Where do we draw the line?

Monday Mutiny | 5.19.2025

“If you do not express your own original ideas, if you do not listen to your own being, you will have betrayed yourself.” —Rollo May

What happened to originality?

Or, at least society’s respect for it?

A few years ago, it seemed like people were still calling out the charlatans, the fakes, and the thieves that now inundate every pillar of social media; the "content creators" who steal, repurpose, and outright plagiarize the thoughts of others—passing something off as their own in order to appear wise, funny, or relevant. But now, it seems like this behavior is not only accepted—in many cases, it’s even applauded—as "good content strategy."

What happened?

When did we become so unimaginative as a society that we abandoned all creative integrity? More so, why are we rewarding this behavior with excessive likes and follows, lucrative book and brand deals, and vast amounts of our limited attention?

Now, if you’re someone who doesn’t make your living in a creative field, I can understand why it’s not as big of a deal to you—but don’t you still care about being lied to?

Doesn’t it bother you to know that you’re supporting someone who’s completely full of shit?

Because when somebody misrepresents themselves and their work to you, they are directly insulting you; they are essentially saying, “My audience is too dumb to know the difference or the truth—so I’m going to post this anyway.”

Doesn’t that bother you?

Regardless of what I do for a living, this drives me fucking nuts. I absolutely abhor the idea of somebody thinking they can deceive me, or worse, actually trying to do it.

Every time somebody lies to their audience on social media—or outright plagiarizes the work of another—they’re actively trying to deceive you, me, and anyone else who might come in contact with their “persona.”

As a writer, I've watched over the years as hundreds (probably more like thousands) of so-called "gurus," "influencers," and "entrepreneurs" have taken something that I wrote years before, changed one or two words, then reposted it as their own original thought, joke, or idea. (A lot of the time, they don't even bother changing a word.) Back in 2016, my Instagram account was temporarily shut down for "cyber-bullying" when I decided to call out numerous individuals at once who were doing exactly this.

And I know I'm not the only one who sees and experiences this because I recognize work from some of my favorite authors/writers being hijacked, repurposed, and used in the same way nearly every fucking day.

People like to say, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” (Oscar Wilde’s variation of a quote originally shared by the writer Charles Caleb Colton)—but, I disagree, I think imitation is a detriment to society. Especially when it becomes “normal” to do so.

Just recently, I shared a series of screenshots of my Instagram calling out one individual in particular who continually pretends to be someone/something that they’re not by repeatedly plagiarizing the work of many well-known and prolific authors—myself included; although, I don’t consider myself an “author” (yet).

One of the responses that I received to these screenshots was, “This is the stuff that makes me want to stop creating.”

To which I replied, “If anything, it means you need to create more.”

The solution to a problem is never a complete lack of action. You do not make the swarm go away by sticking your head in the sand. So, if you don’t like how fake society has become, stop supporting those who contribute to it. And, if you can, contribute more of the authentic you in order to counteract the inauthentic slew.

I’m well aware that similarities of thought can, and do, happen (often, I might add)—but outright plagiarism is easily identified. And, I’m done ignoring it. I’ve already had my account shut down before, and I’m more than willing to have it happen again because I think we, as a society, have to stop accepting it as okay. We’ve already allowed too much dumb shit to become “normalized” over the past few years. But individuality and originality are too valuable, and true creation is becoming all too rare; we cannot allow the demise of these key elements of life to continue any further than it already has.

Right now, I do believe society's biggest loss is the loss of the individual—and the respect that was one held for ideas that were/are truly unique. Creativity used to be seen as sacred, so much so that kingdoms funneled mass quantities of gold to poets, painters, and philosophers to allow them to continue doing their thing without interruption, leading to significant and profound societal contributions.

And, right now, we’re doing not only ourselves—but the generations that may come after us—a HUGE fucking disservice by allowing originality to become a thing of the past.

With that said, thank you for supporting my work. Thank you for reading this, and I hope that you find yourself living as an originator amid the ever-growing crowd of imitators.

-Kyle