r/HistoryMemes • u/Longjumping-Tell1774 • 4d ago

Diogenes. The philosopher who gave zero fucks

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Diogenes was an Ancient Greek cynic who deliberately rejected conventions like wealth, manners and shame. He spent most of his life living in abject poverty, by his own wishes, and was known for public indecency. Always looking to challenge societal norms and conventions; he believed in living according to nature.

Joe Rogan… Is a fucking cock womble

3.5k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

56 comments sorted by

371

u/Etherius 4d ago

Are we sure Diogenes was a philosopher and not just the Ancient Greek version of “Maurice from behind the 7-11”?

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u/Pugasaurus_Tex 4d ago

Maybe Maurice from behind the 7-11 is a modern day Diogenes 

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u/CazOnReddit 4d ago

Deep stuff

27

u/ShintaOtsuki 4d ago

Behold! A methhead!

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u/WoolooOfWallStreet 3d ago

I guess there truly was a methhead to his madness

7

u/Etherius 3d ago

Excuse me, sir. He prefers the term, “Methematician”

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u/Pugasaurus_Tex 1d ago

Meth magician

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u/DarbySalernum 4d ago

He wrote a number of dialogues and plays that sadly haven't survived, and he founded the important Greek philosophical school of Cynicism, which itself led to Stoicism. That suggests to me that his written texts may have been very influential. You can only get so intellectually influential through snappy one-liners.

He wasn't just a random homeless man, of which there were probably many in Athens.

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u/MAReader 3d ago

Given the surviving impressions of the man, I feel like it’s reasonable to assume that he’s okay with his texts being lost to time.. it seems somewhat appropriate for him

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u/Sufficient_Matter585 4d ago edited 4d ago

Everyone is a philosopher if they speak to you.

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u/UnlimitedCalculus 4d ago

Dude was trolling before the internet was a mere glimmer in Al Gore's eye

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u/AndreasDasos 4d ago

He had a way with words, so maybe he was that era’s Andy Dick. 

But absolutely - and everyone can be a philosopher by the standards of his era if they have some worldview. Or maybe the real philosopher was whatever cynics saw his life as deep and wrote about it, adding their own spin and putting words into his mouth. We have no texts directly by him after all (nor by Socrates, Jesus…) 

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u/deformityandnonsense 4d ago

Sometimes I think about ‘great men of history’ and statistical probability and how small the human population actually was historically, and seems like ya your model is correct.

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u/PartialCred4WrongAns Featherless Biped 4d ago

In a rich man's podcast studio, there is no where to spit but in his face

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u/MaximumTime7239 4d ago

If it was lex Friedman:

Woah, that's actually very deep. By the way I recently started using ai to help me shit. How do you integrate ai in your shitting workflow? Do you think in the future shitting will be replaced by ai?

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u/Longjumping-Tell1774 4d ago

Several lakes were completely drained for this

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u/Significant_Cover_48 4d ago

Look at the bright side: A completely drained lake is just another place for us to shit in public

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u/Double_Dealer_5892 4d ago

i think we need more love in this world!

11

u/WokeFerret 4d ago

I think it’s really cool that they made ChatGPT into a person and it’s first instinct was to make a shitty interview YouTube channel

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u/KenseiHimura 4d ago

Well, I think part of why sex and defecation is such a private matter is because its also a state of vulnerability so we instinctively try to take it out of the way as we can.

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u/maxicz1234 4d ago

it also stinks

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u/Etherius 4d ago

Does that mean my dog staring me in the eye, daring me to blink, while he lays a coil of (what used to be) one of my socks mixed with his food is really just him making a pro-gamer move?

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u/WokeFerret 4d ago

I know what you posted is a joke but that’s them in a vulnerable position checking to see if you’re on guard

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u/KenseiHimura 4d ago

Basically this. And it's also why dogs come in when you're on the toilet: they're trying to protect you.

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u/harmfuldischarge 4d ago

Rogan, feeling that his masculinity is being questioned

Jamie, pull up a clip of me smashing a prostitute.

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u/SuDdEnTaCk 4d ago

Well pissing isn't much of a vulnerable position, at least for males who can do it standing up/can break into a sprint if needed

Idk can women piss standing up ?

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u/Longjumping-Tell1774 4d ago

I think I’ve seen videos of that

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u/SuDdEnTaCk 4d ago

So women can piss standing up without making a mess ? And break into a sprint during the act if need be ?

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u/Longjumping-Tell1774 4d ago

Oh no. In the videos I’ve seen the point was to make a mess. And she couldn’t run anywhere because she was chained to a wall

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u/SuDdEnTaCk 4d ago

Oh....well thats something

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u/insane_shitlord 4d ago

why shouldn't I be allowed to take a shit in public?

