The Biggest Myth about Nietzsche | How to Debunk With a Hammer

[@whoaitstiger]

From now on I am going to refer to this rumor as The Myth of Syphilis.

[@mat7083]

One does not simply make Syphilis a myth

[@ricedreem]

We must imagine Syphilis happy.

[@whoaitstiger]

@@mat7083 Fun fact that Sean Bean was actually reading the lines off his other hand in this scene, which is why he does that odd downward glance and it ended up looking really good.

[@mat7083]

@@whoaitstiger That explains Gandalf’s face afterwards

[@JayTX.]

Top tier comment

[@thespiritofhegel3487]

Didn't Camus write a book on the myth of syphilis?

[@danieljliverslxxxix1164]

One must imagine syphilis happy!

[@Giornalisti]

Seriously, going insane due to heavy unprotected sex is a PR blessing for Nietzsche. Descending into total insanity isn't a good selling point for his arrogant, ignorant, narcissistic asshole. But he has value. Even in the worst car wreck there are salvageable parts. The most hyped philosopher ever.

[@NotanEmpire]

I look forward to reading biographies that state "mistakenly diagnosed with Siphylis" and "possibly suffered from Cadasil"

[@untimelyreflections]

Lol, I hope one day the syphilis thing doesn't even get mentioned. For another example, the horse hugging thing. I *almost* mentioned it in this video with the caveat that its a false story... then was like... "Why mention a false story at all??"

[@revengance4149]

@@untimelyreflections actually at the beginning it said he hugged a unicorn, which seems even more unlikely

[@hiphopslevy8979]

@@untimelyreflections Why all those false stories? Ever since Nietzsche we know that people need lies... including malicious ones, the indemnity of the intellectually shallow who like to tear down what's above them. But I must admit that the "horse legend" isn't as bad as the incel-syphilis myth. The latter is nothing but a "low blow" ("Nietzsche was a loser, so he couldn't get any women, so he had to pay for them, so he got a veneric..."), whereas the tale from Turin sees Nietzsche, the herald of the "homo natura" with a "hard heart" for Descartes, apologizing to a horse for what the French philosopher had unleashed. I can't help but feel that there's at least a bold logic in the madness of this story.

[@raymond_sycamore]

Next up: Nietzsche (and by way his readers) was NOT an incel!

[@untimelyreflections]

He might well have been an incel, in the modern sense of the word, and his readers DEFINITELY are Though isn't it funny how the syphilis claim and the incel claim seem to go hand-in-hand? Those two accusations don't really go together...

[@Voidapparate]

​@@untimelyreflections * Some/ a portion of his readers "DEFINITELY" are.

[@untimelyreflections]

@@hashassassin830 Chill out, I'm not being serious.

[@untimelyreflections]

@@Voidapparate obvs

[@untimelyreflections]

@@hashassassin830 just calm down

[@trombone7]

Ok, now I'm torn. I'm loving the short-form essentialsalts, and I'm loving the long-form essentialsalts. Thankfully, I don't have to choose.

[@charalampostheodosis7047]

The syphilis hysteria was quite prevalent in 19th and early 20th centuries (Franz Schubert is another prominent victim of such slander, plus loose but persistent rumors about Lenin, Hitler and many others). Thomas Mann's works are steeped in fear of syphilis. It's been used as a weapon of character assassination plus the promotion of puritanical horror towards sexual promiscuity. Mutatis mutandis the late 20th century AIDS hysteria was a remake of the original syphilis hoopla. Other non-specifically -sexual artificially managed panic campaigns such as smallpox, polio and covid follow the same pattern in the capacity of precursor/aftermath and serve the same function of fear generation.

[@JustCJson]

Thank you. I am a Brazilian and here we had a person, unfortunately he died, called Olavo de Carvalho, he didnt liked Nietzsche and pointed that he had syphilis to dimiss Nietzsche.

[@tvdasala1701]

Unfortunately? Lol

[@JustCJson]

@tvdasala1701 i find it kinda regrettable although i dont agree with him

[@nachashiesu-sophia]

​​@@JustCJson I find that kind of reflexive "it's bad that anyone died" rhetoric to be disingenuously moralistic.

