When a man gives his opinion, he's a man. When a woman gives her opinion, she's a bitch.
BETTE DAVIS
I must be a man because I have been giving my opinion for years. To have unpopular opinions must be especially manly. Or, it might be bitchiness. I will leave that to the Gentle Reader to decide. Here is an extra large dose of unpopular opinions.
1. Science fiction and fantasy are terrible genres.
I grew up with Star Wars and Star Trek. I read Dune and Lord of the Rings. Those works are the top of their respective genres, and I do not care for them. I prefer reading and watching mysteries, westerns, and action stories.
My issue with science fiction and fantasy is that they transport you to alternate worlds. The bulk of the story is spent showing and explaining that alternate world. Over the long haul, the story is lost in the process of details and even made up languages. You ask too much from the reader to maintain this huge edifice of imagination.
I like basic stories set in the real world whether past or present. Simple is better.
2. People spend their time thinking of what they are going to say instead of actually listening to the other person.
When people talk, I know they are not actually listening to me. Sometimes, I find that I am not listening to them either. I am thinking of what I am going to say at the next break. Until that break, you are talking to the wall. When my turn comes, I am talking to the wall.
I try to keep my mouth shut. I save most of what I want to say for this blog. If people care, they will read the blog. If not, I said what I wanted to say. Everyone should have a blog. Most just have social media accounts.
3. Alpha/Beta/Sigma/Gamma is all nonsense.
This typology for males amounts to astrology for men. Women love to know if you are a sagittarius or a pisces or whatever because they want to know your personality. Others use temperaments like melancholy or phlegmatic. Then, there is that Myers-Briggs garbage. I place no stock or belief in any of these taxonomies of personality types. The farthest I will go is to classify people as either extroverts or introverts. This helps in selecting between salesmen and auto mechanics.
4. Joe Rogan is not funny.
I listen to clips of Joe Rogan's podcast. I never listen to his stand up comedy. I did it once, and I don't think the guy is funny at all. I scratch my head and wonder how he ever got famous and rich.
5. Wired earbuds are superior to wireless earbuds.
I suspect that I have discussed this one before in another edition of Unpopular Opinions, but this time I am trying to be more positive for the wired earbuds and headphones. I recently replaced my JVC headphones for my desktop PC. The original pair must have been a decade old when one side finally quit on me. I bought another set just like the original. On my Walkman, I have a cheap pair of blue earbuds that I bought almost six years ago from a Harris Teeter grocery store. Those are still awesome.
I like being able to plug something in, and they work for YEARS at a cheap price. Because wired earbuds are cheap and reliable, Big Tech decided they needed to change this with something unreliable, expensive, and easy to lose. They also have to be charged daily. The removal of the headphone jack from phones and devices is pure evil.
6. The fedora is a ridiculous hat for the vast majority of men today.
I know some fellows who are able to wear a fedora and not look ridiculous. Indiana Jones is one of them. The Blues Brothers are the other two. I know of one guy in real life who wears a fedora and would look weird without it. When I try on a fedora or any other brimmed hat, I look like a clown. When I watch old movies and TV shows, those guys with fedoras look like clowns. I don't know why some guys can pull off wearing a fedora and others can't. I know I can't.
7. I totally believe in ghosting people.
Ghosting someone is when you cease all contact with someone who is incapable of listening. The ghosted party will claim all sorts of hurt, surprise, and confusion about the matter. They have no idea why they were ghosted. They know. They were told. They were told repeatedly. They never bothered to listen.
I say this all the time. The only time people listen to me is when I stop talking to them. They are all ears then. But, by then, it is too late. As soon as you open your mouth, their ears close right up again.
I can truly say that ghosting people and ceasing contact is the only remedy for people with Narcissistic Personality Disorder. From what I have gleaned from Dr. Phil and others, there is no way to reach someone with NPD. They are lost. The only thing you can do is get them out of your life.
8. Vacation homes are ridiculous.
There is this story of Warren Buffett living in the same home he bought back in 1950something. People tell this story to show Mr. Buffett's modesty, folksiness, humility, and thriftiness. What they neglect to mention is Warren Buffett's second home in California that is not so modest or thrifty. It was a beach home for vacations. He recently sold the property for $7.5 million. He owned it since 1971.
