Refuse to be ashamed of anything. That’s how you do it. I’m the spokesperson for a radical, controversial organization and I’m constantly in the media. The corporate media hate me, hate our organization, and hate what we do. They use every opportunity to make me look insane, stupid, ignorant, violent, criminal, or simply a liar. They once ran a front-page story accusing me of being an extortionist — without even bothering to interview me. They eventually ran a “correction” and allowed us to write our own op-ed article in exchange for not suing them… but the original story went out on the wire and ran internationally, while their correction and our op-ed story ran locally. If I allowed myself to be intimidated by stuff like this, there’s no way I could do what I do.
The secret is to never be ashamed of anything. Put your hands on your hips, puff up your chest, and defy the entire world. I get people screaming insults at me from cars as they drive by on a fairly regular basis because I’m extremely easy to spot, but I just smile and take it as flattery that they feel so threatened by my effectiveness that they not only revile me, but lack the courage to do anything but shout abuse while protected by speed, distance, and two tonnes of steel.
If you want to take on the world, you need a certain measure of arrogance. This is tough, since our entire culture will try very hard to hammer down the tallest nail, and everyone will hate you for thinking you’re better than them. The solution is to be better than them by defying their resentment.
“You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.” — Winston Churchill