In a town where it feels like everyone is required to manifest their best life over an overpriced matcha, one writer has built a viral empire on pure, unadulterated, hate.
LA resident Adam Rotstein has become the internet’s favorite “professional hater,” racking up millions of combined views across Instagram and TikTok by systematically tearing down Southern California’s trendiest enclaves and hot spots.
Across his feed, Rotstein’s hit list takes blistering aim at the absurdities that make Los Angeles ripe for a ribbing: the Malibu Country Mart, where he skewers the performative zen of people who “think they’re rustic and crunchy, but live in $6 million houses and wear $900 sweatsuits.”
He also takes on Palos Verdes, mocking the insular wealth of locals who refuse to travel “off the hill,” and the Beverly Center, which he dismisses as a hollowed-out shell of its a former glory. Then there’s Community Goods, a cafe representing “peak LA influencer culture” where patrons are trapped “like a hamster on a wheel from TikTok to standing in line, getting the shot, posting, influencing someone else.”
“Are these places good? Does it even f—g matter,” Rotstein said.
But nothing, to him, is more insufferable than the tech-bro ecosystem dubbed Silicon Beach, which encompasses neighborhoods near the water such as Santa Monica, Venice, Marina del Rey, Playa Vista, Playa del Rey, parts of Culver City and the South Bay.
“It’s the part of LA that’s now San Francisco,” Rotstein exclusively told The Post. “Culver City is a great example where everything is hyper-optimized, everyone works in tech, everyone shops at the Erewhon, and it’s this groupthink place with no individuality.”
In his view, “those beaches kind of suck. In Venice, you have to walk three miles to get to the water, pay a fortune, and it’s peak California: a $6 million house right next to a homeless encampment.”
Playa Vista, described as a corporate ground zero for local tech transplants and ad agencies, holds a uniquely loathsome place in his crosshairs — and served as the initial spark for the video series. “It used to be a swamp,” Rotstein quipped.
“It’s this very sterile, fake neighborhood that’s maximum 20 years old and feels like an old age home for millennials.”
But for a man who has turned complaining about California into his calling card, there are two places Rotstein can’t bring himself to tear apart.
Chief among them is Pasadena, where he lives around the border of Highland Park. “I like that it’s leafy, I like that all the houses are different, and that it has character and charm,” he confessed. “I try not to sh–t where I eat.”
That sentiment also applies to one of the easiest targets in all of Los Angeles: Erewhon. Rotstein readily admits there’s plenty to mock about the luxury grocer, but the “core hypocrisy” is that he’s a customer.
“I’m an LA piece of sh–t too. I’m not better than any of you,” he joked. “I go to Erewhon once a week and I get my stupid $22 smoothie, and it’s delicious and makes me happy.”
In a recent video roasting The Grove, Rotstein announced plans to tear through Rick Caruso’s entire real estate portfolio. But when asked if that crusade would include the recently reopened Palisades Village, Rotstein pumped the brakes.
“It gives me pause,” he admitted, noting he wants to be empathetic to a community devastated by the 2025 wildfires. “If I went to Palisades Village, I would probably want to be sensitive and hate with love a little bit.”
Far from alienating, Rotstein’s inbox is flooded with requests from fans to parody their towns.
“Hating is my love language, so don’t take it too personally,” he said. “It’s all in good fun, and it’s all in jest.”
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