> > We don’t plan our lives around elevated emotional states. What we want are worthwhile lives,
> This article puts forth a premise and states it's a fact.
The article does overemphasize the point to some degree, but not as you claim. First, the author cites an exercise he regularly gives in class and its result, drawing a legitimate conclusion (based on his description of the class results). He then uses it as a hook for his actual article which is an exploration of an element of Aztec thought, most of which is unknown in the English speaking world.
> Oooh, edgy take, you want to be miserable, embrace it!
I would hardly call this “edgy”. Certainly this is not at all what the author says. Note the quotations “joy-pain” and the like which are experiences well reflected in philosophical work from Ancient to modern Europe, India, Sumeria, or China and undoubtedly others.
> This is undoubtedly a bad theory at odds with a number of religions, much less common sense.
Is there really a religion whose doctrine is “do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law?”