Since you started it, I'll ask for a citation on this too. I'm sure you have a subjective sense in which this seems true, but I'm not personally convinced that humanity and human problems have changed all that much, nor that stoicism as currently understood is all that different than Epictetus's conception.
> For neurotic people their "imaginary fears" might be harming them more than actual problems. But not for the "vast majority of humanity".
Extreme poverty is now very rare (1 in 7 people) [1]. Death from violent conflict is also rare (most pessimistic estimate is 2 per 100,000) [2]. Obviously this is not the complete picture of all bad things, but I think it's basically the case that constant physical suffering is a pretty uncommon for most people these days, where mental suffering is common to most people.
Furthermore, fear, anxiety and unnecessary mental suffering are not the domain of purely neurotic people. Neurotic people simply become non-functional in various ways because of it, and that's why it's considered a disorder. Just because you're functional does not mean you're not suffering mentally (and possibly unnecessarily).
> War, hunger, poverty, health issues, precarious jobs, bad jobs, persecution, bullying, bad relationships, loneliness, old age, betrayals, and so on, are actual things that harm people in actual reality,
Absolutely. But I don't think it's at all obvious that the magnitude of harm actually outstrips the constant anxiety and fear of imagining yourself possibly experiencing that harm.
Take bullying, something with which many people on HN probably have some experience. The actual experience of bullying is terrible when it happens. Each instance is what, perhaps 5-10 minutes of suffering? Now consider how much suffering you experienced outside of that, the fear and paranoia that you might run into your bully around every corner, the constant review of the humiliating experience every night, the dread of the walk to school or between classes, to defense mechanisms you build up to that can reduce your ability to connect with others in adult life.
So what is really harming the bullied more overall, the actual bullying, or the mental suffering surrounding the bullying? Yes, the mental suffering was triggered by the bullying, but that doesn't mean it has to dominate your life, so I don't think the answer is as clear as you imply, and I think the same argument applies to most of the other items on your list, eg. the physical suffering is often temporary, but the mental suffering is considerably longer lasting and thus probably more impactful. Stoicism can arguably grant you a perspective shift that reduces or eliminates a lot of that mental suffering.
Human problems haven't changed all that much (in some sense).
But the application of Epictetus philosophy has changed greatly, from sincere following for centuries in times when it was a survival tool, to a lifestyle accessory in times when it's a fad (of which several others have come and go in the 30 years I've followed the space, and more will) - from people who have no modesty or charity (philanthropia), but like to "play the stoic" as one in the 70s would play the world savvy playboy type or in previous decades the rugged boostrapped guy, and so on.
>Extreme poverty is now very rare (1 in 7 people)
That's a feel-good statistic, about third world people being able to get a few dollars whereas they had even less before.
You can be several steps away from "extreme poverty" in the Hans Rosling/Steven Pinken sense to have serious money issues (and not because of some personal irresponsibility of lack of trying).
Billion nominally out of this "extreme poverty" are struggling very hard and very real, with exhausting jobs, eviction, feeding and educating their kids, paying the rent every month, covering health payments, and so on. Everywhere, including the first world, job precariousness, shitty jobs, money anxiety, debt and so on is very common (most people). To the point that e.g. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/19/56percent-of-americans-cant-...
Which is neither here, nor there. "Stoic" philosophy, as understood and practiced by ruling class/execs/etc has almost nothing to do with Epictetus, and is the product of a culture millenia away from the ancient mindset.
Similar to what western "Buddhism" or "zen practices" (used to be more productive, combined with modern life as a lifestyle accessory) is to traditional Buddhism.
>Yes, but it's true for the vast majority of humanity, and so arguably considerable suffering is imaginary is it not?
Citation needed.
For neurotic people their "imaginary fears" might be harming them more than actual problems. But not for the "vast majority of humanity".
War, hunger, poverty, health issues, precarious jobs, bad jobs, persecution, bullying, bad relationships, loneliness, old age, betrayals, and so on, are actual things that harm people in actual reality, more than any "imaginary fears" they have.