[@JustCJson]

@@nachashiesu-sophia and i agree with you, i just said what seemed more palatable

[@jonatascardosodesouza8350]

Achei o outro espectador Brasileiro desse canal sensacional. 🎉

[@Konstantin-Rusenov]

Excuse me, but how did Nietzsche eat with such a big moustache? No one is asking this.

[@Giantcrabz]

he photosynthesizes

[@jaylair8912]

I think the stomach ailments stemmed from his "treatment" (mercury) for dysentery during the time he was an ambulance driver in one of the Prussian wars.

[@JoBlakeLisbon]

Mercury poisoning is horrific. Interesting point

[@hobochangba7638]

Incredibly rare to find a channel with such high-level content/analysis AND consistent output! Thank you 🙏🏻

[@NoahThiel-cn2en]

“There are no symptoms, just diagnoses”

[@RustyShakleford1]

His whole family most likely contracted tuberculosis extra pulmonary through water or milk or food. It would cause every single symptom that lead up to their death blood clots, meniningial symptoms, stomach

[@untimelyreflections]

That's an interesting idea. Although, why were his mother, sister and aunts seemingly unaffected? Why did Nietzsche's condition worsen after he left his family home in Rocken, and why did he find it easier in Switzerland? There are still some things left unexplained.

[@RustyShakleford1]

@untimelyreflections because alot of times when its contracted it can go dormant and in other it stays active either due to lowered immune system malnutrition not sleeping enough or overworking. Potentially the men were overworked and underfed and the women were able to fight it off or keep it latent in a granuloma. Also maybe it was a water or food source only the men were drinking or eating. Deer is especially laden with tuberculosis if they were hunting or eating deer. Unpasteurized milk, drinking water, vegetables, and animals all can carry TB or other mycobacterium.

[@RustyShakleford1]

@untimelyreflections also if the men only got it they could have been working together or seeing eachother more on a weekly basis and their own wives or other family

[@RustyShakleford1]

@untimelyreflections it takes alot of exposure to tb to contract active disease usualy your body can fight it off or keep it latent

[@BLOODREDGENERALWUKONG]

He had such a tragic life, but I think it was part of his destiny, He was supposed to write those books, and change the world, and he did.

[@KaiHenningsen]

Destiny is a myth.

[@BLOODREDGENERALWUKONG]

@@KaiHenningsen Well, I think it has yet to be determined if the universe is deterministic or not, Nor if it has any kind of author or if it was just randomly evolved out of nothing, But you're entitled to your opinion, niether one of us really has any business making definitive claims here.

[@KaiHenningsen]

@@BLOODREDGENERALWUKONG I happen to think I have much more solid grounds for my claim than the other side.

[@BLOODREDGENERALWUKONG]

@@KaiHenningsen So you claim to have knowledge that the Universe is not determinstic? You can tell the shape of time. I would argue that time is probably an illusiary construct of our minds, and most likely the past the future and the present are already written, but I wouldn't claim to have evidence for either side, it's completely unknowable. Whether the universe at the big bang was created by a conscious mind, or was a random evolutionary process, is completely unknowable, if you claim you know what was going on at the time of the big bang you are a lying or a fool. I at least acknowledge that it is so outside of our realm of understanding, it is virtually pointless to comment on. If I had to guess I think time is deterministic, like if you could put in the equations that make up the universe, I think you could derive a result at any given point in time if you had enough knowledge, but it's just a guess. There is no answer to this yet. If someone told you they have the answer they are wrong.

