Hey,

When the Epstein files were release, I couldn’t sleep much the first nights.

Not the “doomscrolling too late” kind of insomnia. The heavier kind. The one where you close the screen, lie in the dark, and your mind keeps replaying the same question:

How is this real?
What are victims’ families going through?
How could this world we’re living in be so fucked up?

I watchd 10+ videos examining the Epstein files.
I re-watched Justin Bieber’s YouTube video “Where R U Now?” to see the hidden messages.
I read X posts. Google Articles. Epstein’s emails.

Everything I could to understand what was going on.

I know, not the best use of time.

But I just didn’t want to accept that these motherf*ckers f*cked, killed, and ate babies.

What hit me hardest wasn’t Epstein himself.

That part is easy. A man who commodified human beings, especially children. History has seen that kind of evil before. Monsters are boring in that sense.

What broke my sleep was everything around him.

The protection. The access. The casual normalization of something deeply abnormal.

(In case you don’t know, Bill Clinton—one of the “powerful” men who were exposed—used to carry Marcus aurelius’ Meditations with him. Turned out, he was depraved himself.)

I felt enraged. I realized how thin the line is between civilization and rot.

I found myself wanting to reach out to people in power who claim to have a moral backbone.

Stoic-minded senators. Officials who quote Marcus Aurelius on resilience while voting on policies that affect millions. I actually drafted messages in my head.

Then I stopped.

I can’t do much.

They say,

“If it’s on your screen, you can’t do much.
If it’s in front of you, you must do much.”

And then I remember the examples our Stoic idols set for us 2,000 years ago.

When emperors and senators were accused—credibly—of adultery, abuse, exploitation, the public reaction followed a script:

Shock. Gossip. Silence. Accommodation.

Nero’s court was filled with “good men” who privately disapproved and publicly applauded. Domitian was surrounded by educated elites who knew better and did nothing.

Tyranny doesn’t survive on villains alone—it survives on people who tell themselves, “What can I really do?”

That question sounds humble. But it’s usually an excuse.

But the Stoics?

Cato exposed tyrants non-stop.

Thrasea refused to clap for Nero when he killed his mother and was ordered to commit suicide for it.

Emperor Vaspanian told Helvidius Priscus to not speak the truth, and when Priscus told him, “As long as I’m a Senator, I will only speak the truth,” Vespasian told him: “If you do that, I’ll kill you.” “And when did I tell you that I was mortal? You’ll do your part, and I’ll do mine,” the Stoic responded.

The Stoics were U N A F R A I D.

The jsut looked for 1 thing: justice.

And got crazy when they didn’t have it. When people didn’t have it.

I believe that they were able to see what’s going on today, they’d get sad and enraged at the same time.

That CLEARLY guilty monsters are out of jail.

But they knew that anger alone is cheap.

What matters, first of all, is what you refuse to become in response.

You refuse to normalize evil because it’s inconvenient to confront.
You refuse to worship power just because it’s powerful.
You refuse to outsource your conscience to courts, parties, or “the process” when your own moral judgment is screaming.

We might not be able to stop Trump and the others literally.

There are other people for this job.

Our role is different but no less important.

Live up to our Stoic ideals. Help the victims if we can. Preach to our close circles that power means ruling over yourself, not over others. Understand that money degrades, power enslaves WHEN the other peson does not know how to properly use them.

And above all,

Promise to never become a monster and be avid supporters of justice and goodness.

The Stoics set the example.

But are courageous enough to follow it?

Or will we be cowards and excuse ourselves for not acting?

If these revelations disturbed your mood, good. That means you’re still alive inside.

Unfortunately, The world has never lacked evil.

It has always lacked enough people unwilling to coexist with it quietly.

Let’s change that, day by day, in whatever way we can, no matter how humbly.

To our Stoic success,

— Ioannis

PS. The (free) Stoic Insults Guide will drop this Wednesday.

PPS. If you want to learn all the examples of the Stoic Opposition to tyrants, read THIS.