<p>If there’s a range when it comes to social media endurance, I’m probably at the low, low end. Like, the weakling end.</p><p>I have a natural tripwire; when my brain has had enough of the chaos and noise of social media, it just nopes out, and when it does, it nopes out hard whether I like it or not. During these periods, I worry about losing friendships because I become this intense digital hermit. Because these periods can last for weeks.</p><p>However, for some reason, this week, my natural tripwire did not trip. I found myself totally entranced by the Paris Olympics, and not in a good way. Specifically, the ghastly opening ceremony that many Christians around the world regard as blasphemous.</p><p>(I have many thoughts about this, but since my brain is “well done” right now, I can’t formulate a coherent thought beyond, I’m sad that I live in a world where some people think it is okay to disrespect a religion like this, but only <em>this</em> religion because it’s considered “fair game” as they know her adherents will turn the other cheek most of the time.)</p><p>Anyway, I found out quickly, that some folks will mock people like me, a Christian who takes her faith rather seriously, for being upset. In fact, I was told to be “understanding” because I belong to a “majority religion” and that I was being upset “for no reason”. I was also told that I was stupid to be upset because I shouldn’t believe my eyes because it isn’t really the Last Supper, see.</p><p>Befuddled by all the gaslighting, I decided to search for reactions to the event.</p><p>The next thing I know I was watching an endless stream of videos about the whole hullabaloo.</p><p>Then, I got sucked into the whole angry US political discourse swirling around this, and then quickly, my feed was populated by left vs right diatribe.</p><p>I mean, seriously, how is it that Americans will somehow make any topic revolve around their politics? LOL.</p><p>The most head-twisting thing is how polarised the conversation is. I mean, I shouldn’t be surprised, but I still am confounded by how tribal the conversation was.</p><p>If you’re on the political right (US & Europe, namely, Asia just won’t fit in your boxes), you think the whole performance was blasphemous. Meanwhile, the left is mocking the right for being a snowflake about it.</p><p>People, what happened to common decency and respect for all cultures and religions?</p><p>Sure, I can ignore the uncanny resemblance to the Last Supper painting, but I can guarantee you that families across Asia would gasp out loud at that performance, turn off their TVs and maybe ruminate on the state of humanity right after that.</p><p>They will not be happy that their kids were exposed to that, especially since one of the men was “hanging out”, if you know what I mean. (Of course, there are more “open-minded” Asian parents, but these are exceptions rather than the norm.)</p><p>But naaaah, we’re in this left vs right thing and the whole English speaking Internet better play along, and group themselves into appropriate boxes or else.</p><p>Fortunately, I also understand other languages, so I escaped to Chinese and Malaysian Youtube and was comforted by the fact that phew, I’m not crazy for feeling the way I do.</p><p>(As usual, I’m going to bring you a different perspective beyond the usual American and European talking points you may see on English forums and social media.)</p><p>Chinese vloggers from Taiwan and China were mainly: WTH is happening over yonder in the West? Argh, my eyes!</p><p>(No, for real, the amount of times a Chinese vlogger said, “My eyes hurt” was hilarious. This is because of play on the phrase 辣眼睛 (là yǎn jīng) which literally means “spicy eyes” – it means something is difficult to look at, visually shocking, unpleasant, or offensive to the eyes.)</p><p>Here’s one by a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUXsdLkTKQ8&list=WL&index=1">Chinese vlogger</a> with English subtitles included. I actually liked <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9km2BR8OUg&list=WL&index=2">this one</a> cos short, snappy and funny and one by a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNenG3Do5Dw&list=WL&index=4&pp=gAQBiAQB">lady who lives in the US</a>. Unfortunately, both have no English subtitles.</p><p>Malay vloggers were mainly: What has this got to do with the Olympics? This is so disrespectful.</p><p>FYI most Malays are Muslims, and in Islam, Jesus is a revered prophet (Nabi Isa), so they consider it very disrespectful too.<br />If you’re curious you can watch <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOPKTNICVfs&list=WL&index=3">this podcast</a> – they sometimes speak in English.</p><p>TL;DR I got sucked into a social media vortex around the Olympics and couldn’t disengage from it no matter how hard I tried!</p><p>On top of that, work was really, really busy. Jira tickets were flying everywhere.</p><p>The results: I am now super, super mentally exhausted.</p><p>So I can’t really write anything deep this week. But I can share the deep thoughts of others instead.</p><h2 class="wp-block-heading">Great reads</h2><ol class="wp-block-list"><li><a href="https://theinformationdiet.substack.com/p/from-30-minute-ick-to-unique-distraction">From “30 Minute Ick” to “Unique Distraction Units”: Introducing a glossary for the age of information overload and media dysfunction</a> – I felt this sentence keenly: “How many times have you opened your phone with the intention of only checking up on something quickly, with a very precise, simple action in mind — only to realize, when it’s much too late, you somehow got sucked into a time vortex.”</li><li>In my efforts to disengage from the smartphone, I came across the concept of replacing your smartphone with a notebook, and the next thing I know I’m binging on Youtube videos about this concept. Which, I assure you, is not helping my information overload problem at all. But James Tracy did so: <a href="https://weeklytidbit.substack.com/p/i-stopped-using-my-smartphone-for">I stopped using my smartphone for a month. (And maybe you should too.)