this post was submitted on 30 Aug 2026
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"That's Cute." -Machiavelli
Ooh. Very stigmatized ethos surrounding that one. Guess I need to find out what the heck happened there
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.
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
Edit: Jesus this is like way obvious after you read how his career in state politics ended. But we named a dark triad psychological trait after him. That's so dirty
not a problem. Overly Sarcastic Productions has a wonderful series on YouTube for those looking to get into Machiavelli, and other stoic philosophers.
Sweet. 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