You can give me all sorts of advice that contradicts itself in an attempt to confuse me and knock me off my path.
I already have my tasks laid out and my vision laid bare. I will figure out how to execute my tasks through trail and error. I will consider your advice and take what is useful and discard what is not. Don't take offence if I don't take all of your advice to heart.
You can tell me I'm too loud. That I laugh at the wrong times at the wrong jokes and that I should stop to think about how the simple acts of laughing or looking in the wrong direction are going to make others feel.
I'll continue to laugh like a maniac in the dark. I'll continue to look people in the eyes on the street. I'll continue to observe humans to try and figure out what's going on behind those eyes.
You can take away your approval.
People's approval wanes and waxes. I know what I've done and what I haven't. I know where I'm failing and where I need to improve. I know how to get my own approval. If I get approval from you in the process, good. If not, good.
You can try to scare me into delivering my speech in a more palatable way by reminding me that there's consequences for saying things too bluntly.
I won't water myself down to avoid gasps in the room.
You can attempt to make me feel guilty for something someone else did to you or that you did to yourself. You can try to convince me that I had a hand to play in your current emotional anguish.
I'll ask you to consider if your own feelings about yourself really has anything to do with me.
You can put me in a room with ten of your other friends and have each one of them take turns lecturing me on how I should behave.
If none of you comes up with convincing reasons to change, I won't.
You can discuss me amongst your friends and assign all sorts of labels and ideas to me in the absence of my presence. That I'm mean. That I turn women into objects with my "male gaze." That by listening to experts in evolutionary psychology my mind is being warped to believe that it's justifiable to "degrade" or "sexualize" women. That I'm insecure. That I'm secretly crying out for help. That I'm insensitive. That I'm "too aggressive."
I will continue to sail on my course to my dream island until the noise fades away and becomes unnoticeable.
You can take away friendship.
My self worth does not rely on it.
You can tell me I'm too confrontational and that's going to get me into trouble with the wrong people.
I will continue to address interpersonal issues in a direct manner that let's you know I'm HERE IN FRONT OF YOU.
You can tell me that if I don't pick a side on an issue that I'm a willful conspirator contributing to social ills.
I will continue to give issues careful thought before deciding what I should believe.
You can take away my job.
I will find a way to persevere and thrive again.
You can say that I'm not allowed to speak.
I won't listen.
None of these things will work on me. I'm committed to expressing myself honestly and none of the potential negative consequences that come from living life to my own standard and on my own terms really mean that much. The job, people's approval, social status and friendship, money, sex, and comfort all get de-prioritized in the pursuit of honest engagement with ideas.