You mentioned the anxiety around the upcoming election and that is so real it feels like everything has to be so negative and everyone has to express the idea that everything is falling apart all the time and it can just be heavy on my mental
what if I am absurdist and believe the nihilists have not found the catalyst to their positivity yet?
they are simply thinking down instead of ahead, why tell them to look up?
Replying to the people this is intended for would be banging my head against a brick wall, but it has to be said: Benjamin Netanyahu is not on the ballot. Mr. Muslim Ban is, and he has declared that he would deny Gazan refugees entry to the US. He's the genocide candidate.
Even if you're so deluded that you think the difference between the two parties is only an inch wide, you should still recognize that millions of lives depend on that inch.
I cant really blame the bottom rung of americans who've never seen the government do anything good and who've internalized anti-union corp values that are used against them. I cant blame them for not voting and feeling left out. They really need to be offered something and then have it materialize
This argument doesnt lead to the dems ever doing the thing they need to do which is actually become a party of the working class, in perception and action. Instead these working class folks get scold and theyre told they dont know shit. Maybe its true, wont work tho
I'm not scolding them, I'm really trying to say that if you accept media environments shape perceptions of things, then maybe the owners of said media environment have a vested interest in making sure there are disconnects happening.
if you're not very engaged, then perhaps you won't have noticed what the FTC's been up to, or all the industrial policy we're suddenly doing, or that there are new semiconductor factories online with the one in arizona producing greater yields than taiwan.
Not saying those things arent good, i'm saying they dont weigh much next to the post 2008 slide in quality of life ever downward, a slide that happens to be the only thing most people can agree on is real
Specifically replying to this one person who never said they weren't voting is odd though. In fact i notice a lot more people who decide not to vote are people who care a lot about a single issue that no politician will side with without external pressure.
I just hope that if Kamala loses, we acknowledge her failures as a democratic leader to win votes, rather than exclusively get mad at the 0.7% of Americans who couldn't be convinced to vote against their own interests by people online asking really nicely. Or we'll just be here again in 4 years.
We needed a viable 3rd party 20 years ago. We will never get one it seems, because any alternatives are the enemy of the "lesser evil". And we get scolded for demanding better.
Every single election.
in a first-past-the-post system, yes, which is another reason why I personally think ranked choice voting is more immediately needed than viable third parties but I mean I'm just a guy on the internet.
Yeah we have some amount of various ranked voting systems in San Francisco and California which is nice. The state level stuff with “top two finishers go to the general” for federal offices is a little weird but it did at least lead to “Pelosi faces opponent who is a democrat not a Republican”.
Being ready to replace the current president at their job is literally the VP’s entire job and the reason running mates exist so this is a particularly stupid attempt at a point.
If the Green Party spent any time organizing on the local level, they might hold more than 0 seats above the county level right now and would be in a much better position to be “viable” nationally than if they keep grifting on the presidential race they know is unwinnable.
Those are all state and federal races, which you and I both know are not winnable for any third party at the moment. Do you think the Democrats somehow managed to keep the Greens off every single ballot in every single potentially competitive seat?
We also need a 3rd party that does work other than... run a presidential campaign they KNOW is destined to fail every 4 years. I've yet to see many actually do this work (though exceptions do exist!).
I'm being completely serious when I say we've never gotten one because between election years very few people are willing to put in the organizing work necessary to create that viable third party.
And the reason people get testy at election time is that this reality presents itself yet again.
It’s far easier to corrupt/co-opt an existing party and change it (see neoliberal, neocons, maga, etc), and the system does naturally force a duel in the end.
That said, every 3rd party wants to start at the to, which is stupid. Build a local party, then grow into a national party. Otherwise…
…otherwise, even if you win the presidents office, you lack the party power in congress to get the bills you want sent o your desk.
The other two will team up to undermine your agenda at every opportunity. You’ll kill your own movement by being a lame duck from day 1. You need a party to rule.
psst. the thing was about building the party at the local level first.
that is, in fact, effectively not happening. there are a few greens in office across the country, but there need to be many, many more before we're talking presidential ambitions.
