The Danger of Stoic Sadism

When Resilience Turns into Cruelty

When Marcus Aurelius started popping up on Twitter timelines // startup pitch decks, I thought: good, maybe we’re getting somewhere. Maybe, we’re remembering that the world is uncontrollable, that virtue comes from how we respond to it.

But people aren’t just reading Epictetus for resilience or Seneca for perspective. They’re using Stoicism as a weapon against others, less as a philosophy and more as a cudgel. This is what I’ve come to think of as Stoic Sadism: the enjoyment some people seem to derive from suffering, as long as they can frame it as “character building.”

It’s an odd twist. A philosophy designed for self-mastery and compassion has (in some corners of the internet, at least) been reshaped into something sterner, colder, and punitive. When I see people argue that hardship is always secretly good, or that misfortune is a cosmic gym membership for which you should give thanks to the universe, I can’t help feeling a sense of overwhelming disappointment.

The danger is not that Stoicism teaches us to endure suffering.

The danger is when it teaches us to look at suffering and feel secretly pleased.

From Endurance to Judgment