So, What Matters?

A little polemic.

Photo by Mitch on Unsplash

Andrew Tate recently joined Substack, appearing on the bestseller’s list almost immediately. Justifiably, there’s been quite an uproar. Before you pack up your stuff and leave, let me promise you something.

This post isn’t really about Andrew Tate.

I’m not going to run us through the last several years of his controversies, crimes, or statements about women. If you don’t know, there’s this great thing called the internet to fill you in. I’m here to talk about an attitude in our public discourse, something you see coming from a lot of men—but also a lot of women.

Let me paraphrase:

Why are you talking about Andrew Tate? He doesn’t matter. He’s irrelevant. Just ignore him and get on with your life.

Look, I get it.

If you’ve ever felt this way or said something like this, I’m not trying to attack you. But I believe this attitude is deeply flawed.

We need to address it.

Over the last four years, I’ve written about Andrew Tate twice, maybe three times total. He represents less than 1 percent of my content. I’ve written hundreds of posts on dozens of different topics, including history, psychology, philosophy, survival, you name it. Here’s where things get interesting:

When I write about airborne diseases, I often hear the same thing:

Why are you talking about airborne diseases? They don’t matter. They’re irrelevant. Just ignore them and get on with your life.

And when I write about the history of eugenics:

Why are you talking about eugenics? That was 100 years ago. It doesn’t matter. It’s irrelevant. Just ignore it and get on with your life.

And when I write about the climate crisis:

Why are you talking about the weather? We’re already taking care of that problem. We’ll figure it out. Just ignore it and get on with your life.

And genocide:

Why are you talking about Gaza? We’re already doing everything we can, and beating Trump is way more important. Just ignore it, vote for the less fascist candidate, and get on with your life.

This is how many of us, women, doomers, and the like, are treated when we try to call attention to important issues when we can still do something about them. Something else is always more important. Something else always matters more. We’re always talking about the wrong thing at the wrong time. Whatever we happen to care about, whatever we think matters, that’s irrelevant.

It’s fascinating.

Years ago, women tried to get the world to pay attention to Jeffrey Epstein. So did a few men. And we were told:

Why are you talking about Jeffrey Epstein? He doesn’t matter. He’s irrelevant. Just ignore him and get on with your life.

Now the world won’t stop talking about him.

Why?

Sadly, it’s not because the world has become a better place. It’s because the Epstein files now serve a political purpose, and they’ll help those now seeking power. The patriarchal world of politics and media feels like they can leverage Epstein’s crimes to bring down their favorite villain, without having to reflect too much on their own systems of thought, you know, the systems that have already produced a thousand more Epsteins. It’s safe to talk about him now.

It’s not safe to talk about Andrew Tate because he still commands a rather large following, despite everything. If we were ever close to defeating someone like him, it wasn’t because we ignored him. It was because we finally started doing something about him. Social media companies finally deplatformed him. Governments finally brought him to justice. Greta Thunberg gave him a dose of his own medicine, and he had an epic meltdown. That’s what happened.

Ignoring problems doesn’t make them go away.

Dealing with them does.

Like so many of our problems, including Trump, we didn’t finish the job when we had the chance. We got complacent. Now like Trump, Tate is back.

It’s a pattern that repeats, over and over.

Ten years ago, some of us were trying to warn the world about the threat Trump posed. And again, we heard this line:

Why are you talking about Donald Trump? He doesn’t matter. He’s irrelevant. Just ignore him and get on with your life.

So, what matters?

What is okay to talk about, and when is it okay to talk about it? Do we have to wait until it’s too late to deal with a problem to talk about it? And then, do we have to talk about it as if we can still do something, while insisting that all of our other problems don’t matter, and we should ignore them?

Do we have to start fights with people we agree with, simply because they’re talking about something we’ll only care about in five years?

I’m writing about this because I think many of you might feel the same way, you’ll appreciate having something articulated that was in the back of your mind, on the tip of your tongue, but you just couldn’t quite…

You know what I mean.

And if you want solutions, we have plenty of those. The solution was to prosecute Trump and throw him in jail, denying him the chance to run for office again. The solution was to keep Andrew Tate deplatformed. It was to expedite his trials. The solution to airborne diseases is better masks, better vaccines, and cleaner air. The solution to climate change is steady-state economics and degrowth. There’s a solution for every single problem that people like us talk about. The bigger problem? Not enough people want those solutions. They want something easier. They want something magical that requires less effort.

They want something perfect and free.

Well, there are no easier answers, no magical solutions, and no perfect happy endings. Every solution comes with a cost. There are only the solutions that work, and they’re the only solutions worth talking about.

Thank you for reading.