The actual philosophy of Stoicism is actually quite complex and nuanced - and it has nothing to do with what gets called stoicism in this culture - which is actually just suppressing any vulnerable emotions but anger.
If the only difficult emotion that guys are allowed is anger, that also means that all other vulnerable emotions get channeled as anger — grief, uncertainty, shame, etc. — and sometimes even as rage. But as I already noted above, the Stoics didn’t condone rage or even anger and what they valued is markedly different than the idea of stoicism today.
In stark contrast, ancient Stoics valued respect for community and empathy as virtues. In his text On Clemency, the Stoic philosopher Seneca says, “No school has more goodness and gentleness; none has more love for human beings, nor more attention to the common good. The goal which it assigns to us is to be useful, to help others, and to take care, not only of ourselves but of everyone in general and of each one in particular.”
