I've nearly finished The Meditations now. Has anyone here who fetishes stoicism and Roman emperors actually read it? It just made me depressed. Long story short, full of blackpilled quotes like "a person who dies after three days and a person who dies after a long life are all the same, they both go back to nothingness." Or "What does a great name matter? Who cares? You're going to be dead and can't enjoy it, and anyone who remembers you will be dead soon enough too and no one will care about any of you." He said something else along the lines of wondering why people idolize great men of the past, if they don't like anyone who is alive today. They only idolize them because they're dead but if they were around now they would shit talk them as much as they shit talk everyoen else. But also, pleasure is bad. Don't enjoy things.
It just seems really blackpilled and miserable. The only things I liked were saying basically, man was made to be part of society, so go work hard and be part of it, like bees do what comes naturally to them, and also, try to be kind to people who aren't as advanced as you are and gently correct them, but if they're too stupid, just leave them be because you won't fix them anyway, and be indulgent of them.
/pol/ is the opposite of Marcus Aurelius. Aside from being angry and unpleasant all the time, is always going on about muh people, muh nation, muh genetics, etc.
I don't think any of the people who jerk off to Rome have read him at all.