[@BLOODREDGENERALWUKONG]

@@KaiHenningsen Also, I don't like commenting on the existence of a diety, however, we are walking around, and we are minds, we think, we have minds that is obviously a property in the universe, I suspect this is far from the only planet with life on it, it is a common property in this universe would be my guess. Now, in that 19th dimensional shitfuck at the big bang that created all this, whatever realm of reality it exists in, I see no reason why there couldn't be a mind existing there too, the universe seems like something a grand intelligence would choose to make, we don't even know if it was the start of time or not, maybe it was created or purchased at the store, by something living in that. I'm not at all saying that's true, but there is equally as much evidence for that, as whatever you're trying to assert is true here. It's just guesses, we have no evidence on any of it, our knowledge stops at the big bang, it is the time for guessing, and it is so unknowlable at this time, one guess is basically as good as another right now. So I have mostly stated my beliefs, b*tch basic deism, kind of, just leaving the door open to b*tch basic deism. Now we're done with my beliefs, I've stated them, you say I'm wrong, whatever. Tell me your glorious evidence filled beliefs on what the big bang was, what were the initial conditions of the big bang, what was that reality like? What's in there? What do you see when you look in that? State your beliefs, I'll try to be respectful, Internet arguments make my angry, I apologize for any rude behavior on my part. But I'd like you to clarify what your non-deterministic reality is? What was the intial state of the universe, And what about the universe makes it non-deterministic, It is random in a way that can never be computed? Superintelligent entities and minds, can't exist, dont? Why? They can't exist at higher scales of resolution? I don't understand.

[@nicolaswhitehouse3894]

Hi essentialsalts. Thank you for the video. I have a suggestion. Perhaps you can do a video about Nietzsche’s childhood, and what kind of personality he had. I see very few video or podcasts about Nietzsche’s childhood and what kind of person he was like.

[@abbyleinweber]

Russell Walter has some good videos on this! kzbin.info/www/bejne/kHyWi5yHitR0Y5Ysi=vNTqFpX7M4JUXY-b

[@ridlaridlidouzou]

Do more episodes about his myths. Great work!

[@alecmisra4964]

Amazing work ES. This is such a tricky one to unpick. Guess you did it big guy.

[@alexanderleuchte5132]

The thumbnail inspired me to do a little research and i would say a quick image search for "cat with nietzsche mustache" is worth it, in particular the YT video "Her mustache would make any man jealous" is a nice find

[@JoBlakeLisbon]

I know someone who was actually proud of catching syphillis as he was a huge Nietzsche fan.

[@salvador.garcia]

It doesn't seem that strange to me, since when I was diagnosed with myopia as a teenager, I remember coping well because Nietzsche was myopic. I'm not such a blind fan anymore, but I'm more blind.

[@Giantcrabz]

yikes

[@locochingadero]

I remember Vonnegut describing advanced syphilis patients as a child in Breakfast of Champions. It sounds like advanced syphilis is unmistakable from a neuromuscular perspective and Nietzsche doesn't seem to have ever demonstrated this kind of posturing. "This syphilitic man was thinking hard there, at the Crossroads of America, about how to get his legs to step off the curb and carry him across Washington Street. He shuddered gently, as though he had a small motor which was idling inside. Here was his problem: his brains, where the instructions to his legs originated, were being eaten alive by corkscrews. The wires which had to carry the instructions weren’t insulated anymore, or were eaten clear through. Switches along the way were welded open or shut. This man looked like an old, old maen, although he might have been only thirty years old. He thought and thought. And then he kicked two times like a chorus girl. He certainly looked like a machine to me when I was a boy."

[@howardmenkes2926]

Nietzsche's father died quite young of a brain diseases. Friedrich displayed odd behavior from the earliest. I believe he inherited his father's disease.

[@zombiemachinery4868]

What do you mean by earliest?

[@howardmenkes2926]

@zombiemachinery4868 As a student at his father's school he was observed walking slowly through a thunderstorm because he believed running evinced poor breeding.

[@belacqua4435]

Rüdiger Safranski, a prominent German literary scholar, had written a biography about Nietzsche and incorporates the events with N's philosophy (I liked it). Though at the end Safranski still repeats the myth of horse, and ironically he did not even cite a source for it.

[@nupraptorthementalist3306]

Have you read Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes aka Ontologistics? He has in his book Modes of Sentience (I think that one) a chapter called Antichrist Psychonaut wherein he claims that N's drug use and particularly chloral hydrate lead to the madness, at least partially as I recall. Anyway this has always annoyed me, and I'm happy to see it being addressed.

