Unfortunately that's definitely a problem with a lot of the phrases, they've been used in many ways by many people.
I had an existential crisis when I was in college, and I was trying really hard to explain why I should continue getting out of bed when I could just lay there and die of starvation since to do anything else lacked meaning, value, or sense. To me, that was nihilism. I finally snapped out of it when I was hearing this pencil necked nerd talk about hiking through the mountains of kenya and I was really impressed and in that moment I realized that of course there's meaning, value, and sense in the world since I'm a human being living in the world and so from that basis I can find meaning, value, and sense.
Now, does that answer all the questions? No. But it does give me a bit of a lodestone to trust my gut when I ask myself "Would I be impressed if I saw myself doing this?"
I had an existential crisis when I was in college, and I was trying really hard to explain why I should continue getting out of bed when I could just lay there and die of starvation since to do anything else lacked meaning, value, or sense. To me, that was nihilism. I finally snapped out of it when I was hearing this pencil necked nerd talk about hiking through the mountains of kenya and I was really impressed and in that moment I realized that of course there's meaning, value, and sense in the world since I'm a human being living in the world and so from that basis I can find meaning, value, and sense.
Now, does that answer all the questions? No. But it does give me a bit of a lodestone to trust my gut when I ask myself "Would I be impressed if I saw myself doing this?"
LOOOK AT IT. LOOOOOOOOOK AAAAAAT IIIIIIIT!
DO YOU SEE THE FULLY ARMED AND OPERATIONAL N-BOMBS?!
YOU MUST ACCEPT THIS IN YOUR HEART OR I WILL REJECT YOU, WENCH!
DO YOU SEE THE FULLY ARMED AND OPERATIONAL N-BOMBS?!
YOU MUST ACCEPT THIS IN YOUR HEART OR I WILL REJECT YOU, WENCH!
https://invidious.fbxl.net/watch?v=sj7p91vjUhI
I keep coming back to listen to this song. It's one of my favorite 90s alt rock songs. It's got rock, and this indian classical vibe I like way better than actual indian classical music lol
I keep coming back to listen to this song. It's one of my favorite 90s alt rock songs. It's got rock, and this indian classical vibe I like way better than actual indian classical music lol
This occurred because copyright law is broken. Terms are too long.
We're barely just now getting the very beginning of cinema, the very first musical recordings of all time. By the time the public domain is added to under this regime, much of the protected work is destroyed and lost forever. This is directly contrary to the stated purpose of copyright law, to help create more works that eventually enter the public domain.
We're barely just now getting the very beginning of cinema, the very first musical recordings of all time. By the time the public domain is added to under this regime, much of the protected work is destroyed and lost forever. This is directly contrary to the stated purpose of copyright law, to help create more works that eventually enter the public domain.
I see true nihilism as something we're specifically incapable of at a biological level. People who think they're nihilistic tend to immediately start relying on internal systems of value built into themselves thus not being nihilistic. "Nothing" ends up not meaning "nothing", but just "not the current thing".
"I'm so nihilistic but I fear death and like good feelings and hate bad feelings and breathe and have reflexes and and and..." imo that means you've reverted to systems of meaning built into your DNA which isn't nihilistic. Those systems of value and meaning actually underpin everything humans have derived since. You could call it something like paleoism or archaeism, a reliance on the original basics built into us by evolution from long ago.
Then there's the argument you mention, "nothing matters so let's just do whatever we want" is hardly nihilism, since it explicitly places value on what "we want", suggesting there's some sort of meaning and value in the things "we want". It's one step above archaeism because not only do you implicitly accept all your biological values, there's a new layer of values on top of that regarding immediate desires.
By contrast, a rock is nihilistic. It doesn't care if you move it or leave it. If you push it towards a crusher, it'll just go with it because it doesn't care if it is broken or not. If you soak it in acid it'll happily sit there, because it doesn't matter if it is dissolved or not. It won't flee from rain, it won't seek heat or cold. It won't seek or avoid anything because it lacks meaning, value, and sense.
It may seem like a meaningless nitpick, but it's really important. We are biological things with meaning, value, and sense packed into our DNA given to us by our ancestors going back billions of years and exploding forth from every action or inaction we take. We are soaking in so much meaning we can't even easily perceive of what we have because our brains are inherently wired for it.
And from there it becomes easy to see how the logic from a false premise leads to terrible outcomes like you said. Since you're not starting from nothing, if you think you are then you're wrong, and if you're starting with such important things being wrong, how can you reach a correct destination?
"I'm so nihilistic but I fear death and like good feelings and hate bad feelings and breathe and have reflexes and and and..." imo that means you've reverted to systems of meaning built into your DNA which isn't nihilistic. Those systems of value and meaning actually underpin everything humans have derived since. You could call it something like paleoism or archaeism, a reliance on the original basics built into us by evolution from long ago.
Then there's the argument you mention, "nothing matters so let's just do whatever we want" is hardly nihilism, since it explicitly places value on what "we want", suggesting there's some sort of meaning and value in the things "we want". It's one step above archaeism because not only do you implicitly accept all your biological values, there's a new layer of values on top of that regarding immediate desires.
