A reader across the pond is none too happy with an email I wrote:

Yo Ben,

I study, read and enjoy almost all your emails.

But as someone from the UK, where the death toll is doubling on the daily…

This email you just wrote gets a “big yikes” from me mate.

Maybe due to my lack of context in the US? Or simply because I’ve missed the point here.

But I think portraying “Corona-paranoists” as trolls is risky. It seems these people are giving into fear, sure. But portraying them in a negative light for concern about something that’s actually concerning, not to mention causing a lot of deaths does seem ill-sighted.

Obviously it wont hurt your reputation, but as someone who respects you in many regards this cursory comment makes me raise an eyebrow.

I think keeping a level head is the best solution, but I dont think endorsing travel is very sensible considering the pain this pandemic has caused.

Either way bud I appreciate your work and hope to learn a lot from you.

Thanks for you time.

Context:

I reprinted an email the other week to my list that was sent to “Email Players” subscriber Troy Broussard (not to me) mindlessly shrieking, swearing, and lobbing insults at him (i.e., trolling) for writing about how he took his family on a vacation during the beginning the outbreak.

It was not an emotionally well-adjusted email Troy got.

So, yes, to answer the bloke above’s question — there is a load of context he missed.

Your long-suffering servant elBenbo is well-aware of the horror show going on.

In places like New York, especially, where it ain’t exactly the jolly Smurf village.

Whatever the case, what I want to do is, contrast the guy above’s email with something the great Ken McCarthy (who has spent decades of his life uncovering, exposing, and whistle-blowing media, government, and healthcare system lies & corruption) posted recently.

Here is what he posted:

There are people in this world who command massive resources who believe the world would be a better place w less people and that the surviving people should be brought under as near total control as technology makes possible. Meditate on that a bit as you watch CV-19 Theater

Half a billion people plunged into poverty…with accompanying death, destruction, serious illness and despair. All self-inflicted, but the people who set and administer the policy will not miss a single meal over it.

Do with, draw whatever conclusions from, and agree with whatever you want, makes no difference to me, and in fact, I could use some fresh troll fodder for an upcoming promo I am prepping.

I mention this to give options for thinking differently to the adults in the room.

Whatever the case:

It’s probably no big surprise to anyone how we are witnessing history unfold, just like the last big society-altering event — 9/11. And, like 9/11, I have no doubt the government — in the US, at least — will be using this event to further restrict, further control, and further create big bureaucratic monstrosities for “the children” or whatever. But if history is to be believed, whenever the politicians and media start declaring “war” on concepts like “poverty”, “terrorism”, “drugs”, etc the one thing you can usually reliably count on is getting more — not less — of whatever they just declared said war on.

Since they are now declaring war on this virus, it’s easy to predict what’ll come next.

But it’ll be a gas to see what the “TSA” of this will be that emerges.

In the meantime:

This is all a solid example of the power the media has, even though nobody believes them or trusts them. A power you, as a business owner, can have on a smaller, more practical scale, too, if you but understand how to find, control, build, use, & “stack” media platforms for your business.

Something I touch on a bit in a video on my free mobile app called:

“Interview With A Media Vampire”

If you don’t have my mobile app, simply opt in to my daily emails.

Then, look for the P.S. in the welcome email you will get soon after.

Finally, follow the directions in that P.S.

NOTE:

Do not download the app directly from the Apple or Google Play store first. You will need a username and password to access it, which you can only get at the URL above.

Tomorrow?

Something completely different…

Ben Settle