Emails come in, and I do my best to respond in a timely manner, but with only 24 hours in a day, and sooooo many distractions, as well as only being able to live in the now, sometimes my replies are late. Case in point here. It has been about a week since I was asked how to deal with people who hate on you. So, I finally sent a reply and edited out the stuff that might identify the original emailer to create this post (I did not ask permission to share the original email or their name so these will not be a part of this post).

In our current time, people are more skilled at finding something about you to hate than any other time in human history. When you put out information or opinion, be it through a shared video like YouTube, blog posts such as this one, or even social media, someone is not going to like what you share.

I deal with it all of the time on this site. I write about a topic that people tend to have pretty set ideas and opinions on. Anything shared which goes against another person’s set opinion is probably going to make them angry enough to comment. I get hateful emails almost every day.

And at its base, the motivation for these emails is a rather childish wish to make me say the things they want me to say.

It is asinine and juvenile, but it is not surprising. One need only take a look around at the temper tantrums being thrown daily by grown children who don’t want to deal with the fact that life is hard and sometimes things don’t go your way.

Basically what this adds up to is a simple fact that society isn’t mature enough as a whole to handle different points of view.

But in no way does this mean that you should not share your blog posts or put that awesome recipe for gumbo on YouTube. Do what you want to do. Living in fear of going against popular opinion or getting hateful emails is a sorry way to live. I write on whatever topic inspires me and I share my thoughts with very little filtering. Some people hate what I write, and that is fine. No one can make everyone happy. Those people who enjoy what I write and occasionally let me know that they enjoy it are part of what keeps this tiny blog about safety and sharp things and guns going year after year. It is about where I wish to place my focus. The people who send hate-filled emails are not going to like what I write, even if I cave to their demands; they will either call me a phony or claim that they are the one who convinced me.

So that is my advice. Do what you do, writing, YouTube, social media – whatever. Some people will love what you do and some will hate it. You cannot control other people’s opinions, you can only control how much their opinions affect you.