[@untimelyreflections]

I have heard this claim, and while I don't think it explains the entire picture, there are certainly things that Nietzsche did during his life that may have exacerbated his problems. Chloral hydrate is probably one of those things. Another issue is his diet; he was certainly deficient in a number of vitamins that may have worsened his stomach problems and headaches. So, in short, while I think its inarguable that he had some kind of underlying medical condition (migraines beginning at age 9, the family history, increasing blindness/dizziness as the years went on) it is also possible that he unwittingly worsened his condition.

[@gabrielpadilla7839]

i also question if he really embraced a horse while sobbing

[@HyperboreanKnowledge]

Johnathan Bi had such a terrible take on Nietzsche

[@sethgaston8347]

Yeah these are extremely widespread, it’s like everyone who has a slight problem with anything uttered by Nietzsche; sees stating one of these myths as the Ultimate Checkmate 🤣 It’s part of why in my later yrs I’ve found Ecce Homo to be so great and profound. The way he embraces his condition and gives me pride in him instead of sympathy

[@rtt1961]

Very good research. Thanks. Der Wille zur Warheit.

[@sunwukong6917]

Robert C Solomon is one of the best Nietzsche scholars I read and he casts doubt on this diagnosis too as well as the suppsoed circumstances where he could have gotten it from . His time as a nurse in the army helping wounded soldiers . As inheritance from his father etc...

[@Tintunabulation]

His contributions trump his demise. Even what killed him first made him stronger.

[@castle_45]

can you do a video on the personal meme attacks against nietzsche from that linkedin pilosopher?

[@untimelyreflections]

No, its not worth my time

[@michaelsteven1090]

Why can’t a person have life long migraines and then contact syphilis much later in life?

[@untimelyreflections]

Because he wouldn’t have lived 11+ years after infection and he would have shown tremor in the tongue and probably skin lesions.

[@ThgMdiic420]

Love your content, keep it coming.

[@HariCharan12]

They would record SOME kind of skin lesions

[@untimelyreflections]

The fact that skin lesions are never mentioned by his doctors and seem conspicuously absent is always curiously unmentioned by the people loudly shouting syphilis....

[@HariCharan12]

@@untimelyreflections Primary Syphilis, followed by secondary syphilis (The CHARACTERISTIC feature is Skin rashes on PALMS and FOOT as recorded by many physicians of different geographical areas throughout history) then there's Latent syphilis which sits aside. It might progress into Tertiary Syphilis sometime in the future. Tertiary Syphilis has Cardiovascular and Central Nervous system complications (Neurosyphilis). In those CNS complications: Tabes Dorsalis, Aseptic Meningitis, General Paresis of the Insane are included. So people are only and only looking at the General Paresis of Insane which occurs in many other brain disorders. Also, Gastrointestinal problems that Nietzsche suffered have NO Relation to SYPHILIS.

[@JoaoLucas________]

“Darwin renounced his ideas before he died”

[@harshabongle4564]

Salts could you make a video on Nietzsche's philosophical take on illness in general?

[@untimelyreflections]

Great idea

[@1000yearswordling]

Your thumbnails are great and if you owed their creation to the toil of incomplete and enslaved men who labor so that you may create these beautiful works, I would still say yes to life and affirm this state of affairs eternally

[@therealreport2778]

I think Al Capone had syphilis. He acted like a child when the infection gripped him. But Nietzsche wrote books. This does not add up.

[@kalev_knight]

I despise the algorithm lords for taking you from me

[@zchularoceribfjan]

Here we go 😄!

[@Apeiron242]

The data DOES not....

[@Giantcrabz]

I actually believed this, thanks for the video

[@mentalitydesignvideo]

How to debunk Nietzsche? Easy, just point at Richard III. Syphilis or not, is immaterial.

[@Giantcrabz]

what?

[@Precisionetica]

Encephalitic fungal infections aka cryptococcus reformans could have been misdiagnosed as syphilis or any number of other diseases .

[@kalervolatoniittu2011]

What kind of man was Friedrich Nietzsche ?

