Brotherly Advice

My brother is eight years older than me, and while today that is really not a huge age gap, it was growing up. He was covering high school basketball for the Charlotte Observer when I was in 4th grade. He was already at his third major paper as the premier sports columnist when I was a senior in high school. He already has award winning books when I was just getting into restaurants and was already a well known and crititcally acclaimed writer before I was 30.

What I am getting at is that I always admired him from afar. Most of the news I hear about him I read on social media rather than hearing direct. It is not a bad thing at all. That is just the way the dynamic has always been.

I cannot say enough good things about him. From his work to how he raised two amazing women to being a devoted husband. He is someone that I rarely talk to, but have always watched his actions and learn a lot from them.

Years ago, he was going to interview Michael Jordan. This was in the 80’s. I remember asking him if he could get me his autograph and he explained to me that was not professional. As a 10 year old kid, I did not really understand it then, but as the years went by, it did.

He taught me never to read comments on very popular stories. Sounds odd, but it might be the single best piece of advice I ever got. People online are cruel. And while 99% of people have compassion, the 1% are the loudest.

But yesterday, a tweet popped up on my timeline. It was from my brother Joe, basically saying he is no longer posting there, and there are other outlets to post on.

Years ago I wanted to be a writer. I am not my brother, nor do I want to be, but I do feel I have a rough voice to share.

When I wanted to write, I did not mean like writing a tweet or sharing my day on a blog. Like writing about interesting topics and sharing my view. Being opinionated with being offensiv (okay that never worked).

But I realized that was not truly my dream. I hated restaurants. I hated cars. I really did not enjoy doing a lot of things in life. I thought that if I could write, share my thoughts for a living, it would But while going through all of it, I did learn that I enjoy sharing my point of view on a lot of topics.

And while my life has been a roller coaster, I can say sharing thoughts have gotten much more clear. I do not want to be forever known as someone who can comment quick on a Lauren Boebert and say f*** you and get applause. I want to be able to articulate why she is a horrible person. Why George Santos is bad and the people who support him are worse. Why, as much as you might dislike Biden (I do not), there is no plausible reason to want Trump back in 2024.

But I cannot do that on X. I got a nasty DM when I recommented someone renting a musical instument for their child instead of buying. I got attacked for saying Tofurky is gross. It is just a horrible, horrible place.

But I do need it for my career, which is selling sports cards. In June, I hooked up with an amazing partner who has helped me get started and believed in what I do. Results are there. But I also gained a sister in this. She is quite possibly one of the best people I know.

So this long drawn out post is to say that I am going to be primarily sharing my thoughts on Threads. I will only be promoting sports card auctions, my eBay sports store, and liking a few sports card posts there. It is absolutely unbearable there, but for now, there is no better place to promote sports cards to be honest.

There are a few good platforms. I am waiting to hear someone’s thoughts on Bluesky, because I hated it when I posted. Spoutible is nice and I think the world of the owner, but I have had some struggles being consistent there. But so far, Threads has been a great place to share my politicial and social views, and also to be challenged fairly.

I do think more and more good people will leave X. The juice is not worth the squeeze there to be harassed because you believe all humans deserve happiness.

So please follow me on Threads! I think you will get the Tony you are used to.