Hurtful Comments

[Kris]

Another Doozy....the last sentence made me laugh:

"I would like to be more gracious and instead of "lazy loser"; maybe he is a misguided idealist thinking he is doing the right thing.  Personally, I feel life is short and while we don't have to live over the top, we can enjoy some of the smaller joys like a vacation other than at the mall, or a steak instead of hamburger.  Hard to do that when you're living on $25,000 and having to ride you bike all the time.  Wonder how he gets his wife, and kid to the mall on his bike?"

Lmao!  I'll have to remember, next time I find myself in a mall, that I am experiencing one of life's joys.

[Kansas Beachbum]

This is the "millionaire next door" story again.  If you save everything, don't spend a dime and live like a homeless person, you can "retire" early.  Except he left out things like taxes, college costs, home repairs, cars, etc.  If you want to live in a refrigerator box you can live on $25,000 annually, but most of us want more out of life.  Careers, educated kids, and yes, even a big screen TV.  So, although these are headline grabbing ideas, in practice they are ridiculous and very uncommon.  This guy's life isn't the envy of anyone but his barefoot kids, who will probably not amount to much more than he did.  This isn't retirement at all, its escapism, and sounds like life in Alaska, in a remote cabin.  In other words, he gave up, quit and ran away, and now he has to rationalize it to everyone else in a blog

That's odd.  I have a career, educated kids, and not one...but two big screen TV's (go ahead, give me a face punch).  I also live in a very nice suburb of a major city, take nice vacations, and have fully funded every retirement vehicle I can, and then some, for the last 12+ years.  Comfortable early retirement is definitely in my very near future. 

Haters gonna hate.  Just jealous they haven't figure it out yet... 

[G-dog]

The resort looks terrific.

That said, I think the point is that the term "sacrifices" is presumptuous. For you, cycling might be a sacrifice, but for many here, it isn't.

And the point is, MMM generally ridicules anyone who thinks it is a sacrifice.

My take is that MMM challenges your/society's assumptions and to consider alternatives and set your own priorities and values and then live by them. I think he ridicules mindless following of arbitrary media/marketing driven needs. That's how I read it...

[Chris22]

The resort looks terrific.

That said, I think the point is that the term "sacrifices" is presumptuous. For you, cycling might be a sacrifice, but for many here, it isn't.

And the point is, MMM generally ridicules anyone who thinks it is a sacrifice.

My take is that MMM challenges your/society's assumptions and to consider alternatives and set your own priorities and values and then live by them. I think he ridicules mindless following of arbitrary media/marketing driven needs. That's how I read it...

He certainly does a healthy amount of "if you don't live like me you're an idiot."  If he does that tongue-in-cheek, fine, but it doesn't come across that way. 

Further, his whole "if what I say is too mean you're whiney and need a facepunch" thing just drives an endless positive feedback loop where no one can criticize him because he's already labled that whiney.  Endless positive feedback loop is a nice way of saying "circle jerk", btw.

[Erica/NWEdible]

This guy's life isn't the envy of anyone but his barefoot kids, who will probably not amount to much more than he did.

Yeah. MMM hasn't amounted to much at all.

[Retire-Canada]

I came across MMM's article on Marketwatch.  Scrolling down, I found these hurtful comments.

It's only hurtful if you give a rat's ass what this guy thinks.

I rarely read the comments on websites. There are a lot of mouthbreeders out there and spending precious seconds of my life reading their thoughts is a waste of my existence.

[Clean Shaven]

Mod Note: This guy is Mr_Clean_Shaven and most recently Stick_man - who we have banned for his trolling, antagonizing  and otherwise jerky behaviour. He obviously has an axe to grind.

Note that that guy isn't me, and I told him to go get his own user name when he showed up.  He didn't do so.

[plantingourpennies]

Probably important to separate Pete from the MMM persona that he puts on for the forum.

The MMM voice is very good at attracting an audiance, but it does come off as obnoxious sometimes.

The forum does turn into a circle jerk...but its still cheaper than cable =)

[MrsStubble]

That guy needs a snickers

[KungfuRabbit]

You people need to APPRECIATE people like him.

Seriously.

You realize if even 10% of the US population dropped their lavish spending ways the stock market would TANK? 

You can't game the system if everyone does it. 

