Comment on Anon reads nihilist philosophy

• TheStaffmaster@lemmy.world ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  The short version is that Machiavelli is a rather profound Stoic philosopher, but everyone misses that in a lot of his work he is being slightly sarcastic to throw the “powers that be” off the scent that he was criticizing them. When you hear how he suggests that “Princes should be feared rather than respected.” he actually calling out the despots of his day. It’s kind of how Stephen Colbert portrayed a right wing pundit on “The Colbert Report” as a way of satirizing right-wing pundits.

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  • sad_detective_man@sopuli.xyz ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Oh, okay. Well with that summary I’m at least interested in reading more and trying to see if I can parse the satire. Thanks for pointing me in that direction

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    • TheStaffmaster@lemmy.world ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      not a problem. Overly Sarcastic Productions has a wonderful series on YouTube for those looking to get into Machiavelli, and other stoic philosophers.

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      • sad_detective_man@sopuli.xyz ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Thanks. Reading Wikipedia has got me a little unsure on how to interpret him. I’ll check that out next. Stoicism is kind of a personal bugbear of mine but now regardless I really want to know the truth of this guy

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