Rewarding Suicide.

 

A while back, I remember writing a piece about how the internet had created opportunities for people who didn’t fit into the normal nine-to-six routine of an office. I celebrated the likes of Sam Chui, an Australian born Chinese guy who has a YouTube Channel devoted to reviewing airline seats. Another guy that I celebrated is Drew Binksy, a young American, who recently achieved his life’s ambition of traveling round the world.

You could say both Mr. Chui and Mr. Binsky are living a dream. What’s there not to like? Both get paid to travel around the world and have fun and there’s a certain voyeuristic pleasure in watching them. In Mr. Chui’s case, you get to see and almost feel what its like to travel first-class all the time. In Mr. Binsky’s case, you get the pleasure of seeing countries that you’re unlikely to visit. Mr. Binksy in particular also brings a common street level message of peace and love among all of humankind as he shares the joys of his various friendships.

So, I believe that its great that the internet has created opportunities for people who don’t aren’t meant to fit the conventional mold. People like Mr. Chui and Mr. Binksy should be celebrated for following their passions and finding a way of making them pay.

However, there’s a flip side to this sensation of new celebrity, which I’ve recently discovered in my quest to live a slightly healthier lifestyle in my late forties. Thanks to Covid, I managed to get my weight down and I actually enjoyed fitting into cloths. This sparked an interest in trying to tone up and whilst I know I’m probably past the age of ever looking “Jacked,” it would be nice to be able to like looking in the mirror. At 48, I actually feel better than I did at 38 and if I have a regret, it’s the fact that I only took my fitness seriously in my late 40s instead of a decade earlier.

My knowledge of personal fitness comes from YouTube, where I have a host of “fitness experts” sharing information on things like the importance of gaining or maintaining muscle and resting properly in order to lose the fat. The 48-year-old me could do something the 19-year-old me would have been unable to do – take PE as an “A-level.”

However, while fitness influencers have been great, there’s been a perverse group that I have kept me walking daily. This group would be what one could only describe as the “freaks,” who seem to make a fortune trying to invite a host of heart diseases. The main character that comes to mind is a chap called “Nikocado Avocado,” who recently thirty. Mr. Avocado is a YouTube star who has made a fortune eating everything he shouldn’t eat at quantities that go beyond unhealthy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikocado_Avocado

 

There’s something fascinating about Mr. Avocado. His YouTube videos are fascinating in as much as he’s taken our most basic need (to eat) and turned it into something grotesque. In the process eating way more than he should, Mr. Avocado is prone to all sorts of emotional outburst about why his life has turned out the way it has (he has all sorts of emotional issues with his boyfriend) and he also joins other fat people in eating way more than he should. Mr. Avocado’s diets are beyond “normal” and as two other fitness influencers found out, you cannot work off this diet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nxo0P1vTX4

 

A good portion of Mr. Avocado’s audience comes from what are known as the “haters” who are critical of the way he lives. Amongst the “haters” are fitness coaches and cardiologist who make their opposition to what Mr. Avocado is doing very clear.

Mr. Avocado is not stupid. He’s aware that what he’s going is killing him. He’s admitted that his weight has caused erectile dysfunction, thus affecting his relationship, and he needs help breathing and has problems walking to the toilet (needs to travel around the house of a scooter). Yet despite these issues, he celebrates his 400lbs milestone and is now working his way to being 500ilbs.

Like it or not, Mr. Avocado makes a fortune from ruining his body. As the following video shows, he’s actually bought himself a US$2,300,000 penthouse and has an income of around a million a year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJa2thBJ8Fw

 

 His shows are admittedly fascinating and when the fitness coaches and cardiologists lambast him on their channels, more people are inevitably drawn to his videos. If you strip the media business to its basics, Mr. Avocado gets lots of traffic, which means advertisers are drawn to his section of cyberspace.

However, whilst he is undoubtedly a commercial success, we got to ask ourselves if there’s something wrong with us. Why are we rewarding Mr. Avocado to behave in a way that is clearly self-destructive? There’s clearly something wrong with us when we incentivize the likes of Mr. Avocado rather than the millions of obese people trying to get back control of their bodies.