The Choices You Make

So… I have to write a quick one because…..

The stupid was HIGH on Facebook today!!

There is a bodybuilder named Brad Castleberry on the Muscle Prodigy Facebook page that is consistently highlighted. The page posts videos of him doing certain workouts at a heavy weight. He moves some serious weight. I’m talking 40 45 pound plates on the hip sled. The guy is ox strong. Take a look.

Whew!!!

Homie can move some weight right? I’m sure you noticed part of his personality through the video. Bear in mind, this is his you tube page, and he has a video titled “The World’s Weightlifting Freak: Brad Castleberry Story.” That sounds slightly arrogant. Couple that with the incessant flexing after his sets, lifting with his shirt off (check out the Facebook page for that gem), and overall sense of “dumb jock” feel he can give off and you have a host of haters that clown his every move.

The usual drove of “HE’S ON STEROIDS!!” guys come sailing in, and in a surprising twist, Castleberry supporters have stepped it up a notch. Their reasoning is that of a 3rd grader, but they’re trying. The idea is if you can’t lift as much as him, then shut up. To be square, the whole argument is dumb all the way around. What truly confounded me was how many people condoned using steroids. There was an abundance of people who thought steroid use was okay. One person actually said….

“It’s his choice if he wants to use steroids.”

I’ll let that one sit with you for a while.

On another note, I read a Humans of New York story about a woman who met her boyfriend/fiance/husband at a Burning Man festival. I’d never heard of this festival, so I looked it up. It’s a festival for “radical self-expression.” Basically, it’s a huge party for people to get extremely high and engage in promiscuous sexual activities hidden under the guise of “self-expression.” Anyways, the woman stated she was at this festival, tripping on acid, when he current beau approached her to ask if she was okay. That was pretty much the gist of the story, but what tripped me out (no pun intended) were the people who acted like doing acid was cool. I read the comments, and yes, I really need to stop doing that. Someone stated, and I quote…..

“Acid brings so many people together!! It’s beautiful!!!”

This comment has 991 likes. Nine hundred and ninety-one. Nine. Hundred. Ninety-One! That many people supported the recreational use of LSD. Seriously. I ran through the comments again, and I feel like the intelligence has been sucked out of me. Wow, that conversation was DUMB!! 

Can someone please tell me when doing drugs turned into a good thing? Should we start congratulating crack addicts now? I’m seriously baffled at this line of thinking. Here we have a group of people on two different conversations condoning the use of drugs simply because it’s another person’s choice to do so. And I’m not supposed to judge that??!

This has gone waaaay too far.

These folks act like people should respect their choices as long as it’s not harming anyone else. Well…….. no. That’s not how it works. Sometimes the choice you make can be… well…. wrong! I actually had to tell someone that today. Why should I have to tell an adult that they can make a wrong choice? It’s like basic common sense has eluded American grasp, and we just run around screaming, “DON’T JUDGE ME!!” because we don’t want to hear truth.

Think about it like this. Should a police officer respect your choice to punch them in the face? Should your baby respect your choice to smoke/drink while your pregnant? Should we all respect your choice to get high because you want to?

No. And I don’t care who disagrees with me. Right is right, wrong is wrong, and none of the above is right. At. All.

I leave you with this.

If you want someone to respect the choices you make simply because you made them, then you need to respect, and accept, the consequences of your choices. Yes, there will be consequences.

And sometimes, they don’t respect the choice you made.