Do we overrate the normalcy of the last because the same stuff that makes it through the selection filter of history is also the stuff that influences our present culture. When could past info escape this and reveal its full weirdness? Dunhuang and papyri and stuff?
Losers are more interesting online because where else would they express themselves? they have no irl friends
Remember that blog post about how all internet advice is written by weirdos? It may have been an ACX post. The same basic point can explain why Buddhism and stoicism are popular on the internet. They are the kind of things materially successful/influential people find subjectively useful. So this spreads them to bigger audiences than e.g. Christian or Muslim teachings. (But Christian and Muslims teachings are actually more popular, so what am I actually saying here?)