[sky_northern]

The point is, read the post in the OP, and then read the quotes I gathered (at a glance, by the way) from MMM's post, and tell me which is more derisive and ridiculing.  I get what MMM is trying to do, and that's fine, but the point is, there's A LOT of criticism directed at others from MMM, so why should he be immunce from some directed at him?  You want to call people out as assholes, lazy, "sheeple", etc, don't be surprised when some come back at you.  Personally, I like a little fire in the arguments from both sides, so neither post offends me, but the people calling the commentator "hurtful" while conceivably supporting MMM's posts are being silly.

I'm not the OP so not sure why he labeled it as 'hurtful.' I was a little taken aback about the fact that the commentator brought Pete's kid into it but I just went back and read it again and actually it's funny and not that insulting (I use to try to escape out of the house barefoot all the time when I was a kid. And so does my niece, we are forever yelling 'put on your shoes' when ever she, age 2 try's to escape the house. Being a barefoot kid is fun). So I wouldn't label the commentator as being 'hurtful.' Funny on how clueless he is, but not hurtful. Pete probably hopes his son amounts to as much as he did.

[Dicey]

Y'all know how nice it is to move about in the world whilst everyone else is exiled in cubicle land? Let's let them continue to think that the commenter quoted by the OP has it completely right. If everyone achieved FIRE, we'd lose those peaceful hours and our secret world. Keep Mustachianism exclusive, I say!

[GetItRight]

Toughen up and stop whining, everyone has their opinion and is free to express it. Either discuss/debate/enlighten or ignore and move on.

[Dicey]

Toughen up and stop whining, everyone has their opinion and is free to express it. Either discuss/debate/enlighten or ignore and move on.

Wow! I assume you're speakinging to the person being quoted at the top of the thread and not the OP. Your definition of discussion/debate/enlightenment may differ, but it seems to me that's what's going on here, not whining.

[fartface]

The man who won't read has nothing on the man who can't.   

I've never heard this before. I like it.

Somewhat of an offshoot of Mark Twain's famous quote: "The man who chooses not to read good books has no advantage over the man who can't"

[doubled85]

That's one opinion.  Mine is that I don't like having to ride a bike (riding to the park on my own timeline is good, having to ride to work when I need to be there at a specific time, or need to haul stuff home, etc is not) and camping sucks.  Tried it, didn't like it, not interested in doing it more.  Here's the last vacation I took, not your typical "snooty 5 star hotel" but it was friggin' wonderful: 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/annabel/2013/01/17/best-of-the-old-school-caribbean-caneel-bay-resort-in-st-john-u-s-virgin-islands/

The resort looks terrific.

That said, I think the point is that the term "sacrifices" is presumptuous. For you, cycling might be a sacrifice, but for many here, it isn't. I think drinking cheap beer or eating storebought bread are sacrifices, but you might not. Not a problem. However, coupled with some of your previous posts, it comes across as a pejorative term. If you have expensive hobbies and tastes, okay, but don't assume that everyone who doesn't is just kidding themselves and making huge sacrifices. It's as offensive as the notion that you're an idiot if you don't want to quit your job and ride your bike all day.

BTW, I do have expensive taste in beer, coffee, and wetshaving. I don't make many sacrifices when it comes to these things, although I have learned to minimize costs without sacrifice in these areas, as I'm guessing you have when it comes to travel or whatever else you're into.

Point well made. Frugality for the sake of frugality isn't the point to me. To me, it's about finding your own interests and passions and spending time and money on those that matter and eliminating the others.

Further more, I have found that things that see convenient become less so the more an alternative solution is found. For instance, I've been trying to bicycle more and the illusion of convenience of driving a vehicle to work is starting to wear off and bicycling is becoming much more enjoyable. Not trying anything new and trusting the status quo is really doing yourself a disservice.

[Jeremy E.]

I wonder what the same person would say if they read an article about Jacob at ERE, LOL

[Tyson]

I came across MMM's article on Marketwatch.  Scrolling down, I found these hurtful comments.  What drives people to post in such an inconsiderate, naive, and thoughtless manner?

"
Gerry Keefe Dec 28, 2014
...This guy's life isn't the envy of anyone...
"

That seems to pretty much be the crux of it.  This guy wants a life that other people envy.  And being a big saver definitely won't allow that (at least not at first).