For almost 2 years, no one wanted to buy Warren Buffett's Southern California vacation home, but it finally sold for $7.5 million
I am opposed to vacation homes. I don't care if it is a shack by the beach, a house on the lake, or a cabin in the mountains. I find vacation real estate to be the grossest form of lifestyle inflation short of a Jeff Bezos superyacht. Yet, it is very common. I have lost count of the people I know who own a second home purely for recreation.
When it comes to vacation accomodations, I believe you are always better off renting. Owning is for show offs who like to blow money on seldom used things. That was certainly the case with Mr. Buffett.
9. Solar watches are a waste of money.
I was into solar watches until someone told me that the batteries don't last any longer than regular watch batteries. You can charge the batteries on a solar watch, but they will have to be replaced at the same intervals as standard watch batteries. I just get the regular watches now because they are cheaper, and I don't have to bake them in the sunlight to get them recharged.
10. Beach cruisers are the best bicycles.
I am not a bicycle person. I have tried to be a bicycle person, but bicycles don't work for me. But, if I did buy a bicycle, it would be a beach cruiser. I would also have to live at the beach to go with the bike. I don't live at the beach, so that is a moot point.
I find beach cruisers appealling because they are cheap and comfortable. I can't say the same for road bikes or moutain bikes. As for Dutch style commuter bikes, those are great for city biking. But I'd rather walk on the sidewalk than take my chances on two wheels in the street.
11. Schools should ban smartphones.
There is a move by many public school educators, schools, and school boards to ban smartphones from the classroom. This move is long overdue. Teachers cannot compete with these distraction devices. Smartphones make kids stupid just like they do with adults. The dumbest adults are parents who buy smartphones for their children. But I digress. . .
Dumbphones could be suitable, but they were starting to become problems a decade ago. I think kids could have these as long as they turned them off like I do when I am in church.
12. Schools should ban tackle football.
A kid died recently from a brain injury he sustained playing high school football. There are lesser injuries that are still life altering that come from playing tackle football. This is certainly an unpopular opinion, but I think it will become more popular as tackle football takes its toll on young brains.
13. Replace the batteries in your Casio watch.
When people buy a cheap Casio watch, they assume they will dump the watch when the battery dies. This is a huge mistake. It is worth the time and money to replace that battery and keep the watch. The replacement battery for my G-Shock was $1, and I was able to get the job done in less than an hour watching a YouTube video. The battery is the same as the one that goes in the F-91W. These watches are super durable, so you will save money by replacing the batteries.
14. Dumb down your smartphone.
I still use a flip phone and will continue to do so as long as I can. I know a forced upgrade to a smartphone may be inevitable. When it comes, I am going to dumb that phone down to the basics I need. I recommend this to those people who have to use smartphones because of their jobs or whatever. The key thing is to remove social media apps. Make your phone as undistracting as possible.
15. Negative displays on digital watches are stupid.
The negative display is the easiest and most popular mod for digital watches. It is also the dumbest. You find this out when you try to tell time on the thing in sunlight. The positive display is the hands down winner.
People like the negative display because it looks cool and badass. This is a dumb reason to have a negative display. Utility matters more than looks.
Casio G-Shock GWM5610 Negative vs Positive Display
16. Women can't be minimalists.
My wife watches minimalist and decluttering videos by various women YouTubers and remarks that they have more stuff in their homes than we have. Where is the minimalism? Are we just watching hypocrites posing as influencers?
I don't think women can be minimalists. It is not in their nature. Men can be minimalists because they tend to be Spartan in their various fields of endeavor preferring the less is more approach. On the other hand, women accumulate crap. They buy each other crap.
Minimalism appeals to these women because they conclude correctly that their lives would be better without all of the accumulated crap. The problem is that they cannot follow through with the commitment to minimalism. Their videos on YouTube amount to dreams of wish fulfillment. They are not reality.
I am not a minimalist. I am a declutterer who aims to discard one item each day from my life in a practice called the "daily declutter." I think this is a more realistic and successful strategy for both men and women.
