Diogenes was the ancient Greek philosopher who lived in a barrel, mocked everyone, and basically invented trolling. As the founder of Cynicism, he rejected wealth, manners, and social norms. He carried a lantern in broad daylight “looking for an honest man,” and when Alexander the Great offered him anything he wanted, Diogenes simply replied: “Stand out of my sunlight.”
His life was a walking critique of society’s illusions. He ate in the marketplace, defecated in public, and dismissed Plato as pretentious. He believed that freedom meant radical independence — shedding possessions, power, and false virtue. In other words: Diogenes weaponized shamelessness.
Today he’s remembered as philosophy’s permanent gadfly, proof that sometimes the sharpest critique of power is mockery. If Socrates was the gadfly of Athens, Diogenes was the stray dog that bit anyone who tried to leash him.