this essay goes a long way towards capturing something that I've been thinking about over the past year or so: how closely the new nihilism in America resembles what you find in the former soviet union www.nefariousrussians.com/p/against-ni... - ThreadSky

joshkovensky.bsky.social • 8 days ago

this essay goes a long way towards capturing something that I've been thinking about over the past year or so: how closely the new nihilism in America resembles what you find in the former soviet union https://www.nefariousrussians.com/p/against-nihilism

Comments

the13thpanther.bsky.social•7 days ago

Well, that was depressing.

keltic2.bsky.social•8 days ago

That's what happens when you conduct mass psy-ops on your people.

whitepants.bsky.social•7 days ago

📌

doubtful-guest.bsky.social•7 days ago

Interesting. The “whatever” nihilist attitude was also big among us Gen Xers. A high school classmate wrote in my yearbook, “You care about things for some reason.” And now most Xers vote for Trump. In the Reagan era the attitude toward gov’t was so negative, there was little hope for change.

irving-washington2.bsky.social•8 days ago

Thanks 4 this. Yes post occupy nihilism. Realism is helpful when doing science or diagnostics. It doesn't provide all answers. Paradoxical as it is, I am optimist and a nihilist. All I know and think, is construct. Laughing and hoping despite the facts+odds is the embrace of irrational existence.

joshkovensky.bsky.social•8 days ago

I grew up partly in Moscow, and worked in Ukraine for a few years after college. This sense that any kind of effort or vision of improvement was hopelessly naive or a means to cash in was much more present in Russia than in Ukraine, but existed in both places

filthy-casual64.bsky.social•8 days ago

Fun Fact - most the the "Russian money" the EU stole came from those same oligarchs. And regular Russians hate them too, so no one cares too much what happens to that money, but the world is watching the EU steal, and will adjust their trades accordingly.

joshkovensky.bsky.social•8 days ago

As we see now, it really does suffocate all political discourse. People who still envision a better future start to doubt themselves and feel ridiculous

joshkovensky.bsky.social•8 days ago

One thing that made Ukraine so inspiring was that it was full of ppl who were raised in this environment and came out the other end w a genuine belief that their lives mattered politically and that it was worth opposing the oligarchs and self-dealing politicians who had robbed their country blind

joshkovensky.bsky.social•8 days ago

Anyway, it's a great essay and it's equally disheartening and disorienting for me to see this same kind of cynicism make inroads in the United States.

leeleewhy.bsky.social•8 days ago

That's why I hate the "too cool for school" political bros (chapo being one example). I understand the impulse to nihilism, I fight that impulse in myself all the time, but the reason I keep fighting is because I don't want the annihilation it leads to.

leeleewhy.bsky.social•8 days ago

And yes I've listened to chapo, I used to be a big fan. Until I got tired of them laughing at pretty much everything and brushing off pretty much everything.

tm71.bsky.social•7 days ago

Had to stop reading at “woke culture.” I want to know exactly what that is and exactly why it’s bad.

protectivehen.bsky.social•7 days ago

This is amazing, thanks for sharing!

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