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Stoicism has attracted a large amount of self-aggrandizing grifters, all of the examples are from real things I've seen, including the story about a bomber pilot in Vietnam who kept a copy of Epictetus in the plane, which was presented unironically as cool and badass. Here is a little tip: if someone talks to you about Stoicism and only presents it as a kind of "tool" to help you get what you want, and doesn't talk at all about virtue ethics and civic duty, they aren't talking about Stoicism. If you don't become a better person, specifically in your relation to the world and to other people, after studying Stoicism, you have made a mistake. A lot of young people seem to even become worse people. More selfish, more self-important, and less concerned with the feelings of others.

If you are actually interested in Stoic Philosophy, then for the love of god just listen to someone who cares about the philosophy in and of itself, like Massimo Pigliucci (who wrote an article on this comic here) or Greg Sadler.

Stoicism has attracted a large amount of self-aggrandizing grifters, all of the examples are from real things I've seen, including the story about a bomber pilot in Vietnam who kept a copy of Epictetus in the plane, which was presented unironically as cool and badass. Here is a little tip: if someone talks to you about Stoicism and only presents it as a kind of "tool" to help you get what you want, and doesn't talk at all about virtue ethics and civic duty, they aren't talking about Stoicism. If you don't become a better person, specifically in your relation to the world and to other people, after studying Stoicism, you have made a mistake. A lot of young people seem to even become worse people. More selfish, more self-important, and less concerned with the feelings of others.

If you are actually interested in Stoic Philosophy, then for the love of god just listen to someone who cares about the philosophy in and of itself, like Massimo Pigliucci (who wrote an article on this comic here) or Greg Sadler.