By contrast, a rock is nihilistic. It doesn't care if you move it or leave it. If you push it towards a crusher, it'll just go with it because it doesn't care if it is broken or not. If you soak it in acid it'll happily sit there, because it doesn't matter if it is dissolved or not. It won't flee from rain, it won't seek heat or cold. It won't seek or avoid anything because it lacks meaning, value, and sense.
It may seem like a meaningless nitpick, but it's really important. We are biological things with meaning, value, and sense packed into our DNA given to us by our ancestors going back billions of years and exploding forth from every action or inaction we take. We are soaking in so much meaning we can't even easily perceive of what we have because our brains are inherently wired for it.
And from there it becomes easy to see how the logic from a false premise leads to terrible outcomes like you said. Since you're not starting from nothing, if you think you are then you're wrong, and if you're starting with such important things being wrong, how can you reach a correct destination?
The "big lie" is that there's never been any concerns about voting machines ever by anyone and they're all perfect. There were plenty of concerns when it was their guy who lost the election.
https://www.resilience.org/stories/2004-11-05/electronic-voting-stolen-election-2004/
https://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/07/politics/campaign/voting-problems-in-ohio-set-off-an-alarm.html
https://www.npr.org/2004/10/25/4125893/experts-question-security-of-new-voting-machines
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2005/06/23/democrats-say-2004-election-system-failed-in-ohio/8dbf3124-3aa2-4af5-abbd-51338f9f9273/
https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=239735&page=1
https://www.resilience.org/stories/2004-11-05/electronic-voting-stolen-election-2004/
https://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/07/politics/campaign/voting-problems-in-ohio-set-off-an-alarm.html
https://www.npr.org/2004/10/25/4125893/experts-question-security-of-new-voting-machines
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2005/06/23/democrats-say-2004-election-system-failed-in-ohio/8dbf3124-3aa2-4af5-abbd-51338f9f9273/
https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=239735&page=1
It would bother me if the book on nihilism wasn't like the book on Liechtenstein maritime law or Joe Brown's book on why the fed needs to exist, just a bunch of blank pages
The meeting that could be an email and sometimes the email that could be a shutthefuckup.mp3
I've been putting in a lot of effort from my son's birth because of something I learned: Our brains start out with all these neurological links, and the ones that get used thrive and the ones that don't die. By 2 years old, many of the links we'll grow up with already exist, and they're further strengthened and culled throughout childhood.
So I imagine a boy who sees a man who is in control of himself despite all the things testosterone does to a brain, and that's very impactful early on. Being a role model really is that important.
I've also come to a hypothesis I won't get to test for a long time: I think you raise your kid to be a teenager in their earlier years. They don't have the changes of puberty going on so those are the times you have to impart the lessons you want to teach, because the voice your son or daughter will hear in their head when he or she is 15 isn't going to be the one you're speaking with at that time, it'll be the one you spoke with throughout the years prior to that. That's why I think it's so important to build a foundation long before puberty takes over and turns the volume either up or down depending on whether it's a girl or a boy.
So I imagine a boy who sees a man who is in control of himself despite all the things testosterone does to a brain, and that's very impactful early on. Being a role model really is that important.
I've also come to a hypothesis I won't get to test for a long time: I think you raise your kid to be a teenager in their earlier years. They don't have the changes of puberty going on so those are the times you have to impart the lessons you want to teach, because the voice your son or daughter will hear in their head when he or she is 15 isn't going to be the one you're speaking with at that time, it'll be the one you spoke with throughout the years prior to that. That's why I think it's so important to build a foundation long before puberty takes over and turns the volume either up or down depending on whether it's a girl or a boy.
I'm hoping my little instance is small enough that I can keep doing my thing, but I have to admit the threat is scary as hell, and it'll hang there.
It's even worse than that. They never intend to have "we the taxpayers" pay for this. They intend to run out the clock, and leave the duty of paying for all this government we get to our kids.
If a father did this to their child, we would call that father a monster, selling their children into a lifetime of debt because they didn't want to pay for things. Instead, it's a few generations doing it to their children with great moral righteousness, and somehow this is isn't just selling future generations into slavery.
If a father did this to their child, we would call that father a monster, selling their children into a lifetime of debt because they didn't want to pay for things. Instead, it's a few generations doing it to their children with great moral righteousness, and somehow this is isn't just selling future generations into slavery.
A baseball cap that's either red or blue pulled over your eyes to hide you from the truth.
On a related note, I remember the day the US government spent a trillion bailing svb et al, they also proposed a budget they knew wouldn't pass through a republican Congress that gave all the talking points -- raising corporate tax, the wealth tax, all that. Despite having control of the house, the Senate, and the executive a year earlier such that they actually could have done it back then.
"Look what we're doing but we're being blocked by the big bad opposition! No stop looking at that and look at this! Pay no attention to the trillion dollar bailout of the richest people!"
It isn't like the Republicans don't do the same thing, but it's a good recent example. And people fell for it.
"Look what we're doing but we're being blocked by the big bad opposition! No stop looking at that and look at this! Pay no attention to the trillion dollar bailout of the richest people!"
It isn't like the Republicans don't do the same thing, but it's a good recent example. And people fell for it.