Unique Disclaimer:
The organization, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this blog entry are fictitious—unless otherwise indicated. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, organizations, products, or services is intended or should be inferred. As well, this post is not intended to advocate criminal activity, as any entity interpreting it as such does so without expressed consent of Hollings Therapy, LLC or Deric Hollings.
50 Cent
Not long after the golden age of hip hop ended, rapper 50 Cent was scheduled to release a debut album entitled Power of the Dollar, though it was reportedly scrapped after controversy surrounding a shooting incident. Somehow, tracks from the album were leaked.
Among the songs was “How to Rob,” which featured a character called The Madd Rapper, created by Deric Angelettie—who spells his first name properly, I might add. I enjoyed the song, because 50 comically, boldly, and creatively addressed many industry figures.
The hook from the track states, “This ain’t serious. Being broke can make you delirious. So we rob and steal, so our ones can be bigga’. 50 Cent, how it feel to rob an industry nigga?”
In the interest of humor, for the purpose of education and entertainment, and to highlight a point, I will examine how to rob from a different perspective. However, contrary to the title of the song and this blog entry, this is not a how-to post.
Robbery
Much in the same way 50 Cent addressed key rap industry representatives, I will explore a fictional organization worthy of critique. Before I do so, I think it’s important to first define terms.
According to one source, a grift is a “money-making operation that is either dishonest and takes advantage of people, or is simply a cause of annoyance or scorn to those who pay. Typically, a grift is a source of easy money to whoever runs it.”
Though not all persons or organizations which solicit charitable contributions are indicative of grifting, there are inarguably entities which do so. Evidence of such activity is easily observed when an emotively-charged sociopolitical event occurs.
Some groups become shifty, low down, grifty, and grimy. This behavior may be done to the tune of millions of dollars, thus incentivizing more of the grifterly behavior. It’s the grift that keeps on grifting!
While a grift may be legal, it can be simultaneously unscrupulous. In the manner of dialetheism, two opposing things can be true at once.
Venturing from morally questionable to legally prosecutable terms, the Federal Bureau of Investigation defines robbery as “the taking or attempting to take anything of value from the care, custody, or control of a person or persons by force or threat of force or violence and/or by putting the victim in fear.”
As I understand, there are two types of robbery in Texas: (simple) robbery and aggravated robbery. The comparison between grifting and robbing herein focusses heavily on the taking of money from people through use of intimidation or fear.
66 Persists
For the sake of the current blog entry, I will consider a fictitious atavistic organization that goes by the name 66 Persists (66P). This movement addresses the 666 Rule of dating.
Per one source, this is a rule by which “women with high standards use to judge men. They require men who are 6 feet tall, have a 6 inch penis and 6 figure salary.” As this post is intended to be humorously educational, I don’t buy into the hype of the Rule.
This doesn’t mean that some men don’t actually believe women are so superficial—or perhaps discerning—that some women don’t practice the Rule as a principle. And if they do, I’m not here to say what anyone should, must, or ought not to do.
Unlike weight, which may be altered in a number of ways, height is an immutable characteristic. It generally doesn’t change much once an adult reaches full height potential. Also, one can influence earning potential, as income isn’t immutable.
Regarding penis enlargement, one source claims “there’s little scientific support for nonsurgical methods to enlarge the penis. And no trusted medical organization endorses penis surgery for purely cosmetic reasons.” In effect, penis size is relatively immutable.
Considering that body height and length of his phallus are two factors of the 666 Rule that cannot be changed, suppose that imaginary character Drogo holds true to his namesake and bears the shame of his stigmatized size. As an activist, he wants to change society.
Not having read my blog entry Circle of Concern and understood that we can’t control others, Drogo forms a coalition of like-minded people who refer to their advocacy movement as “66 Persists.”
Some activistic organizations use limited syllabic catchphrases which are easy to chant. They also understand that creating a false sense of urgency is a common trick of scams.
Drogo and his group form a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and ramp up promotion for their cause. Using a grifting “urgent call to action or threat” strategy, 66P creates a website, mission statement, and merchandise.
They want to challenge the ostracism of vertically challenged and sexual organ disparaged men everywhere. Using academese—unnecessary jargon associated with the field of academia—the collective drafts a buzzword-salad mission statement that reads as follows:
We are a community of belongingness advocates who believe in radical and effective change in order to challenge the marginalization of men. We maintain that in order to defeat stigma and oppression, we must transcend generational and societal erasure of men from use of harmful ridicule and unnecessary comparison.
We must safeguard against the tyranny of heterodox systems while also acknowledging that intertextuality of our aim does not apply to all females. We are steadfast in our pedagogical opposition focusing on height and penial structuralist standards with which males are excluded from healthy courting rituals.
We oppose inequities of the greedy and selfishness of standards relating to the superficial dating economy through conflict transformation, whereby it is believed that the bottom 80% of men (in terms of attractiveness) are competing for the bottom 22% of women, and the top 78% of women are competing for the top 20% of men in the unequal marketplace of hegemonic dating.
Our conglomeration focuses on uplifting those men who have been forgotten within egalitarian movements and ostracized by feminist and intersectional practices by disrupting and dismantling matriarchal systems of oppression. Through performativity, we strive for a prediscursive world where the reachitectured lives of men are no longer considered disposable.
Our discursive strategy is to affirm solidarity and commitment to the disempowerment of misandrist societal functioning that operates on a system of global sexualities. We further persist, not merely exist, in spite of unreasonable measurement of our being, and declare our endurance shall outlast detrimental persecution.
