You are so close to death.
This may not be obvious at first glance. But it’s a core tenant of stoic philosophy.
We are all here for such a short period of time. No one will remember that we lived. Even celebrities of world-renown will be forgotten in 100,000 years. What is the difference to you between being remembered for 100 years after you die, or 100,000? You’ll be dead.
All you have is this brief, fleeting life. It can be taken from you at any time. All you are guaranteed is the present.
So why waste any of your limited time being angry about something you can’t control?
Judging others is not only futile, it’s a tragic waste of life.
I get extremely angry with most of the health and nutrition misinformation out there. There’s a Netflix documentary called “What the Health” that is full of misleading information about the cancer and diabetes risks associated with eating meat. My mother-in-law was told by someone that simple sugars digest easier in your body, and are therefore better for your body. She My neighbor re-posted a planking exercise to spot-burn belly fat. All of this misinformation really hits home for me, as someone who spent most of their childhood severely obese (at age 11, I was 5’1″ and 220 pounds – yielding a BMI of 41.6).
So it’s personal for me when people create misinformation about health and nutrition. I can’t help but imagine my poor next door neighbor working incredibly hard to trim her belly fat, but doing all the wrong things because people are lying to her. But I have to remember that people are usually not lying; they believe themselves that planking will spot-reduce belly fat. And even for the people who are lying, I can’t do anything about it (though I would support a bill making health misinformation illegal).
You have to accept the way the world is.
The world will be full of nutrition misinformation for the rest of my life. It’s hard to imagine a non-dystopian world where that’s not true. So why waste my time being angry at Kip Andersen for lying to people about meat? He’s going to keep doing it. And so are others.
The same way that people will continue to cheat and steal. To judge is to swim upstream, against nature. How blessed are we who have the opportunity to be just, honest, and fair? How unfortunate for those who are not yet able to live in such harmony.
You should have compassion for those whom you would judge.
Don’t waste another moment of your temporary life passing judgment. Seek only to live by your virtues.