Longtime reader and friend of the blog Dire Badger had a rather thought-provoking comment pertaining to gym bros like Chris “FREDO!!!” Cuomo, and why quite a few of them end up turning into giant liberaltard douchenozzles:

Think of getting swoll [sic] like you would the drive and willpower to get rich.

Some people use their ability to get wealthy to help others get wealthy and create a cycle of increasing wealth and prosperity not only in themselves, but in those around them.

Others use that ability to shut off the route that they took to wealth, abusing others and making slaves of them, and sneering down their noses at the ‘lesser men’.

Getting massive is kinda the same way. They use their drive and will to get into a position where they can bully, abuse, and dominate other men, or they can support other men’s attempts to better themselves and create a better male community as a whole.

Much like any other superpower, it can be used for good or it can be used for evil. To be perfectly honest, Even I (and, I am sure, you) Have to fight the tendency to sneer at those who do not possess our willpower to get swoll [sic]. We tend to use it as a drive to get OTHER guys to share our rediscovered bounty…. But some, Like Fredo Cuomo, would rather use it to be a supervillain, and compensate for the reality that his life has zero meaning, rather than using that drive to create a life worth living.

We’d rather live in a world where all men are healthy, strong-willed and productive, He’d rather be the one-eyed man in the land of the blind.

It is hard to understand, but not impossible.

Every word is absolutely true.

As DB points out, there is a distinct tendency among those who have the drive, willpower, strength, and time to get jacked and swole – that’s the correct spelling, by the way – to lord their gains over everyone else. And there is a certain tendency among lifters and gym bros to hold those who do not do the same exercises in utter contempt.

I am certainly partial to these tendencies and I freely admit this fact. Some readers might think that I refer to the squat rack as the Holy of Holies and the Altar of Steel in the Church of the Iron God in jest – but in my mind, it is at best 20% humour and 80% serious thought. As such, I regard most gym-going men, who show up wearing gym gloves and waste their time on machines doing body-part split routines, as naive and foolish.

And even when I do see guys in the squat rack, quite a lot of the time I see them doing utterly stupid, useless, and ridiculous things – like, say, CURLING in the F***ING SQUAT RACK. That sort of thing makes any real lifter’s blood boil, because those men who do it are wasting valuable time and space that others of their ilk could be using to make real progress and achieve real gains.

However… when I see men who genuinely want to get stronger, tougher, and fitter, and who are willing to do the work – then I heartily encourage them and try to build them up.

You can see this throughout the pages and posts of this blog. If you go here, and scroll down toward the bottom, you will find a three-part series on the subject of lifting that gives every newbie lifter a starting point. Those posts are packed full of details about which program to use, how to start making gains, when and where to check your progress, tips and techniques for staying safe while lifting, and motivation for lifting daddy weight when the going gets tough – which it inevitably will if you are really applying yourself properly.

There are plenty of men who set foot inside gyms and dick around and never make any progress. That is up to them, and I have no problem with those guys – provided that they don’t clog up my squat rack and waste my time. If they do, then of course I’m going to be pissed off. But if they want to ask me questions about how to get fit and strong, then of course, I will be very happy to help them. What they choose to do with the advice is entirely up to them.

And then there are those few men – a very precious few – who know what they want, are driven to get it, and want to build themselves up to be better and fitter and stronger. For those men, I have nothing but patience, goodwill, and great respect.

You can choose to build men up or break them down. If you choose the latter, then you are by definition subscribing to a philosophy of envy, weakness, and discord. You are driving yourself further away from what is good, true, and beautiful.

In the context of working out, you will be strong and jacked, sure, but you will live your life consumed by envy of others and will always be a deeply insecure, stressed-out, whiny little narcissist.

In the context of making money, you will never be satisfied with what you have and you will always be on the lookout for the next big score.

In other words – you’ll end up looking and acting quite a lot like Chris “Fredo” Cuomo.

But, if you choose the former course, then you are by definition attempting to treat your neighbour as you would yourself. You are subscribing to a philosophy of altruism, decency, brotherhood, and strength. You are pulling yourself closer to all that is best in this life.

If you apply this idea to working out, then that means that you will strive to create a community of like-minded men who embrace the iron and learn from its harsh lessons. You will try to encourage your fellows when they get hurt and lose motivation. You will try to give them insights and lessons that you have learned, usually very much the hard way.

When you see a guy much, much stronger than you in the gym, you will not be envious of his gains but will instead applaud him when he squats and benches and deadlifts far more than you ever could. That is exactly what happened to me not too long ago. I was in the gym watching a guy squat 415lbs for reps. Then he upped the weight all the way up to like 530lbs – and couldn’t handle it, he got pinned on the safeties and had to bail out of the squat.

I didn’t envy him. I admired his achievement. It was amazing to watch that kind of strength in action. I have nothing but respect for guys like that.

The reality is that no matter how strong you are, or how rich you are, or how many beautiful women you have slept with, or how many amazing things you have done, there is always going to be someone out there who has something you do not.

You can choose to live in envy of such men, and be insecure about their existence. This is the philosophy of the Left, which comes from a place of covetousness. The entire point of Leftist thinking is to seek to rule when you are patently unfit to do so, and to be jealous of those who do rule because they have something you do not.

Or, you can choose to live in peace with those men, build a brotherhood with them, and admire them for their great achievements. This is the philosophy of the true Right, which believes that it is a big world out there and that every man is free to forge his own destiny, however he chooses to do it, and that there is plenty to go around for everyone.

It all ultimately comes down to a simple choice, as it does in all things. You can choose whether to embrace the truth or to reject it. It is the most important choice there is – and perhaps, if you think about it carefully, the only real choice that any of us has.