There is no such thing as “positive” or “negative” people.

“Positive” and “negative” are states – meaning that nobody is ever 100% “positive” or “negative” all the time – and what may be beneficial for one person could be detrimental to another. So-called Positive People (or SCPPs), and anybody who publicly calls themselves “positive” and promotes “positive thinking”, are actually more concerned about being in an “elite” club. Francis Duggan illustrates this elitism very well in his poem about these “positive people”.

I don’t need women.

A lot of my major issues have been caused by the pursuit of ever-elusive women, and I’ve often been told it’s my fault for not being able to attract them. It’s also been directly and indirectly suggested there’s something wrong with me for not being able to get laid.
Back when I was engrossed in motivational speaking, I noticed that many of the speakers were married. I asked myself: were they married before they became successful, or were they married because they were successful? It became obvious, through my own experiences and those of others, that women usually come after success. In fact – and I can attest to this – most women aren’t interested in helping men succeed at all, nor do they want men to become more successful than they already are.
Feminists often like to use the quote,

behind every great man is a great woman

but it should probably read

behind every great man follows a woman.

Feminism is a bigger problem than I thought.

One day, after being engrossed in Steve Wilkos videos on YouTube, I came across barbarossaaa’s dissection of an episode, which pointed out Steve’s “manginosity” towards three young men who had been falsely accused of rape. This video was my first introduction to the Men’s Rights Movement (MRM) and Men’s Rights Activists (MRAs), and blew things wide open. All of a sudden Steve wasn’t so much of a male role model as he was a woman’s tool (particularly for his wife).
I had noticed how men were being portrayed in the media, and how women were constantly made out to be superior to men, since the mid-90s. I had even pointed this out a couple of times, only to be attacked by feminists and feminazis (men and women) and accused of being insane. But again, that was a sign of being not too far from the mark. Many MRAs will face violent opposition – and often the same template comments and arguments – from feminists, “white knights”, “manginas” and the like, when questioned about their stance.
Thanks to the works of barbarossaaa, manwomanmyth and a number of other YouTube-based MRAs, I’m now certain that what happened at university was a more a case of misandry, although I still hold that some members of staff (and some of the students) were and still are racists.

“Professionalism” is used as a stick.

As I’ve mentioned in the past: as someone who has refused to engage in office politics, my focus was more on my reputation of being a great web developer, than it ever was about my image. My move to freelancing, and more recently to starting a limited company, was about being great at my job while working the way I wanted to work.
One thing I’ve come up against repeatedly is this idea of “professionalism”, which seems to be the business equivalent of the term “real man”. Even though I’ve always brought it to every job I’ve had, I’ve been accused of being “unprofessional”, and have even had my “professionalism” called into question, simply because I wanted to do things in a different way to what the client or recruitment person wanted. It seems that “professionalism” to these people means doing what they want – and if you don’t, they’ll try to bring you in line by attacking your “professionalism”.
Yes, I understand that different companies have different ways of doing things. But what disturbs me is this idea that a company or recruitment person can demand someone has experience, yet start dictating to them how to do their job and completely disregard their input.

What did you learn this year?