</a>. I don’t think I can do it though!</li><li>Speaking of notebooks, Tom Cox’s essay about <a href="https://tomcox.substack.com/p/my-notebooks">My Notebooks</a> came just in time.</li><li>Robert Wu’s <a href="https://www.baiguan.news/p/a-practical-guide-to-3rd-plenum-decision">A practical guide to 3rd Plenum’s Decision for investors and business leaders</a> – it’s probably one of the most important events in China and probably Asia but not a peep from Western media. (To their detriment, I mean, China is unveiling their roadmap for the next few years, wouldn’t you want a peek into that and take advantage?) Fortunately, we have people like Robert Wu.</li><li>And by the way did you read his whole series on Noah Smith and China?? Awesome stuff and cathartic for us Chinese folks: <a href="https://www.china-translated.com/p/noah-smith-is-clueless-about-china">Part 1</a>, <a href="https://www.china-translated.com/p/noah-smith-is-clueless-about-china-16f">Part 2</a> and <a href="https://www.china-translated.com/p/is-china-defeating-tesla-noah-smith">Part 3</a></li><li>Circling back to the whole Olympics thing, this is a good essay explaining <a href="https://beingright.substack.com/p/yes-christians-are-right-to-be-offended">why the whole “last supper” thing was so hurtful to Christians</a></li><li>And maybe, Christians <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYbISam8iKw">shouldn’t be so angry about it</a>. If you’re not a Christian you probably won’t appreciate this guy’s message, but if you are one, you probably will. I like his advice (he is an Aussie lest you be wary of being sucked by a whole right-wing American diatribe). He said Christians shouldn’t be surprised and should just “harden up”. After all, Jesus literally said to expect this so what in the world are you whinging about eh? Instead, we should use this as an opportunity to share our faith.</li><li>Honestly I just <a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/was-the-opening-ceremony-demonic">feel bad for the French</a>, because I really wanted to be wowed by their culture and putting aside the whole Christian thing, all I know about French culture is that they behead their queens and they’re all for sex romps. This French lady <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEv1v4hvkc4">certainly wasn’t pleased</a> though I don’t think she needs to apologise.</li><li>Or maybe they are on point and it’s just the <a href="https://clintschnekloth.substack.com/p/why-dionysus-on-a-plate-at-a-drag">French being French</a>. (No, I don’t believe that. It’s not all of the French, anyway.)</li><li>Speaking of faith – I come from a family of Buddhists. My parents are still Buddhist but my brother and I are Christians. We live in a rather unique household where we respect each other’s faiths. <a href="https://elizabethtai.com/blog/my-shifting-faith/">My journey to Christianity</a> was rather … interesting to say the least.</li></ol><h2 class="wp-block-heading">What I watched</h2><p>After the debacle that was the Paris Olympics 2024 opening ceremony I had to “wash my eyes” with something else, so I went looking for other opening ceremonies. And, I stumbled on this one. I cannot believe that I did not know this existed! Honestly, this is so entrancing!</p><p>When I was a kid, I was a huge fan of ancient Rome and Greece, so I read every history and mythology book about them. Seeing her ancient art brought to life this way was. Wow!</p><p>Now, Paris, I was hoping you’d give us this but then you gave us … whatever that was.</p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bh91qDz4xQU">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bh91qDz4xQU</a></p><hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity" /><p><em>Thank you for reading Tai Tales! To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.</em></p><div class="wp-block-jetpack-subscriptions__supports-newline wp-block-jetpack-subscriptions"><div><div><div><p ><a href="https://elizabethtai.com/?post_type=post&p=4411" style="font-size: 16px;padding: 15px 23px 15px 23px;margin: 0; margin-left: 10px;border-radius: 0px;border-width: 1px; background-color: #113AF5; color: #FFFFFF; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; margin-left: 0">Subscribe</a></p></div></div></div></div><p>As I know subscribing to a newsletter can be quite a commitment, you can also give me a tip:</p><div class="wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-1 wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex"><div class="wp-block-button"><a class="wp-block-button__link wp-element-button" href="https://www.buymeacoffee.com/liztaiwrites">Tip me</a></div></div><p class="has-text-align-center">If you liked this issue, it would be great if you co</p><p><a href="https://elizabethtai.com/2024/08/02/weekend-tales-6-the-paris-olympics-fried-my-brain/" class="status-link unhandled-link">https://elizabethtai.com/2024/08/02/weekend-tales-6-the-paris-olympics-fried-my-brain/</a></p><p><a rel="tag" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://elizabethtai.com/tag/bible/">#bible</a> <a rel="tag" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://elizabethtai.com/tag/christianity/">#christianity</a> <a rel="tag" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://elizabethtai.com/tag/god/">#god</a> <a rel="tag" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://elizabethtai.com/tag/jesus/">#jesus</a> <a rel="tag" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://elizabethtai.com/tag/malaysia/">#Malaysia</a> <a rel="tag" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://elizabethtai.com/tag/olympics/">#olympics</a> <a rel="tag" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://elizabethtai.com/tag/socialmedia/">#socialmedia</a></p>
