Today I am writing about a slightly unusual event regarding Mr Money Mustache.
If you’re sat there wondering ‘Who the hell is that?’…. Where have you been?
Without doubt, Mr Money Mustache, A.K.A Pete Adeney, is by far the most well known online personality when it comes to blogging about Personal Finance. Arguably, he is the person who created the whole F.I.R.E (Financial Independence/Retire Early) movement and has been blogging for the last decade, building up a very loyal following along the way, a following that he playfully calls ‘The Mustachians’. With nearly 120K followers on Twitter, and his blog receiving MILLIONS of visitors every month, it is not hard to see why he is such a notable figure within the online community, and why when Mr Money Mustache speaks, people listen.
Well, just a few days ago, Mr Money Mustache found himself on the receiving end of A LOT of online backlash, after a tweet of his went Live. In the tweet, MMM made comment on the much-discussed topic of COVID-19, more specifically the topic of wearing masks.
(See Tweet below)
Having the sort of online presence that MMM has, means he has the power to influence people with what he says, and unfortunately, in this case, his followers did not take his remarks lightly. Due to the large number of followers he has on Twitter, it wasn’t long before the internet blew up, and Mr Money Mustache came under fire.
People were outraged.
They felt that he was making light of the terrible situation that we are all having to deal with during the on-going pandemic, and they thought he may even be suggesting COVID-19 was not a big issue.
Below are just a few replies Mr Money Mustache received regarding his Tweet.
As you can see from the tweets above, his followers did not take kindly to what he had said, and since the Tweet went Live, MMM has lost thousands of Twitter followers.
So, Did Mr Money Mustache cross the line?
Well at first glance, if you didn’t know who Mr Money Mustache was, and you just came across the Tweet online, I could see why people may take offence to it. In the current times we live in, COVID-19 is affecting millions of lives, and to date, more than half a million people have sadly passed away due to contracting the disease.
However, if you know Mr Money Mustache like I would assume his followers would, then I personally would find it hard to find any sort of offence or insensitivity in what he stated. As someone who has followed the MMM blog for many years, it is quite clear that Pete Adeney is a principled man, and believes that people should take care of themselves when it comes to their own health and well-being.
Statistics have shown that someone who lives a healthy lifestyle has a drastically reduced chance of falling ill, and in this instance, Pete is advocating for everyone to live a healthy lifestyle because according to statistics, that is the best thing you can do to help yourself avoid or recover from COVID-19. Therefore, if you read the tweet again with this point of view in mind, I think its fair to say that he is not trying to offend anyone or play down the situation, he is just trying to use his influence to remind people that they are not powerless in this scenario and that they can have an impact on their own health and increase their own chances of avoiding the virus.
Mr Money Mustache later replied to an individual on his Twitter Timeline to help clarify his thoughts and confirmed that he did not mean for people to take what he had said as an ‘anti-mask’ approach, rather he meant it as a ‘don’t forget the BIG things too’ approach.
Somewhere along the line, people seem to have forgotten what Mr Money Mustache stands for, and mixed him in with the many other ‘influencers’ that they find on their Twitter Timelines.
Personally, I believe what Mr Money Mustache said came from a good place, and he did not mean to upset or offend anyone.
But what do you think?
Did Mr Money Mustache Cross the Line?
Or was what he said simply taken out of context?
***UPDATE***
Since my post went Live, Mr Money Mustache has been featured on the ‘Earn & Invest Podcast’ where he discusses the controversial tweet in more detail. If your interested, you can listen to the podcast through the link below.
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Yes, he crossed the line with his tweet.
People are treating him like he’s some sort of idiot savant. He’s not – he’s a good writer who has been writing for a long time to thousands, if not millions of readers. He knows what he wrote and when he saw the reaction, he started to backpedal. If you listen to the interview with E&I, he tries to play up his original intentions but the rest of the conversation gives away some of his motivations (re his wrong assumptions on herd immunities, amount of people not going to hospital, etc.).
Personally, he’s been a great PF writer and he will probably continue to contribute greatly in that “lane” but I do admit that I have lost some respect I had for him.
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While it is essential to focus on the BIG things, i.e. keeping a healthy lifestyle whether you are in a pandemic or not, I found his first tweet misplaced and forgetting that the virus can have dramatic consequences on one’s health even if you are young and in good health. Oh and by the way I am pro mask 🙂
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Thanks fo reading and commenting Joneytalks! I’m pro mask too!
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When people are so easily offended, they are easily manipulate. Lighten up folks!
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