Thinking for yourself

One of the things that puts me off is trying to put people in a tiny box, the old no-true-Scotsman fallacy. Many minimalists have stopped making minimalist videos because of other people shoving content creators in a corner. The first time I saw this, it pissed me off and I thought it was an isolated instance, but then I kept seeing this and I had to say something about it.

These people were coming up to content creators and telling them, “You’re not a true minimalist if you use make up”, “You’re no minimalist if you have long hair”, “You’re not a true minimalist if you’re not a vegetarian”, “You’re not a true minimalist if you own expensive video equipment for your videos”, “What do you mean you have a three bedroom house? Shouldn’t minimalists live in a tiny house?” ENOUGH!

I’m going to say it once and for all, minimalism is not a box in which you can push us inside and close the lid. Here is minimalism, so you know what it’s all about, everything else is bullshit and fluff.

Minimalism is living with the things which bring value to your life, and getting rid of everything else.

Just because a large portion of minimalist may be vegan doesn’t mean I should be vegan. Just because most male minimalists have shaved heads, doesn’t mean I should shave mine. Stop it!

Think about it, if we minimalist went with the status quo, we wouldn’t be minimalists in the first place. Minimalism is a symptom that we don’t do what others do or think, it’s breaking away from the heard mentality.

Just because a big portion of the heard have separated into their own little heard, doesn’t mean they have gotten rid of the heard mentality. Minimalists do what we want, we wear only what we want, we have our hair the way we want it, and we own what we want to own. The difference between the regular heard, is that we get rid of the excess, and focus on the things which are important to each of us. We are not all going to agree, and we shouldn’t.

We are free agents, and we should stay free agents, hence the name of this blog.

Below is a video of one of the people who quit making minimalism videos because of the heard cyberbullying. The sad part to me is that she actually listened to them and acted accordingly. To me, she gave up and gave into the heard. I would’ve said, “fuck what they think, if they don’t like my videos, they can stop watching them”.

My opinion is that she should’ve continued to do what she likes doing, regardless of who agrees with her, but her decision is hers and hers alone, and I respect it.

Of course I’m assuming she’s relying on her YouTube monetization to pay her bills, so… she’s free to do what she wants to accomplish her goals. I just wished she had not let people bully her around. That’s all.  I would’ve had a separate channel for minimalism stuff, and another for non-minimalism stuff.

’til next time, cheers.