[@xmathmanx]

Well, Jung seems pretty definite that nietzsche did have syphillis, he says that in the transcript of his seminars on Zarathustra, not many people have gone through it as it is very long but it is perhaps the best book ever published

[@untimelyreflections]

Jung has no special authority or expertise in this matter. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@xmathmanx]

@untimelyreflections you haven't read his Zarathustra seminars, they run to over 1500 pages, just on Zarathustra, he also knew people who knew nietzsche personally, I doubt anyone could be a better source

[@untimelyreflections]

@@xmathmanx This is a medical issue.

[@xmathmanx]

@untimelyreflections dude, it happened about 150 years ago, it's a historical matter

[@ikemuhlen]

​@@untimelyreflections wasn't Jung a MD? best way to demystify this issue is to dig up Nietzsche's bones... or theorize that he had Cerebral Autosomal Dominant Arteriopathy, lol and having syphilis or not doesn't diminish Nietzsche's work

[@Telamonian]

Ave Nietzche

[@jamescareyyatesIII]

I think Neitzche was a virgin, but I don't know.

[@Robert-yc9ql]

I'm pretty sure Jordan Peterson still believes that Nietzsche died from syphilis. Hope he sees this...

[@untimelyreflections]

Don’t worry he won’t

[@MacSmithVideo]

He faked it.

[@SootyPhoenix]

Noo you can't attempt an unbiased analysis of a controversial subject! 😭

[@ukaszwojtalik8198]

quasi intelectual comunity is like cultural syphilis😅

[@outofbox000]

Unrelated images😂😂

[@Taco.Flavoured.Kisses]

amour fati

[@SharperPenImageConsulting]

Damn. Busted for syphilis? Cant a man get a break? In all seriousness. Great stuff!

[@untimelyreflections]

I was trying to do a Mythbusters thing.

[@Dhrrhee3e11a76]

I struggle to see the value of Nietzsche's younger brother's suffering. I am mostly sympathetic to the Nietzschean view of necessary suffering, but there are important exceptions Nietzsche glosses over too glibly--the suffering of children who die in infancy, tortured animals, medieval prisoners who were tormented and abused until they died in agony. These arent cases of undergoings yielding overcomings for the individual sufferer.

[@chrisoneill3999]

A lot of folk suggest Nietzsche got syphilis and it drove him insane. But there is very little evidence he ever caught syphilis, and even less that he was ever sane in the first place.

[@untimelyreflections]

Good summary

[@aaronsmyth7943]

Maybe his sister was poisoning him.

[@Formscapes]

I'm sorry but you're just not going to take Nietzsche hugging a unicorn away from me, your facts be damned

[@oldcur]

I think a philosopher’s private life should be considered as separate and apart from their work. For example Marcus Aurelius is lauded for his work on Stoicism and evidence suggests he was a “good” emperor of Rome. But he must have sucked as a father because his son Commodus is considered one of the worst Caesars. It does not invalidate his work.

[@Voidapparate]

Kek

[@siddhartacrowley]

It does

[@oldcur]

No. Similarly, Heisenberg’s antisemitism does not invalidate his surmise to use Glauber states trying to minimize uncertainty.

[@SciHumEco]

Probably you are Christian Right ? Ok! According your logic , considere that noah was also failed not save his son like you mentioned marcus And je was dancing with wine and naked "noah " with two doughters !!! Soo what say about that ?

[@oldcur]

@@SciHumEco What the heck? Where would you come up with the idea that I am religious at all I was not being sarcastic. Heisenberg was a Nazi who actively worked to try to deliver a nuclear bomb to the Nazis. But those facts do not invalidate his discovery that the Glauber states (also known as Gaussians) minimize the space*momentum uncertainty product. Similarly, Marcus Aurelius was also a historic failure when it came to fatherhood (whether or not he was a "good" Emperor). But that does not necessarily invalidate his thoughts. I understand that many Nitzscheans do not like Stoicism. For what it is worth, I do not either. But it is not because of who Diogenes was or who Epictetus was or who Marcus Aurelius was. It is because of an apparent mismatch between the principles of Stoicism and evidence that I seem to see from the real world. Similarly, who cares if some anti-Nitzchean says they heard he had syphilis? The great man is the one who does not even notice such fleas. For sure Nitzsche had some personal failings, right? But those failings do not determine whether or not some of his philosophical ideas were right on the money.

