Along with the state of politics, Twitter has been great for my mental health and self esteem; I used to think MPs, Academics and Barristers were smarter than the rest of us. Now I know that you can still be wombat thick and successful. I feel a lot better about myself and my prospects because of it.
one of the best aspects of Twitter is the Blackadder maxim. 'Well, it is said, Percy, that civilised man seeks out good and intelligent company, so that through learned discourse he may rise above the savage and closer to God... Personally, however, I like to start the day with a total dickhead to remind me I'm best.'
One Christian virtue that arose in the 11th Century that is ever-more relevant in the 21st...the idea that "the Cathedral" (in this case academia plus journalism) should have domain over sovereign governments and their elected officials. A line from Tom Holland's "Dominion":
"
Yet the pope was no Caesar. His assertion of supremacy was not founded on force of arms, nor the rank of his ministers on their lineage or their wealth. The Church that had emerged from the Gregorian reformatio was instead an institution of a kind never before witnessed: one that had not merely come to think of itself as sovereign, but had willed itself into becoming so. ‘The Pope,’ Gregory VII had affirmed, ‘may be judged by no one.’ 24 All Christian people, even kings, even emperors, were subject to his rulings. The Curia provided Christendom with its final court of appeal. A supreme paradox: that the Church, by rending itself free of the secular, had itself become a state." (Holland, p. 258)
Two brothers in the old neigbhourhood fight off an attacker.
Although whenever I try to search for news of Lima Norte, when I am nostalgic for the rosy skies of Lima. When in my heart I long b the peal of catherdral bells to Ave Maria at Midday in the tropical sun with the PNP honour guard riding up the Plaza de Armas I am generally greeting by the account of a male or female, (or sometimes I am not sure which) sex worker from the neigbourhood.
Ed where we differ is civility is often a form of censorship. I prefer for example someone saying Ruairi your opinons are not allowed here . Rather then being politely shadow banned . . I will take the example of the Nu Misgogynists I don't think all women are gold digging jezebels after my 40 acres of good grazing and a barn in the West of Ireland. I do think young men do have valid complaints about young women. I do understand why people get bitter. There is a difference between people screaming curses in frustration and curses for devilment.
I think pitiless in the Chesterton quote is meant to mean cruel rather than uncompromising - and the 2 get confused. It is uncompromising to regard the entirety of gender ideology as nonsense, which I do, but it is not cruel because I do not believe delusion is any sort of path to happiness (even if we all live in delusion at roughly equal levels) but rather the path is via acceptance of what is, with one's personal whims and preferences (a) not you; and (b) minor in the scheme of things. But it would be cruel to apply this as a double standard and for example make fun of people to make oneself feel better.
"The thing about those lad’s mag journalists from the Noughties is that, while they were getting old, they were onto something. British alcohol consumption peaked in 2000, and since then there has been a general trend away from partying, casual sex and all that."
The 1990s film Demolition Man was eerily prophetic about the re-puritanization of society on the one hand , while becoming ever more feminist and queer on the other!
Every time someone writes about what Twitter remains good or nice for I remember why I torched my account. I just couldn't stand my own tribe of authoritarian centre & leftishist trying to shame me out my rightward drift.
I resisted Twitter for years despite people telling me I should use it but succumbed during the Brexit referendum campaign. I said I’d leave it once that was over but of course I never have, although I go through periodic periods of purdah.
Despite all the garbage and worse there I’ve learned far more about things that interest me from people I never thought I’d have access to or indeed had ever heard of. That has been a boon.
But I have rules which I try to adhere to for my sanity:
1) only read the Following feed, never what Twitter curates For You (me); the people whom I follow provide enough suggestions for new people to follow to fill my needs;
2) be ruthless with the Block button for any worthless cretin who somehow gets into my feed; why waste time on people who are guaranteed to enrage?
Can you believe that before I joined Twitter I was so naive that I had never heard of Owen Jones? Happy times indeed!
These days I prefer Substack where the full length article format plus intelligent comments makes for a better start to the day.
