A day in the life for the OC
The Friday before Labor Day I was packing up and about to leave work for a much anticipated 3 day weekend when I noticed a comment on a recent HighPoint Overland Instagram post. This post was a reel promoting my latest podcast episode titled:“Skanks, Ducks & Fanboys…..are they a growing problem?”
I didn’t know the fellow so I did a little looking around his profile to find out more. I found out he lives in Arkansas (shocker), he charges people to follow him on his motorcycle through public lands, etc. So, in other words, he’s just another money grabber trying to make money off of a pastime we all have access to, for free. I have posted his rather lengthy comments here followed by my thoughts.
Sluts and Whores
As you can see he felt like he needed to define what a whore and a slut is. I will have to agree with him on his definition on these terms. He is spot on so good job to whoever looked up these words for him. In the podcast I mention the breakout (like a bad case of herpes) of photos on social media of skanks and dare I say, whores, lying on the hoods of Jeeps on at the recent Smoky Mountain Jeep Invasion in Pigeon Forge, TN. He goes on to say since I don’t know them personally I can’t possibly classify these “ladies” in such an unkind category. He then proceeds out onto the proverbial thin ice by mentioning my daughter and wife. Let me just say this. I know how I raised my daughter, who just graduated with honors from nursing school by the way, and she knows how to carry herself. She would never do anything like I had mentioned seeing on the hoods of Jeeps or anywhere else for that matter. The same goes for my wife.
Puzzled
He is puzzled by my animosity towards those he obviously holds in high regard as he does the aforementioned whores and sluts. How ironic. He is afraid my message of practicing “Tread Lightly” principles will be overshadowed by my rants against his “holy and untouchable cows”. Yes, I was deliberate, as I always am, in the words I choose.
You can classify my rants as personal attacks if you’d like. If I mention someone by name on the podcast it is because these people deserve to be called out, in my opinion. If you don’t like it. Don’t listen. I am all out of “gives” about your sensitivity to it. Grow a pair.
If he, or anyone else, has listened to the podcast for any length of time, they would know that is the basis of EVERYTHING I believe. I have challenged listeners of the podcast numerous times to stop giving Patreon support to those who are profiting off of the public lands. In turn, take that money and donate to “Tread Lightly” or other causes that actually make lasting benefits to the public spaces we enjoy. My rants are to point out the things these people do to HARM the overland community. They don’t give back in any way. They take. They live off of YOUR charity, to what? Entertain? Give me a break. Keep giving to these people. It’s not their fault you foolishly throw money away, right?
Hypocrisy
Yes. I had a Patreon account in the early days of my podcast. During this same timeframe I was a Patreon supporter of a couple of YouTube channels. This support ended when I could no longer stomach what I was seeing as these channels evolved. I decided to donate all proceeds I had received through Patreon to Tread Lightly in addition to the sum I was already donating on an annual basis. At the point I decided to end taking Patreon support, I challenged others to do the same as I was doing and donate to a WORTHY cause such as Tread Lightly and the like. Those are the DOCUMENTED facts as it pertains to Patreon.
As far as offering “products with a discount code” I had a coffee company approach me about a year ago. They wanted me to promote their product and offered me a modest discount code and small percentage of products purchased through that code. This lasted a grand total of one week before I killed the deal. This is also a documented fact as I explained on the podcast why I severed the relationship. I asked Rhino USA for a discount code to offer to the listeners of the podcast. I believe in their products, products that I paid for by the way. They gladly offered the discount code and I have never made a single cent from my “relationship” with Rhino USA.
I say the things I say to draw attention to what most are afraid to say themselves. You can call my listeners sheep if you’d like, but I believe the audience is growing because the out of control money grab is growing old. The constant chasing of 100K subscribers, YouTube views, the things that have ZERO to do with getting out and pushing your limits and finding what’s around the next bend in the trail.
Nice try, but you missed your mark again. Thank you for listening to the podcast. It’s not going anywhere and change is not likely.
Kevin “The OC”