Talk First, Think Never

I had to delete Twitter, Reddit, TikTok, all of it. The constant discourse is tiring. Everyone needs to just shut the fuck up. It’s absurd how everyone now has an opinion that they’re able to broadcast to the world.

We gave every midwit on Earth a microphone, a camera, and a glowing computer in their pocket that rewards them for saying the dumbest thing imaginable with just enough confidence. The 100 IQ warriors. The “I saw this on TikTok” level of intellect. And now they all talk. Constantly. Loudly. Endlessly.

And they all think they’re right.

But these are people who are not in the arena. They have no skin in the game. Just talking. Talking and cameras. Talking and ring lights. Talking and follower counts.

You used to have to be respected in the world to have your opinion broadcasted to the masses. Now we have airheads spewing non-sense to everyone.

That’s where we’ve landed.

It’s not even that everyone has a voice. The problem is that we’ve rewarded the wrong people for using theirs the most. The dull, the average, the ones who play dress-up with intellect. People who watch a five-minute video and come away convinced they understand gender dynamics, civilizational collapse, literary theory, how to fix your life, or whatever the fuck. And to be clear, this isn’t about people making entertainment style content. They know exactly what they’re doing. I can respect what they do. They aren’t pretending to be life experts. They aren’t selling wisdom. They make things to make you laugh or feel something, and they’re honest about that. The issue is with the self-appointed cultural commentators, the dollar-store critics, the ones who speak as if they’re thought leaders, but haven’t thought deeply about anything in years.

There used to be a natural filtration system. Before the internet, if you had a dumb opinion, only those around you would ever care to listen. That was the end of it. Now, you record it. You clip it. You post it with captions like, “Why is no one talking about this.” And some algorithm somewhere rewards you for it.

You see it in every domain. Failed serial dater now giving relationship advice. Guy who hasn’t stepped foot in a gym since 10th grade talking about pro athletes “not having that dog in them.” Girl whose bookshelf is 80% Colleen Hoover now giving video essays on what makes literature “transcendent.”

None of these people are respected in the domain that they are speaking about. But they talk with the same certainty you’d want from a surgeon.

These people are so close to getting it. They have just enough knowledge to be able to talk about what drives engagement, but not enough to realize they should probably shut up. They know the lingo. They can fake insight. But you press even slightly and the whole thing folds. They’ve memorized the shape of intelligence but haven’t earned any of it. They always think they’re the exception. The smart ones. The truth-tellers. They’ll read this exact post I’m writing and say, “Yes. Finally. Someone calling out the sheep.” Never once considering they are the sheep. They are exactly the person who needs to be silenced.

It’s not lost on me that I’m doing the same thing. Sitting here, writing this, throwing more words onto the pile. Adding my voice to the chorus I’m criticizing. That’s the irony, isn’t it? The second you point out the noise, you become part of it. But maybe the difference, if there is one, is that I’m not pretending this is prescription. I’m not building a brand off pretend wisdom. I’m just annoyed and exhausted by the avalanche of half-baked thoughts being sold as the key to life. So yeah, maybe this is just more noise. But at least I know that, which is more than I can say for most.

Meanwhile, the airhead needs to go live five times a week.

Now imagine multiplying that by billions. That’s the modern internet. A billion loud people who are nobodies talking like somebodies.

There should be a standard. You should earn the right to speak on certain things. You should have to prove that you’ve lived something before you get to act like an expert in it.

But instead we’re stuck in a world where the people who should be quiet are the ones speaking the most. And the rest of us have to listen to their brain rot as if it’s news. As if it’s worth consideration. As if they haven’t already outsourced all their thinking to ChatGPT.

So if you’re reading this and feeling a little defensive, good. You probably needed to.

If you’ve never bled for what you’re talking about. Shut up.

If your opinion is a patchwork of things you took from your algorithm. Shut up.

If your contribution to anything is just more commentary, more noise, more regurgitated nonsense. Shut up.

Some people talk because they have something to say. Most people talk because they’re afraid of what it means to say nothing.

Guess which group deserves the mic.

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