this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2025
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History Memes

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[–] PugJesus@lemmy.world 57 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Explanation: Diogenes of Sinope was a philosopher of Ancient Greece, who spent most of his time homeless and offering unprovoked advice and criticism of society from an upturned wine barrel that he used for shelter. As he once said, "In the house of a rich man, there is nowhere to spit except his face."

Diogenes was immensely influential on the future philosophical schools of Stoicism and Cynicism ('Cynic' coming from the Greek word for dog, as Diogenes chilled with stray dogs and often likened himself to a dog), as he advocated a mode of existence 'close to nature' and with as few pretensions as possible. His extreme iconoclasm, while sometimes bordering on the absurd, also reflected an increasing understanding of the inner reserve of a person to find fulfillment and happiness with minimal material goods - a revolutionary idea in aristocratic Ancient Greece!

However, the line between wisdom and being a smartass is sometimes very thin - or nonexistent. Was he making a critique of antisocial behavior as harmful to the 'family' of mankind as a whole - or was he just fucking roasting a kid lmao

[–] Acinonyx@lemmy.sdf.org 33 points 2 days ago

Was he making a critique of antisocial behavior as harmful to the 'family' of mankind as a whole - or was he just fucking roasting a kid lmao

a good philospher does both at the same time

[–] wjrii@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago

Feels more like a jab at the "upstanding" citizens of Athens/Corinth/Sinope/whatever.

[–] TheLeadenSea@sh.itjust.works 9 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I don't think blaming a child for events they had no control over - their birth - is a good insult. It's not anything they did.

[–] Texas_Hangover@sh.itjust.works 66 points 2 days ago

Little fucker is throwing rocks tho.

[–] Acinonyx@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 2 days ago

Little fucker is a child tho.