After a few days on X, I'm starting to figure that out. The For You feed is largely worthless. So I stick with the Following feed. As I add new people to follow, the feed is getting more varied and interesting. Though it's good to know that there are so many cretins out there, and what they are "thinking." I also prefer Substack with its long form writing and commenting.
Ed, I signed on to X/Twitter for the first time two days ago. My first social media account. I have stayed off of social media these past years, the better to preserve my sanity. But I figured the new Elon Musk X was worth going on to, for all the news that's posted.
I'm still figuring out how to navigate X's flood of information. I haven't posted anything yet. Don't know if I ever will. But I am following you, and a growing list of others. Happy Tweeting! Or X-ing!
That's one of the downsides. Discovering that someone whose work you cherished not only is controlled by an id which would shame a sugar-starved toddler but whose intellect wouldn't reach as high as your ankle bone. There are too many examples. It destroys my ability to watch them in films (if they're actors) or listen to their music. I think one of the main reasons we no longer watch domestic television is because the chances are too high of being exposed to someone whose Twitterfeed has reduced my views of them to contempt, and then I feel bad about funding their career by watching the work which first made me respect them. On the upside - and it is a huge upside - the lack of censorship is vital and will only become more so as the Starmageddon Regime tightens its fingers around the neck of the body politic. That's a metaphor, lest the DPP be reading (do members of the regime read? one wonders. Or do they communicate by meme?).
Along with the state of politics, Twitter has been great for my mental health and self esteem; I used to think MPs, Academics and Barristers were smarter than the rest of us. Now I know that you can still be wombat thick and successful. I feel a lot better about myself and my prospects because of it.
one of the best aspects of Twitter is the Blackadder maxim. 'Well, it is said, Percy, that civilised man seeks out good and intelligent company, so that through learned discourse he may rise above the savage and closer to God... Personally, however, I like to start the day with a total dickhead to remind me I'm best.'
The only person whose reputation grew after going on Twitter is James Blunt
One Christian virtue that arose in the 11th Century that is ever-more relevant in the 21st...the idea that "the Cathedral" (in this case academia plus journalism) should have domain over sovereign governments and their elected officials. A line from Tom Holland's "Dominion":
"
Yet the pope was no Caesar. His assertion of supremacy was not founded on force of arms, nor the rank of his ministers on their lineage or their wealth. The Church that had emerged from the Gregorian reformatio was instead an institution of a kind never before witnessed: one that had not merely come to think of itself as sovereign, but had willed itself into becoming so. ‘The Pope,’ Gregory VII had affirmed, ‘may be judged by no one.’ 24 All Christian people, even kings, even emperors, were subject to his rulings. The Curia provided Christendom with its final court of appeal. A supreme paradox: that the Church, by rending itself free of the secular, had itself become a state." (Holland, p. 258)
I love Twitter.
I would not know that this happened without Twitter.
https://peru21.pe/lima/independencia-escolares-golpean-delincuente-y-frustan-asalto-delincuencia-robo/
Two brothers in the old neigbhourhood fight off an attacker.
Although whenever I try to search for news of Lima Norte, when I am nostalgic for the rosy skies of Lima. When in my heart I long b the peal of catherdral bells to Ave Maria at Midday in the tropical sun with the PNP honour guard riding up the Plaza de Armas I am generally greeting by the account of a male or female, (or sometimes I am not sure which) sex worker from the neigbourhood.
Ed where we differ is civility is often a form of censorship. I prefer for example someone saying Ruairi your opinons are not allowed here . Rather then being politely shadow banned . . I will take the example of the Nu Misgogynists I don't think all women are gold digging jezebels after my 40 acres of good grazing and a barn in the West of Ireland. I do think young men do have valid complaints about young women. I do understand why people get bitter. There is a difference between people screaming curses in frustration and curses for devilment.
I think pitiless in the Chesterton quote is meant to mean cruel rather than uncompromising - and the 2 get confused. It is uncompromising to regard the entirety of gender ideology as nonsense, which I do, but it is not cruel because I do not believe delusion is any sort of path to happiness (even if we all live in delusion at roughly equal levels) but rather the path is via acceptance of what is, with one's personal whims and preferences (a) not you; and (b) minor in the scheme of things. But it would be cruel to apply this as a double standard and for example make fun of people to make oneself feel better.
