Abjection: The Scariest Existential Philosophy Theory You’ve Never Heard Of
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In this video, we explore three of the darkest-seeming philosophical concepts in history. These views are the apparent byproducts of what happens when we discover that we aren’t who we think or hope we are—as a species and as individuals. What do we do (or what can we do) when we loathe the condition of our nature?
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@PursuitofWonder
June 13, 2026 at 4:37 am
As always, thank you for watching. Hope you found something interesting in these somewhat unusual areas of philosophy. And thank you to this video's sponsor, Shortform. Shortform's a fantastic way to continue and sustain your learning about the world and yourself. Get a free trial and $50 off at https://shortform.com/pursuit.
@creativesuit1930
June 13, 2026 at 4:37 am
Personally, Christianity has solved a lot of this stuff for me. I submit myself to jesus and our father and he's blessed me greatly with the holy spirit. Suffering is a part of life. It's integral without it. There wouldn't be joy. Trust in the lord's wisdom and he will carry you through the wilderness. If more of the world was able to learn from jesus and live the way he taught us the world would be a much better place with a lot less suffering. We can make heaven on earth but it's gonna require a lot of sacrifice.
@jackmedcalf6254
June 13, 2026 at 4:37 am
Kinda makes you wanna slap your nuts in a door…
@OhHiNoon
June 13, 2026 at 4:37 am
This isn't a philosophy, by the way, it's just the origin point for Postmodernist Leftism; politics disguised as philosophy only impacting those who can't tell the two apart.
@AlphaCre8or
June 13, 2026 at 4:37 am
I've thought all of this before, and even now. But I also think the opposite. It brings me a chaotic sense of peace.
@CowboyBGM
June 13, 2026 at 4:37 am
Why does suffering have to taste so sweet?
@StoicMentalClarity-Us
June 13, 2026 at 4:37 am
These concepts really hit deep!
@johnsmith-zy7xg
June 13, 2026 at 4:37 am
We are delusions created by the electrified lump of fat in the skull of a hairless ape…taking oneself seriously, is the funniest, stupidest thing one could do…🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
@nextabe1
June 13, 2026 at 4:37 am
The thing that Assymetry skips over is that I feel a responsibility for the suffering of the suffering people, whereas I don't feel anything for those nonexistant people in the uninhabited place. Maybe the guy talks about that aspect but that jumps out at me.
@Idontuseyoutube
June 13, 2026 at 4:37 am
I feel strongly that legalizing euthanasia is one way we can put the moral dilemma of procreation away. How can anyone argue in good faith if a peaceful and dignified exit on one's own terms is not available as a human right?
@AidenKing-v5v
June 13, 2026 at 4:37 am
I don't find this horrific at all. Realizing my mortality and knowing that ill just become food for the earth, its just…almost peaceful. And its amazing how my body works
@jacobkain4721
June 13, 2026 at 4:37 am
Kinda disappointed.. this is basically just incels, no? The people who can't figure out how to win the game so tip the table and say it's a stupid one? That's all I really heard.. and it's not like I'm the kind of person who avoids alone time or deep thought, it's not a lack of awareness or understanding. It's just nothing new. There have been people sucking at life and saying life sucks since there've been people, so far as I can tell.
@Faifstarr
June 13, 2026 at 4:37 am
This is brutal heavy metal. Hold my beer. Enter absurdism, Albert Camous, revel in the misery and meaningless and in doing so you create meaning. Stare into the void uncomfortably.
@JulianaAndersson
June 13, 2026 at 4:37 am
11:30 i think there’s a lot of projection onto others in this section ….. pleasure good / pain bad… conscious beings in pain all the time? We should feel sorry for them? How is pain defined? would they actually know they were in our understanding of pain? This is the philosophy of colonialism. Going other places and putting your template of pleasure/pain onto other cultures. And then feeling sorry for them? And trying to change their circumstances. Because we value certain things.. that they don’t..
@Neil-Aspinall
June 13, 2026 at 4:37 am
There is nothing new under the sun, nothing.
@meganhopkins1497
June 13, 2026 at 4:37 am
All due respect, but this is a freaking imbecilic argument. How do you propose that you could have an experience without having the separation between? The separation between things defines them. That includes the separation between feeling good and feeling bad.
I know many won’t like this. But I would really love for them to explain to me how you have an experience without having something to experience and the thing that creates the experience is the differentiation which is created by the separation between things.
@Pike840
June 13, 2026 at 4:37 am
That imagined asymmetry between the good and the bad things, is just bonkers.
They define each other, like up and down, or left and right. They can't even be quantified easily, but I believe they ultimately end up equal, and they are always in balance.
If Mars was populated by beings that suffered, they would also experience joy and other positive emotions. The situation would be just as neutral as it is now, unpopulated.
@jackstrawful
June 13, 2026 at 4:37 am
I support people having the freedom to choose euthenasia, with some common sense guard rails, so if this philosophy resonates with you, you're welcome to depart.
But, generally, the whole concept seems to me a solipsistic waste of time, at best. People's self-preservation instinct, honed by billions of years of evolution, makes it so that the great majority of humanity would not, and could not, ever subscribe to this philosophy. Even if it's true, the only way it could ever be realized would be to murder billions of people, which, I think rather obviously, could never be justified by any argument, no matter how reasonably it might explain the imbalance of suffering or anything else.
Therefore, as a practical matter, I don't think it deserves spending much time thinking about. I realize I'm being reductively utilitarian about philosophy, but, hey, we only have so much time in this life and the claimants on our attention are vast, so you've gotta prioritize somewhere.
@robertplante4139
June 13, 2026 at 4:37 am
It is good then that we embrace the inevitable that the who and what is transitional and despite the names and causes we favour or reject, the ends will always be something beyond our control.
@DimitriDelCastillo
June 13, 2026 at 4:37 am
Lol, Julia Kristeva was a Russian operative. She made all this BS up to topple capitalism, it's a bunch of Red Pinko bull pucky.
@thedude5295
June 13, 2026 at 4:37 am
If you're not a misanthrope, it's because you are stupid. Congratulations.
@danielc834
June 13, 2026 at 4:37 am
This reminds me of Rust Cohle in True Detective.
@mau_lopez
June 13, 2026 at 4:37 am
Great video. Very informative and well done. Thanks for sharing!
@ClippyDoesntDiddyKids
June 13, 2026 at 4:37 am
This is the most depressing comment section I've ever seen, my god people, life isn't bad, some of it is but if it wasn't you wouldn't know when the good parts were, can't have light without dark
@Nero.maximus
June 13, 2026 at 4:37 am
God is great and in God we find comfort and refuge, having faced the pain of mere existence, it should in the least rectify within our very being body and spirit, conscious and subconscious a love and sympathy for all life.
@slipstick985
June 13, 2026 at 4:37 am
The pulsing of her necklace creeps me out.
@dtholman
June 13, 2026 at 4:37 am
The absence of pain, the presence of pleasure aren't morally better. That's the most childish analysis possible. Neither are positive nor negative, they simply are. There are situations where they have utility and situations where they are pathological. Anti-natalist are generally relatively young in both chronological and cognitive maturity.