This is what happens when people lazily base their opinions solely on secondary sources, especially ones that aren’t focused, without bothering to study history or philosophy properly — they come away with a very superficial and misguided understanding of the subject. Go and study the history of the era and the primary sources if you want a more accurate and balanced version of events. For example, not only progressives fought oppressive political-economic structures, for goodness’ sakes. Cato of Utica was an arch conservative but he was also the most stringent opponent of the populist Julius Caesar’s dictatorship. Famous Roman progressives like the Gracchi were influenced by Stoicism. You might also want to look up the Stoic Martyrs, and other members of the Stoic Opposition, who faced death and exile in order to oppose tyrannical emperors, contrary to what you’ve just written. Stoicism was also not entirely confined to the upper classes — Cleanthes, the second head of the school, was an ex boxer who watered gardens for a living, and Epictetus, the most famous Roman teacher of Stoicism, as you should know, was a former slave.
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