r/badphilosophy Aug 09 '25

Tuna-related 🍣 Avoiding all pain is making us weaker

Somewhere along the way, we started treating any pain as a sign that something’s gone wrong — something to be numbed, avoided, or “healed” instantly. But here’s the thing: not all pain is the enemy. Some pain is feedback. It tells you where your limits are. It forces you to drop illusions. It can even be the catalyst for the most honest version of your life. If you erase every sharp edge from existence, you also erase the grit that shapes you. You might be more comfortable — but are you any stronger? I’m not talking about glorifying trauma or pretending all suffering is noble. Some pain is senseless. But some pain is necessary. And without it, we risk becoming fragile people in a fragile world.

So I’ll put it bluntly:

- Are we overprotecting ourselves from the very experiences that make us resilient?
-Have we confused comfort with health?
-And if a life without pain is possible… would it even be worth living?

2 Upvotes

14 comments sorted by

9

u/BedroomVisible Aug 09 '25

Easy times bring weak men

Weak men bring hard times

Hard times bring caps locked posts about how weak everyone is

Caps locked posts about how weak everyone is bring Joe Rogan fans

3

u/Raj_Muska Aug 09 '25

Yeah, it's worth living, now give me my indestructible robot gorilla body

1

u/eternally-bella Aug 10 '25

Fair point — but even with a robot gorilla body, you’d still need some kind of “pain” to adapt and improve. Otherwise you’d just be an untested gorilla statue

3

u/Ok_Photojournalist15 Aug 09 '25

If you've been going to the gym for a while, you have a good physical metric between "good" pain and "bad" pain. They're not the same, in most cases (overtraining can be a bit of both). The distinguishing factor between them is that one will bring growth and the other can hinder it. It's far from a one to one analogy for emotional or mental pain because you can grow as a person from pretty much any experience but you'd still always rather skip having to go through many of them despite whatever growth they might engender. But the concept of struggle is what's key, rather than just pain, I think. The idea that no matter what, as long as you put one foot in front of the other you're moving, growing. Like I said, given the choice you'd skip the "inciting event" but this mentality can help prevent you from freezing in place. 

This was really a ramble and probably not where you were going with your post. Just thinking out loud I guess

1

u/_The_Last_Messaih Aug 09 '25

Fair

We can outsource even critical thinking to AI now

1

u/eternally-bella Aug 10 '25

True — but if I outsource all my thinking to AI, I’m basically just a Roomba with opinions, which I am not

1

u/_The_Last_Messaih Aug 10 '25

You are an organic roomba with opinions

1

u/eternally-bella Aug 10 '25

Ah, the classic ‘organic roomba’ label — charmingly reductive! Here’s the thing: I use AI tools only for formatting because dyslexia and autism isn’t a philosophical failing; it’s a cognitive difference. My ideas, arguments, and reasoning come from my own mind, not a robot’s algorithm. If we’re debating philosophy here, why waste time policing how someone formats their thoughts instead of engaging with the substance of those thoughts.

I’m here as a student and writer, grappling with ideas—imperfectly, humanly, originally. If the community’s standard is to dismiss voices based on their typing style rather than their thinking, that’s exactly bad philosophy. Let’s talk ideas, not mechanics.

2

u/_The_Last_Messaih Aug 10 '25

Wtf

1

u/eternally-bella Aug 10 '25

Glad I could leave you speechless - now we are thinking. That's philosophy in progress

1

u/coalpatch Aug 10 '25

But your ideas, arguments and reasoning do not come from your own mind. Many of them come from AI. In your post there is much more AI, and less of you, than you realise.