The way I see it, Bryan Johnson is life, Bryan Johnson is love. It is pointless to hate him. It doesn’t matter if he sounds crazy to you by attempting to live forever. He is promoting and living a lifestyle that encourages you to take care of yourself. As far as I can tell, he really means it when he wants to see everyone becoming healthy and happy lives. It’s very hard to argue with that.
The deep point that Bryan makes is that you live your best life by taking utmost care of yourself and others. Not by YOLOing; not by sacrificing yourself; not by hiding behind your mortality to reach for your vices. To me, amortality is besides the point. Taking deep care of your health is a great North Star for daily living, for the continuous making of my own best life.
Yes, he is quaint. He was probably quaint to begin with. Two things created more distance between him and almost everyone else: 1) he is a millionaire; 2) had to take risks and slog it for years to become one. On any given day, I’d rather be called a bolshevik than an aynrandist, but I am sure that the lessons he got from those years of hard work created a big gap between him and the rest of us. But his message has nothing to do with his fortune, or how he got it. Yes, you probably have to be a millionaire to have a shot at amortality; but that’s not necessary if you’re just trying to get 90% of the way and live in a healthy way.
I believe the hate he gets is just a collective projection of our cowardice. He made us realize that we were hiding behind our mortality, justifying our incorrect priorities and petty indulgences because “I have to die of something”. When you hear that not only that is wrong, and you can actually be happier by taking care of yourself, you’re faced with a radical reckoning of most of your daily life. And perhaps a regret of what you did in the past (regret which should probably be let go as quickly as possible).
The guy is helping many people daily (is it thousands? is it millions?) to let go of junk food, sleep deprivation, alcohol, stimulants, screens, and help them embrace exercise, proper nutrition and friendship. That’s the main point. Everything else, to me, is essentially irrelevant.
Thoughtful objections? I’d like to hear them!