[@ServentOfTheHost]

Carl Jung did a thorough evaluation of Nietzsche, he concluded what was obvious, Nietzsche was insane. Just because he was articulate, that doesn't mean he had a clear perspective. I feel sorry for people who waste their time on him.

[@untimelyreflections]

I did a thorough evaluation on Jung and concluded what was obvious, that Jung was insane. Just because he was articulate, that doesn’t mean he had a clear perspective. I feel sorry for people who waste their time on him.

[@ServentOfTheHost]

@untimelyreflections Nietzsche fan boys are always very sensitive, it's only because you read trash philosophy, don't lose your nerve like Nietzsche.

[@andreasplosky8516]

@@ServentOfTheHost You sound like a christian. These theistic fantasists always feel a deep-seated need to declare this brilliant man insane. They think it protects their theistic fantasy world from his critique, they imagine, but never understood.

[@ServentOfTheHost]

@andreasplosky8516 No I mean he was stupid which lead to his insanity. You know his idea of the ubbemech is just a regurgitated concept of God. My first indication that he was just full of hot air was reading the way he described Socrates. He basically dismissed Socrates in one or two paragraphs, but Socrates philosophy runs Soo deep that it's influenced countless great men over time for thousands of years, king's aspire to be Socrates but Nietzsche dismissed him in less than one page. Nietzsche is more concerned about saying something profound when he really had nothing to say at all. He was more lost that insane.

[@SciHumEco]

​@@ServentOfTheHostmoralist slave , be quiet 😂

[@languagegame410]

wow... i can't believe you'd lower yourself to obsess over such an irrelevant detail of his life... what does the biographical info about a thinker's life have to do with anything?... why should it matter whether he masturbated... or had sex with children, animals, women, men, or corpses?... what does Nietzsche's sex life have to do with his thought?... why does Nietzsche contracting syphilis from a prostitute... or if his father had syphilis when he procreated Nietzsche... or while his mother was pregnant have to do with anything... try harder, Keeg... this is very disappointing!

[@languagegame410]

DELETE THIS COMMENT ASAP!!... not a sycophant!... not a disciple!!!... no hero worship here... (((lololo)))

[@RustyShakleford1]

​@@languagegame410lol

[@RustyShakleford1]

Good comment

[@untimelyreflections]

Completely disagree. Understanding the actual facts of someone's life are important, as is dispelling popular myths. I routinely address myself to going after the popular mythology about Nietzsche and have since the beginning of the channel. You're focusing on the aspects of dissecting his sexual behaviors, I am solely concerned with the truth of his biography. Why? Because of Nietzsche himself. Every philosophy is an involuntary and unconscious autobiography. Sickness is key to Nietzsche's philosophy, consequently so is health. He argues that every philosophy is the expression of a physiology. Understanding the truth of Nietzsche's physiological condition is important, and this is in keeping with Nietzsche's own philosophy. If we continue to mystify his biography, create a legend around him, tell ourselves "oh the lie is more interesting than the facts", then we have completely missed the point of what Nietzsche was arguing.

[@languagegame410]

@@untimelyreflections i thank you for taking the time and expending the energy to think and respond to my comment... and i love consuming your audio content copiously... but we must agree to disagree... and it makes me sad that you feel compelled to speculate on the minutiae of one of my favorite philosopher's biographical info... it seems so irrelevant to me... he lived such a miserably pathetic life (you must agree?)... and as you know, all too well, when considered in an intensely objective dispassionate disinterested way... Nietzsche's thought is all over the place... often contradicts itself... and he deliberately arrogantly admits that he uses unnecessary parable and metaphor to make his thought more difficult to understand... still, i concede that you argue well... and the physiological focus is very true... be well, NPG!