The rally for 66 Persists is a call to action for men seeking equality and to unproblematize a harmful system.
If what you read is one of the most insanely idiotic things you’ve ever viewed—and if at no point in the rambling, incoherent statement you determine anything that could be considered a rational thought—“may God have mercy on your soul.” Per Steven Pinker, “Bad writing is a deliberate choice.”
How to Rob, Legally
With materials largely disseminated across the globe, merchandise displayed by people from all walks of life, and tax exemption status, 66P needs an incendiary flashpoint to occur in order to blaze though the deep pockets of donor who pledge fealty to the organization.
Whether due to “toxic fanboy” designation, an “incel rebellion,” “toxic masculinity” characterization, or other antagonistically disparaging tropes involving men, suppose some wayward woman decides to commit a mass casualty crime against men. I disavow.
In this imaginary scenario, the woman makes clear that her actions are in support of the apocalyptic 666 Rule. She’s fed up with low quality men. This is precisely the moment for which 66P has waited.
Across the nation, mostly peaceful protests erupt. Neighborhoods are charred for justice. Retail outlets are ransacked for equality. Innocent bystanders are liberated of their lives for daring to record the debacle.
The more mainstream, legacy, and corporate media attention the 66P movement receives, a deluge of donations pour in. Additional social media posts which praise the movement bring awareness of inequity that builds momentum for the cause.
Dissenting voices are suppressed. Those who question the intentions and actions of 66P are ridiculed. Families, work colleagues, worship congregations, political partisans, and even the military rapidly divide into pro- and anti-66P positions.
Not everyone wants to donate funds to the organization, as the deliberately confusing mission statement doesn’t seem to match what is readily viewable by the general public. Chants in the streets of, “Ev’ry single size queen, fry ‘em like Sizzlean,” doesn’t exactly scream “justice.”
Though individuals who fail to contribute to the degeneracy may go undetected, large corporations are extorted for their resources by threats of force or by placing board of directors, shareholders, and other stakeholders in fear.
The message is clear, “You gon’ get down or you gon’ fuckin’ lay down!” Simple as. This form of intimidation isn’t ineffective.
Once corporations see would-be customers backing 66P through hashtag activism, an easy way of pretending to care is to donate money from the inflated cost of goods. Ahh, the free market.
Millions of dollars are not only pledged though donated to the cause, because there is a difference in these terms. C.R.E.A.M. rises to the top and those within 66P who retain positions of privilege and power become quite wealthy. “Dolla, dolla bill, y’all!”
66P’s grift is legal. In fact, regarding this completely hypothetical scenario, legislators and judiciaries wholeheartedly support the movement. Some even don 66P apparel and appear for photo ops with prominent members of the organization.
Though perhaps not meeting the legal definition of robbery, 66P’s grift is at the very least worthy of criticism. Still, for those driven by emotive impulse, it remains quite difficult to objectively reason. And so the grift keeps on grifting.
REBT
Practicing Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), I’m able to rationally assess what drives 66P’s narrative. In order to do this, I use the REBT ABC Model so that I may dispute irrational beliefs that lead to self-disturbed consequences.
The ABC Model is framed as follows:
(A)ction – What occurred
(B)elief – What you told yourself about (A) that resulted in (C)
(C)onsequence – What you felt (emotion or bodily sensation) about what happened and what you did (behavior)
(D)isputation – How you might challenge (D) what you told yourself (B), which led to (C)
(E)ffective new belief – What (E)ffective new beliefs you can tell yourself rather than using unhelpful or unhealthy narratives (B).
REBT maintains that rather than an A-C connection we disturb ourselves with beliefs—B-C connection. As a formula, think of it as follows: A+B=C÷D=E.
In the current blog entry, I won’t get into the nuances of how disputation works. If you would like more in-depth understanding about my approach to REBT disputing, I invite you to review blog entries listed under the Disputation portion of my blog.
Drogo formed 66P, not because he disagreed with stigmatization related to his height and penis size (A), though because he disturbed himself with a rigid and extreme attitude (B) related to the matter. This is a B-C connection.
I make no claim of whether or not 66P is good, bad, right, wrong, righteous, evil, or otherwise. It’s simply an organization, movement, ideology, and platform that allow intimidation of others to “run ya pockets.”
Some may suggest that fools and their money are soon parted. Who’s to say? All I know is what has previously been stated, “This ain’t serious. Being broke can make you delirious. So we rob and steal, so our ones can be bigga.”
If you’d like to know more about how not to fall for the “Ohkeedoke,” assessing matters in a rational rather than emotional manner so that your advocacy for various causes doesn’t contribute to apparent fraud or extortion, I invite you to reach out today by using the contact widget on my website.
As a psychotherapist and hip hop head from the old school, I’m pleased to help people with an assortment of issues from anger (hostility, rage, and aggression) to relational issues, adjustment matters, trauma experience, justice involvement, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and depression, and other mood or personality-related matters.
At Hollings Therapy, LLC, serving all of Texas, I aim to treat clients with dignity and respect while offering a multi-lensed approach to the practice of psychotherapy and life coaching. My mission includes: Prioritizing the cognitive and emotive needs of clients, an overall reduction in client suffering, and supporting sustainable growth for the clients I serve. Rather than simply helping you to feel better, I want to help you get better!
Deric Hollings, LPC, LCSW
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