I don’t know much about you, Ryan Holiday, but the hands in that photo and the name Ryan make me think white and male.

Oppressed peoples, such as people of color and women, are silenced across the board not only for voicing complaints about oppression, but for getting angry about oppression. To be perfectly honest, this whole article reeks of “just be rational” white boy privilege that negates and invalidates perfectly natural emotional responses to oppression, such as anger and outrage. It also smells of emotional fragility, crumbling in a “STOP YELLING IT HURTS MY FEELINGS” way that is utterly hypocritical.

Being calm in the face of oppression is easy when you’re not the one being oppressed.

Anger is a tool. It is also natural. Telling people not to get angry is denying them their right to a perfectly legitimate emotional experience and seeking to invalidate their grievances based on their tone alone. Denying someone’s emotional experience only exacerbates the emotional response. There is nothing Zen about invalidating someone’s feelings.

This is toxic, and I’m ashamed of people who think like this.