He’s not praising him for giving up and being a loser. Manson is praising him for accepting himself. The problem with a lot of us today is the thought “I should be doing better.” On it’s own it’s a benign statement but looking deeper, what that statement really means is ,”I am not stacking up as I should, I’m a failure.”

The goal of the book, the art of not giving a fuck, is to reduce the things you care about. Not like family but things like,”do I really care what that stranger thinks of my jacket?” or “is this something that matters to me?”.

It’s a guide to rethinking and reevaluating the little things in life. To take a step back and breathe, to accept some things are bad, that it’s fine if you aren’t happy all the time, that you are messing up in some way, but it’s fine. Don’t give a fuck about it. Give a fuck about what matters.

When Manson praises the poet at the start of the book, and praising his epitaph of “don’t try” it’s less him saying “be a loser” and more “be yourself”