Adam Simon

honolulu artist seeking theosis, long gamma

[Adam Simon @ottomanbob]

It is apparent to me that X corrodes my soul, and in the spirit of Lent, I am called to abandon it.

Over four months of regular use, I've grown more prideful and contemptuous, both online and off.

I'm addicted to a feed of vociferous exclamations and images, mildly informative at best, evil at worst. X has harmed my self-respect, my regard for others, and my ability to love my neighbor.

In particular, the Spirit of X tempts me to quarrel fruitlessly with my adversary in situations where I otherwise may have been decisive and firm.

On the upside, X has spurred me to "write..." but my voice is colonized by a scolding, declarative tone.

X has facilitated a few interactions with people I deeply admire, but nothing that couldn't have been better accomplished over email.

I'm humbled and heartbroken. I pray my contrition might speak to at least one other soul.

Requesting prayers for myself and all those affected. I am grateful for the clarity God has granted me today and it is my earnest desire to abstain from X indefinitely.

Perhaps He will call me back here someday. I sure hope not.

Blessed Lent,
Adam

P.S. For now, I am leaving my profile up, with many posts of which I'm ashamed, less by what I (re)posted, but more by how, when, and why I did so. Taste and see, I guess.

[Adam Simon @ottomanbob]

x is clearly bringing out some of the worst in me and I want to change my relationship to it

the particular demons of X are varied and unremarkable. the fashion in which X facilitates + participates in their worship is at least nominally novel.

i suspect X's primary value prop (relative to other SM platforms) is that the interface incentivizes and greatly reduces the friction to initial interaction with the stranger (as a category).

we'd like to think that X is the town square (implicit in the analogy is a sort of bustling orderliness). this is just so plainly wrong.

@nntaleb 's convex cocktail party is congruent, but X is actually more like an adolescent house party on the hyperdimensional border of all school districts. inviting a combinatorial explosion of rivals and alliances.

much like a (hollywood) high school party, x is extraordinarily fun, but facilitates a crude and euphemistic intimacy-- sin.

however, a well oriented (ie moral) individual can still have a good time at such a party and positively influence his peers... without being a total square

i want to be that kid, who can participate in right relationship with the risky behaviors central to the event. including forms of intoxication (by spirits), conflict (formative and rightfully bearing real reputational cost), and flirtation (informative and creative).

That kid usually gets home safely in the morning. because he actually has one.

good parties take place at the end (edge) of a world. we cannot safely attend the all-day X rager if our world does not have a center.

in this epoch of domicide, i think we flock to X as schelling point (irony of using this term is not lost on me) in the wilderness

here, my metaphor breaks down and the sheer scale and formal issue becomes evident

Lord have mercy.

[Adam Simon @ottomanbob]

@jgreenhall @l_wambui_w ?

[Paul Vander Klay @PaulVanderKlay]

Why are there so many impressive Orthobro experts on YouTube? Let me count the ways… (You can add more in the comments section.

1. All of the Prot and RC “experts” with PhDs and stuff have day jobs working for institutions that pay them salaries. Orthodoxy is so new (and relatively poor institutionally and economically in America) that their brightest and best (but not necessarily monastic or holy) are hustling for clicks on YouTube and other media platforms to make a daily wage.

2. Orthodoxy IS the growing edge of American (Protestant) Christianity already. Non-denominational was the last gasp of an old Protestant chapter and so (with deep irony) Orthodoxy has come along to fill the gap.

3. Orthodoxy’s hierarchical leadership (remember Bishops and up must be monastics and the most venerated monasteries will be in the Old World) is disconnected from the social-media-blood-sport-arena (by design, Old World monasteries have bad WiFi …) and therefore can’t (mercifully) play in the childish reindeer games of Twitter and YouTube reaction videos.

OK, those three will get you started…

[Jordan Hall @jgreenhall]

My most personal conversation and in many ways the most meaningful.

[ThatParticularBaptist @PartBaptist1689]

It's not a coincidence that the generation that can't read has a sudden obsession with Catholicism and Orthodoxy

[Adam Simon @ottomanbob]

@noampomsky its worth paying attention to these people just for the reliable countersignal

[Adam Simon @ottomanbob]

@amandafortini i knew about my lost older / kid sister for decades before my mom ever told me about her abortion

[Curtis Yarvin @curtis_yarvin]

Hard to fight communism when you yourself are a communist

[Zarif Automates @zarif_cho]

@trq212 iMessage and it’s actually game over

[Adam Simon @ottomanbob]

One day I will have a cult and a gold medal and then I will be the winner

[Steve Sailer @Steve_Sailer]

New on SteveSailer:

Which Eugenically Conceived Hapa Gold Medalist Has a Crazier Cult?

Alysia Liu vs. Eileen Gu

Alysia's legal guardian was the Ghislaine Maxwell of the Zhong Gong cult.

Link in replies.

[Jonathan Pageau @PageauJonathan]

The great fool of the 21st century is clearly @kanyewest . Just finished the documentary “In Whose Name” which is brilliant. Toward the end, Ye says:
“It's one of two things is gonna happen now. Either they destroy me or I destroy it. It being the label. I'm destroying the labels. The label of crazy, the label of anti-Semite, the label of black, label of white, straight, gay, rich, poor, cool, uncool. I'm destroying the labels, all the fucking labels.”

Yes, no one has destroyed the old order like he has, not through theory but embodied action. Hopefully his soul survives the flood.

[Jonathan Pageau @PageauJonathan]

Every chud secretely venerates Our Lady whether they it know or not.

[Amanda Fortini @amandafortini]

Read a lot of books and talked to God

[Curtis Yarvin @curtis_yarvin]

More accurate to say that AI will reveal that there is no American economy.

Americans do not work. When we stopped working for Covid, nothing happened. Our tangible goods are made by overseas slaves. Our tangible services are performed by imported slaves.

Great paper, read it

[Adam Simon @ottomanbob]

@noampomsky My 20s are nearing to a close in a few months and I have spent all but 2 of these years seeking happiness (soteriologically)

I was blessed w some success making money initially but it made me utterly miserable

I thank God every day it panned out this way

I do need $ tho

[Julian Waller 📖 @JulianWaller]

"we must return to our cherished Norms. it's unheard of that personalism or egotism or aggrandizement could ever exist in our democracy. unprecedented. five alarm fire."

[Overheard on Wall Street @OHWallStreet]

Ray Dalio is Greta Thunberg for people who wear Patagonia vests

[Adam Simon @ottomanbob]

@GrimGriz It was easy ten years ago when I was still working in the space… now I imagine it’s probably a few prompts away with any competent LLM

[Adam Simon @ottomanbob]

@PaulVanderKlay Have you read Patitsas on Chiasm in Ethics of Beauty? He argues that the priestly office is essentially feminine and thus it can only be exemplified fully by males. And visaversa for prophets.

[Adam Simon @ottomanbob]

@noampomsky Thank you for recommending schnarch! he and Laura Doyle really make Esther Perel look like a smut artist

[Adam Simon @ottomanbob]

@James11804433 @nikitabier this idea was actually the origin of Proof of Work (hash cash)

https://t.co/SyPrpMaNkK