the military. Beyond that, I find the sin of stolen valor to be extremely heinous. I am very grateful to all veterans who have served my country, and they have my deep respect and regard for having done so.

Here I will clarify what my connections to the military are (all civilian stuff that has nothing to do with me providing any service or products to the military of any kind,) to help clarify how much I am not a veteran:

• I grew up in Kitsap County, home of 3 significant naval bases. 
• It is no coincidence that my father was in the Navy and worked as a civilian on one of those bases. As a young child I lived in naval housing in various states.
• Some of my martial arts instruction came from veterans, particularly the very martial version of Aikido I learned from a high ranking active duty Navy captain who's son I was friends with and did martial arts with. I lived with that family for a year on an Airforce base in Ohio when I was a senior in high school.
• I myself have have worked for veteran managers and supervisors, for example when I was pepper spray certified, it included cuffing people while I was pepper sprayed because my boss/certifier had provided that training while he was in the Navy, in some leadership capacity in shore patrol. 
• I have trained or cross trained in half of the full contact martial arts facilities in Kitsap County that have existed from 1988 to the present, and as a result I have been in the ring or on the mat with a wide range of active duty personnel and veterans.

None of that is any special claim to fame or implication that I am somehow specially trained, it is literally nothing unusual for anyone doing martial arts where I live. I also don't want to mislead here, it is true that my security resume ends abruptly in 2012 and I never discuss what I have been doing since as far as that career goes publicly. None of that has anything to do with my relationship to the military.

It might be my hair? I like short haircuts for self defense reasons. It might be because I think lethal force is justified in self defense? That is a common opinion outside of the military in my country. It might be the Punisher logo? I wore that often before I realized it was becoming and anti-BLM symbol. It might be because I am a little old fashioned? That's probably more of an LDS thing, just the way I was raised and the way I try to conduct myself, and which leaves a lot to be desired.

And I will tell you something else here, which is that I don't actually recommend the military to anyone as a career choice, unless it is exactly what they want to do with their lives. If you want to be a military officer, or if you want to run boiler rooms in aircraft carriers, or if you want to gear up in body armor and shoot at bad guys, or you want to be a fighter pilot, then yes, the military is the way to go. But for most people the military is NOT going to take them where they want to go in life, the training is NOT going to translate to civilian life, the mindset will NOT serve you well in civilian life, you will NOT learn good leadership skills for outside of the military, and I could go on and on and on here. I have been actively involved in talking numerous people out of joining the military in the first place, because over all military participation is a very bad deal for most people.

Once upon a time my brother and I, recently graduated from high school, were uselessly loitering about the town, when an army recruiter noticed us and approached us. We told him "not interested" and moved on. He later drove by us in the car and stopped to talk to us out of his window:

Recruiter: "What do you have against joining the Army?"

Me: "I don't like taking orders."

Recruiter: "Is that it, that's all?" 

Me: "I don't like the color green!" 

How to Succeed at Network Marketing

I will now share with you the secret behind how I was more successful at Herbalife than most distributors. Then I will show you what my next step should have been if I had decided to stay in that business. Finally I will reveal the finishing touch you need to really succeed in your business.

My Success

If you have a down line then you know how lazy they tend to be. You spend all this time on them in meetings and training, and all they do in return is take a % of profit from what few sales they sometimes make. You could have instead made more money by using that time and effort to make those sales yourself. Admit it: most of your "team" just isn't cut out for sales, and make much better customers than team members. But whoever did MLM without recruiting? I did!

I was able to get dozens of return customers every month precisely because I didn't recruit. Because I put my time and effort into finding customers instead of do-nothing trainees, people came to ME when they wanted Cellular Nutrition or Thermojetics. I had a half of a town to myself, and when people called me up and asked to join my down line, I told them "maybe after I am done establishing my business here, I will call you." I never got to the point where I thought I should give anyone my potential customers!

But if I had wanted to stay in the game, if my heart was really into fitness, then there are a few other things I should have done in addition to this...

The Next Step

Herbalife products were packaged to appeal to distributors like me, but not packaged to appeal to my return customers. For example the Cellular Nutrition protein shake which was supposed to be a 30 day supply only contained 20 servings! What I should have done next to build my fitness business was find superior quality and superior value from OUTSIDE of Herbalife. In my martial arts training soon after this I ended up using Twin Labs protein shakes because they were more affordable and effective than the Herbalife products.

Look at how much of your hard earned cash that your up line takes out of your sales profits. Just why do they deserve that money, did they do the hard work to make the sale? Hell no, that's YOUR money they are renting that Disney mansion and BMW with. 

Do you have any idea how much better you could do with buying products in bulk than purchasing products from your up line or MLM company? The difference is massive. All of that profit could be YOURS as long as you are willing to do the smart thing, the best thing for your business AND your customers, which is to prioritize value over brand loyalty!

Finishing Touch

If I had been serious about fitness, after focusing on direct sales myself (which I actually did,) and ditching my upline along with their bad business advice, creepy conventions and fake guru nonsense, the final thing I would have needed to do is MAKE MY OFFERING UNIQUE. In my case I should have probably offered one-on-one self-defense and fitness training along with the health products I was selling.

But in today's world you don't have to study three different martial arts for years on end to become a fitness trainer. The total cost of the training to become a legitimate certified personal trainer varies between $600 to $2,000. That is a lot less than what you are probably spending now as your up line and down line leech every penny they can from your bank account.