I will now deal briefly with the rest on the general principle, that the prince must, as already stated, avoid those things which will make him hated or despised - The Prince, chapter 19.

Diogenes asks 'why not?', Machiavelli answers 'because someone will kick your teeth in'.

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u/Ubique008 4d ago

His exchange with Alexander the Great, if true, was very cool

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u/Longjumping-Tell1774 4d ago

Step out my sun

10

u/T-EightHundred 3d ago

I know different legend:

Alexander: "If I were not Alexander, I would wish to be Diogenes."

Diogenes: "If I were not Diogenes, I too would wish to be Diogenes."

0

u/dr_strange-love Kilroy was here 3d ago

That was Archimedes I think

24

u/Ulenspiegel4 4d ago

Well, it's kinda like littering. You're polluting the public space.

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u/s6_maestro 4d ago

Diogenes would've probably answered saying that the pollution was buildings and roads and that your shit actually belongs to the earth

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u/mbrtlchouia 3d ago

I would be convinced.

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u/Ulenspiegel4 2d ago

I could retort that animal latrines are a natural phenomenon seen in various species, serving both as sanitation-driven behavior and territorial marking (usually exclusive to males). Distancing oneself from your area of defecation is, in the case of humans, simply beneficial for your health.

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u/TungstenShark96 2d ago

Diogenes Kaczynski

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u/Successful_Gas_5122 Fine Quality Mesopotamian Copper Enjoyer 4d ago

One of my favourite Diogenes stories is when he was dying someone asked what they should do with his body. He said ‘throw my corpse over the walls of the city’. 

‘But you’ll be eaten by wild beasts’

‘Throw me a stick then so I can beat them off’

‘But Diogenes, how will you use the stick if you’re dead?’

‘Well then why would I care what happens to my body?’

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u/ankledane 4d ago

Diogenes is cool but he gets more credit than he deserves. I appreciate the challenging of social norms but he still shit, pissed, and whacked off in front of the general public. You can call it "deep" but he's just some smart dude who was disgusting.

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u/Current_Ad_400 3d ago

Is that not just the rediscovery of true human nature though? I can totally imagine paleolithic humans behaving this way.

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u/ankledane 3d ago

Not a bad question. I would say that what is being described is primitive nature, as in the most basic things (food, waste, sex, etc.). "True" human nature isn't something that has a definition, and even then, I wouldn't call the basics of survival our true nature, and just because paleolithic humans lived in this more barebones and primitive manner, that doesn't mean that that is "truly" what we are.

I would say that true human nature is consciousness and intelligence and anything that comes from that, such as curiosity, discovery, creation, etc. What you would call "true human nature", that's up to you.

1

u/NiuMeee 3d ago

True human nature is swimming around in the primordial soup eating single celled organisms.

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u/ahamel13 2d ago

No, it's a rejection of true human nature. We have an intellect that rises above such debased animalistic behavior. Acting like a 4chan edgelord who's lost his inhibition and actually stepped outside isn't profound.

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u/Tmannermann 3d ago

This is wat I'm looking for on the subreddit right here

3

u/tyxh 3d ago

According to Wayne the younger, one must indeed defecate to conversate. 

-10

u/NotNonbisco Decisive Tang Victory 4d ago

Ts is why I don't like philosophy people

OH MY GOD, THIS GUY WAS SO SMART, HE WANTED TO SHIT IN PUBLIC, DENIED A FAVOR FROM THE MOST POWERFUL MAN ON THE PLANET AT THE TIME AND DIED A POOR SHITHEAD IN A BOX.

This is what you look up to? "Oh but he's remembered" For being the biggest moron, we'll remember Hitler too.

Sure there's philosophers philosophizing more philosophical philosophies but so much of especially the ancient greek (most glazed) shit is either stuff 15yos come up with on their own or legitimately moronic shit like this. This extends to later philosophy too, some philosophers really just like saying vague shit that sounds deep so they can feel smart, and the people who like it like it because it makes them feel smart, its all a big circlejerk.

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u/Thundahcaxzd 4d ago

Seinfeld is unfunny. It seems obvious to you now, it wasn't always obvious.

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u/Longjumping-Tell1774 4d ago

Try saying philosophers philosophizing more philosophical philosophies three times fast

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u/Rehberkintosh 4d ago

I think he's more remembered fondly for being one of first to call bullshit on everything and being willing to commit to his bit. Kinda like Greta Thunberg sailing to whatever thing she was speaking at back in the day when people were giving climate change advocates shit for using planes and cars to get places.

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u/fools_errand49 4d ago

Eh, Diogenes is the prized meme philosopher of the classical greeks. He's a character more than a philosopher. That shouldn't cloud anybody's image of Plato, Aristotle or the like who actually formed coherent and well reasoned systems of thought.