We get more media "content" than ever before.
Fortunately the supply of news didn't increase, unfortunately we see an ever increasing supply of opinion.
I use twitter as a news aggregator for finance and economics, very easy to remove any politics from your feed so it works well.
"The thing about those lad’s mag journalists from the Noughties is that, while they were getting old, they were onto something. British alcohol consumption peaked in 2000, and since then there has been a general trend away from partying, casual sex and all that."
The 1990s film Demolition Man was eerily prophetic about the re-puritanization of society on the one hand , while becoming ever more feminist and queer on the other!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=E3yARIfDJrY&pp=ygUSZGVtb2xpdGlvbiBtYW4gc2V4
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2DoyYn-k-M0&pp=ygUUZGVtb2xpdGlvbiBtYW4gdHVuZXM%3D
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dz4HEEiJuGo&pp=ygUVZGVtb2xpdGlvbiBtYW4gY2Vuc29y
Now all we need is for chastity to make a come back and civilisation will be saved
I mean, it sort of is!
I fear that the transfer of sexual behaviour from 'real life' to online pornography cannot be counted as chastity!
yes, I suppose it does somewhat break the small print
Amen to this!
Every time someone writes about what Twitter remains good or nice for I remember why I torched my account. I just couldn't stand my own tribe of authoritarian centre & leftishist trying to shame me out my rightward drift.
I resisted Twitter for years despite people telling me I should use it but succumbed during the Brexit referendum campaign. I said I’d leave it once that was over but of course I never have, although I go through periodic periods of purdah.
Despite all the garbage and worse there I’ve learned far more about things that interest me from people I never thought I’d have access to or indeed had ever heard of. That has been a boon.
But I have rules which I try to adhere to for my sanity:
1) only read the Following feed, never what Twitter curates For You (me); the people whom I follow provide enough suggestions for new people to follow to fill my needs;
2) be ruthless with the Block button for any worthless cretin who somehow gets into my feed; why waste time on people who are guaranteed to enrage?
Can you believe that before I joined Twitter I was so naive that I had never heard of Owen Jones? Happy times indeed!
These days I prefer Substack where the full length article format plus intelligent comments makes for a better start to the day.
After a few days on X, I'm starting to figure that out. The For You feed is largely worthless. So I stick with the Following feed. As I add new people to follow, the feed is getting more varied and interesting. Though it's good to know that there are so many cretins out there, and what they are "thinking." I also prefer Substack with its long form writing and commenting.
I left twitter in a fit of pique in June 2013, and never looked back.
Oh wait, that’s a lie, I came back with my tail between my legs 3 weeks later, with a new account. 🤦🏻♂️
hahaha
Just seen on a Twitter a lovely suggestion- next International Women's day men should voluntarily curfew themselves from 6pm - 6am.
Fantastic
Ed, I signed on to X/Twitter for the first time two days ago. My first social media account. I have stayed off of social media these past years, the better to preserve my sanity. But I figured the new Elon Musk X was worth going on to, for all the news that's posted.
I'm still figuring out how to navigate X's flood of information. I haven't posted anything yet. Don't know if I ever will. But I am following you, and a growing list of others. Happy Tweeting! Or X-ing!
Welcome!
I keep telling Twitter I have no interest in sport, especially football. It deluges me with the stuff regardless.
Wish King had never discovered Twitter. Used to love his books
That's one of the downsides. Discovering that someone whose work you cherished not only is controlled by an id which would shame a sugar-starved toddler but whose intellect wouldn't reach as high as your ankle bone. There are too many examples. It destroys my ability to watch them in films (if they're actors) or listen to their music. I think one of the main reasons we no longer watch domestic television is because the chances are too high of being exposed to someone whose Twitterfeed has reduced my views of them to contempt, and then I feel bad about funding their career by watching the work which first made me respect them. On the upside - and it is a huge upside - the lack of censorship is vital and will only become more so as the Starmageddon Regime tightens its fingers around the neck of the body politic. That's a metaphor, lest the DPP be reading (do members of the regime read? one wonders. Or do they communicate by meme?).