Those words belong to Cao Cao - a legendary leader who united China during Three Kingdom era.
Imagine you suddenly find yourself amidst great rebelion.
You, and two of your followers are constantly on the run, avoiding major routes and cities.
You can't just simply seek refuge anywhere as you are famous and there is price on your head.
You can't buy food or hunt. Rarely do you eat. In fact you haven't eaten for two weeks when you
bump into your uncle.
You are both happy to meet each other and he offers you a place to stay and a food to eat.
Delighted, you go into his house while he departs to fetch finest wine
from a nearby city.
At nightfall you hear some voices. They clearly are laying an ambush. You hear something about restraining and slitting throats.
Very well - you plan a counter. You minecraft everyone, set everything ablaze and already are on the move. Half a mile from the village you meet your uncle. He's blind, so he doesn't see the fire. He asks where are you going since the party haven't even started. He talks about how he ordered his people to kill the finest chicken in your honour.
Suddenly you relize that's what servants were talking about. They were planning to slay a chicken.
You quickly terminate your uncle, so he won't face the atrocities you've just commited.
All of this because you would rather betray the world, than let the world betray you.
Gents, when I've read Romance of Three Kingdoms two years ago, I couldn't understand this maxim.
This mindset seemed so absurd. Everyone is familiar with betrayal and revenge.
Counter-betrayal though? Revenge before betrayal? That's some 4D chess shit.
Now I see it clearly - this maxim is not about commiting the act of betrayal first but rather avoiding
getting betrayed at all costs.
This is the way of a ghost. This is what the MGTOW is.
You see, MGTOW is an extreme countermeasure. It means giving up on the entire gender in order to avoid betrayal.
It means assuming ill intent not to get tricked. Finally, it means to rather mistake unicorn for a monster than a monster for unicorn.
Because you would rather betray the world, than let the world betray you.