Nihilism Is Rearing Its Meaningless Head Again

We can't say we weren't warned.

It was a notification – one of dozens that pop up in a day on my phone’s home screen – that shook me out of my stupor.

From my Washington Post app: “Killers without a cause: The rise in nihilistic violent extremism.”

Nihilism?

Boy, did that ring a bell in my mind. Or a gong.

As longtime (two years) readers of The Alignment know (too well), I consider Dostoevsky to be literature’s GOAT. And if you could distill his oeuvre into one message, one preoccupation, it would be this:

Nihilism is bad, scary and spreading – and it threatens to unravel society.

It started with “Notes from Underground,” which features one of literature’s most infamous nihilists, and reached its full expression in “Demons,” Dostoevsky’s powerful novel about a small group of nihilists who foment violence and chaos in a provincial town.

I’ve always found Dostoevsky to be relevant to modern life. But he is becoming a little too relevant for my liking.

The Washington Post article, published Feb. 8, focused primarily on a Wisconsin teenager who shot and killed two people at her Christian school, and then shot and killed herself. A subsequent investigation found that she had frequented nihilist Internet sites that glorified violence – for the sake of violence.

“The message is, there is no message,” summed up the tagline on the Post story.

Just two days later, a nihilist struck again, with even more devastating consequences. A teenager in a small town in British Columbia shot and killed eight people, and, as was the case in Wisconsin, shot and killed herself.

Again, no motive. The New York Times reported that “she avidly consumed and commented on violent, nihilistic content” on the Internet.

When I started to think about this (not recommended), my memory dredged up the horrific mass shooting at a Las Vegas hotel in 2017. Sixty people were killed, and hundreds more injured. The killer’s motive? Nothing conclusive was ever found.

And what about the attempted assassination of then-candidate Donald Trump in 2024? The shooter was a registered Republican. Doesn’t make sense? Of course not. That’s nihilism.

I could go on and on with examples, but the point is made. Nihilism is spreading on the Internet and in our culture and it’s frightening to consider where this is heading.

A recent article in The Atlantic referred to nihilism as “the lingua franca of the Internet,” it is so pervasive.

The article connected nihilism to the “six seven” meme that spread like a plague across TikTok, YouTube and Instagram last year, and even intruded on classrooms from coast to coast. Kids, across a wide range of ages, would blurt out “six seven” at random moments. What does it mean or signify? Absolutely nothing. Call it Nihilism Light. Or Nihilism Training Wheels.

I wish I had an answer or a solution.

In Dostoevsky’s day, he saw nihilism filling the void created when the Russian Orthodox Church started receding. Similarly, I suspect that the decline in church and synagogue membership has contributed to the spread of nihilism in our own time.

But apart from that, I also see nihilism as endemic to Internet culture, in which social media algorithms lead people to extremism and amplify the content creators who can best capture attention, without regard to artistic, ethical or intellectual merit.

Yes, The Alignment is online, too, and will always be a bulwark on the Internet against nihilism and a pipeline to the highest forms of literary expression and peaceful living.

But, I’m sad to say, The Alignment will never have the following of Clavicular, a highly popular TikTok creator who advocates “bone smashing,” or smashing your own bones with a hammer. How can I compete with a guy who slams a sledgehammer into his jaw?

It would be nice if the social-media companies acted more responsibly, but that doesn’t seem imminent. And sensible gun laws would help, too, so that nihilists aren’t armed to the teeth. Not holding my breath there, either. Video games that reward and celebrate violence appear here to stay, as well.

Nihilists, I partially understand you. I will concede that the Universe does not have inherent meaning. But that doesn’t mean we can’t use our noggins, and our hearts, to create meaning on this little outpost in the Milky Way.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: The only meaning of life we need is to prevent suffering as best we can and to alleviate suffering where we encounter it. This doesn’t require organized religion or make-believe stories. It’s based on the simple fact that animals and human beings experience suffering – and we can do something about this with our daily choices.

Until more people start adopting this simple principle, Dostoevsky, I’m afraid, will be rolling in his grave.