17. Fanny packs and slings are purses for men.
I think how convenient it would be to carry a small bag around for some of my gear. I can't get over the feeling that these small bags are purses. My preferred bag remains a backpack.
18. I like ankle socks and crew socks.
Gen Z has come out against ankle socks in favor of crew socks. I wear ankle socks with my walking shoes. I wear crew socks with my work boots. I always wear long pants, so I doubt anyone would notice my sock length. This is just stupid fashion nonsense.
19. TRT is the same as steroids.
Older men like Joe Rogan and RFK, Jr. take testosterone replacement therapy. The result is that each have physiques that don't match their ages. I'd like to see what an old guy could do full natty.
20. The dangers of sitting are overblown.
I think a sedentary lifestyle is bad for your health, but I disagree with all those researchers who claim that sitting is the new smoking. I think that makes for great clickbait headlines, but it isn't reality. Daniel Lieberman does a great job debullshitting those claims:
Is Sitting the New Smoking? A Harvard Professor Debunks the Myth, With 1 Catch
Why Sitting Isn’t the Problem Debunking the Myths
Sitting is the default when you don't exercise or move at all. Naturally, sitting takes the rap for the sedentary lifestyle. But if you go out and walk five miles a day and do manual labor, you can take a chair without feeling bad about it and relax for a bit. This is called common sense which many researchers lack. The reality is that the human body requires both exercise and rest.
21. People want buttons and ports on their tech products.
Apple is the king of minimalist design for tech which is why their products suck. People don't want minimalism in their tech. They want sensibility. This means physical buttons, ports, and earphone jacks. Simple is better but only when it has common sense.
8 years after declaring it took 'courage' to remove the iPhone's headphone jack, Apple has finally decided buttons and ports are cool again
22. Common sense will always be in the minority.
If you read a headline that says that teens are becoming more conservative and traditional or that the general public is taking a turn towards thrift and frugality, don't believe it. These are clickbait headlines crafted by journalists on deadline in a vain attempt to attract eyeballs during a slow news cycle. Common sense prevails over the long term, but this is mostly the result of attrition as fools meet their foolish ends. The general trend will always be on the side of the stupid. Stupid replaces stupid. The wise are a stubborn minority fighting the trend and the herd.
23. In capitalism, supply always meets demand.
Every so often, you see there is a shortage of something--toilet paper, tech workers, tradesmen, etc. Prices go up in times of scarcity which prompts more production as companies and workers go chasing those profits. This is why the high paying job of today turns into the low paying job of tomorrow. Right now, the trades are paying well, but this wasn't the case when I was in high school back in the 1980s. They told us all to go to college, and everyone did. Today, we have a glut of college grads and a shortage of welders. This will reverse itself and repeat itself.
24. Playing physical media in your car is a bad idea.
I had a deck chew up a cassette in the nineties. My wife has a CD still stuck in her car's CD player. These things can't handle bumps which is why you should only listen to the radio in the car. I can't speak to plugging in a smartphone since I don't own one, but I suspect a device like that would not be a problem. As a corollary, I never bought Walkmans that played cassettes or discs because of similar problems. Physical media is meant for times of leisure and not on the go. This is why I only listen to this stuff at home.
25. Remote work is a scam.
I have watched the productivity war between employers and employees for decades. It began with computers in the office. Employers discovered that their employees were goofing off on the internet, so they threw in firewalls and trackers. Then, the employers decided to start filching from their employees by making them work 24/7 with the Blackberry phones aka as the "Crackberry." Not to be outdone, employees struck back with their iPhones where they brought goofing off back to the office place. Then, Covid came which brought remote work to the game of make believe work. Now, office workers consider remote work to be a natural right. The reality is that they do just enough work to not get fired while freeing up way more time for personal chores and goofing off at home. It is a total scam now.
I consider 90% of office work to be a scam. You don't see plumbers and factory workers playing these make believe work games. The next move in this war will be remote unemployment as companies realize they can fire the remote workforce that isn't working.
That's it for my super sized dose of bitchiness. You probably didn't ask for it, but you got it anyway. Until next time, stay bitchy.
