mike
February 7, 2026 at 7:30:25 AM
dude i just wanna say how much i absolutely loved your most recent entry. hearing this kind of intensely researched perspective on religious philosophy and philosophy in general is so refreshing to hear. as i'm sure you can imagine, the only other person i've been able to listen and discuss these topics with was a complete moron. i just really appreciated the length and thought that clearly went into your writing
before your entry, i had really only had a surface level knowledge of daoism. it interested me, but i felt like my understanding of similar ideologies was way too low for me to try digging deeper. your entry described it so perfectly though, and my thoughts were exactly the same as i was reading along. i had heard the explanation of the water/ocean metaphor before, and at that basic level, i think daoism is a great understanding of the universe. it sort of reminds me of deism, (key word, sort of) and i believe that's what draws me the most to it. but after hearing about "the ideal person" aspect of daoism, it really throws me off. i wholeheartedly agree with what you were saying about it disregarding what originally seemed like the entire point of daoism. how can we be told to live life effortlessly and allow ourselves to slowly be pushed through fate's current if, at the same time, we're also told to practically worship these "perfect prophets" and feed our time, money, and energy into following their every command like an animal.
sorry if this is explained in such a shitty way i am very much not an expert when it comes to different ideological viewpoints and i know next to nothing about them, also doesn't help that i'm half asleep while writing this but i was just way too excited to see your blog
Replied on: February 7, 2026 at 9:52:07 PM
thank you so much. i really appreciate how thoughtfully you engaged with the post, and my posts in general.
and you didn’t explain it badly at all. that contradiction between “go with the flow” and “venerate these perfected figures” is where daoism starts tripping over itself for me. i’m still very much figuring this out as i go, so it means a lot that it felt useful or clarifying rather than preachy. as for the deism comparison, its interesting. i hadn’t fully thought about it that way, but i can definitely see the connection.
also, totally no pressure at all, but if you ever feel like going down a side rabbit hole, since you seem to be following the same train of thought egoism gave me, there’s a little stirner piece i read recently that keeps popping into my head lately. here’s the link. again, no pressure.
https://theoriaphilosophicus.substack.com/p/the-concept-of-the-unique
thanks again for taking the time to leave such a thoughtful entry, this made my evening. :-)