I don't think this is true. It's next to impossible for a 3rd party to ever be viable with the mechanics of our (presidential) elections. One of the existing two parties would have to completely tank themselves for a 3rd party to have a real shot, and that's just never happening.
And then, here's what's real fun, I get told that I *also* must not be doing any sort of organizing or advocacy work between election years because of a presumption that that my "please dear god just vote" message, which gets louder at election time because duh, is the only thing I'm going.
There's a lot of spiderman pointing meme going on here when what's really happening is that when it comes to electoral politics, I am playing the cards that I'm dealt and not making up my own game.
We can argue until we're blue in the face about this, but I've laid out my perspective.
I understand where you're coming from. My deep dive has shown that the game is very rigged. Against us. In favor of those who purchase legislation from the usual suspects.
i agree with you! i think the democratic party has a lot of shit to reckon with.
yet i'm still pretty comfortably of the mind that not voting for the lesser evil (keeping in mind we seem to be in agreement in viability of candidates) is a bad move.
I'm just a lone comment in your notifications but I wanted to say that I'm very glad I got to see your political stance and interest in the subject. It sucks when I find out a youtuber I like has shitty opinions (like being alt-right) but this is pretty much the opposite <3 keep on being awesome!
This is entirely correct. The greens and the libertarians both get automatic ballot access in Colorado yet they hardly field any candidates for any office other than president. Not even for nonpartisan races like school boards and city council. It’s not a political party, it’s a line on the ballot.
All over? Really? There is one (1) Green Party candidate anywhere in Colorado, HD8, who has raised and spent zero (0) dollars and has not filed a personal financial disclosure as required by law. The GP of CO raised and spent $120 last period, and has never had more than $2,000 cash on hand.
The first-past-the-post system makes third parties basically untenable, no? Seems like the first step shouldn’t be “organizing a party” so much as implementing structural changes, like instituting ranked choice voting.
While better voting systems are… better, it's also not true that third parties are impossible - the UK is just as FPtP, yet has three major parties, had a coalition government within the last decade, and its Green party has actual seats in the Commons.
A third party candidate with a single, country wide electorate (ie: a presidential candidate) is super difficult to make happen, but that doesn't mean third parties can't happen, just that it's stupid to try and make them happen by starting with the most difficult post without any support apparatus.
It’s a fair point, FPtP isn’t itself necessarily the issue. I had in the back of my mind that ranked choice initiatives are actually happening in the US, which is a concrete and realistic thing to be working towards.
(which is a thing I've been advocating for, but y'know I think voting against trump by way of a vote for harris is actually a good thing so that discounts my opinion)
The nihilists are exhausting! I have been interacting on mastodon with someone who is literally arguing that you can’t say “X is worse than Y” without necessarily implying “Y is good”.
It’s pointless, they’re not arguing in good faith! I mostly try not to engage but occasionally can’t help myself
In the UK we have multiple viable 3rd parties because we put in the work day in day out to make it happen, working to build support in winnable races. Voting 3rd party in a high-stakes, winner takes all, presidential election is insanity and doomed to fail.
They are using despair to gain power over others by making them hopeless. When that stops being cool they change grifts and become conservative weirdos.
That's why I avoid Mastodon and Fediverse like the plague and what ultimately made me want to jump here from Twitter (aside from Musk). Bluesky is only negative if negative shit happens in the world, otherwise it's overwhelmingly positive or emotionally accurate.
Their very surrender to helplessness is one of the key design objectives of the Firehose of Falsehood strategy. If we don't give up when they have, this creates discomfort. Everyone's uncomfortable. We can be comfortable later.
for a lot of people nothing short of a revolution is gonna satisfy them and i dont see them on tv shooting their congressperson in the head so ill take that as my conclusion on their conviction
Libs: "Oh you want to create a better economic system? Why aren't you engaging in uncoordinated individual acts of political violence with no coherent plan or mass mobilization?@!?!?!?!"
Please read the books. I know they're boring but read the books.
see, a proper revolution would require things like coordination and followers, but evidently you cant even convince people to tick another box on paper so why would they die for you?
there's a reason i didn't say "firebomb a walmart" because that *would* be incoherent
I hate accelerationists because their plan involves countless people like me dying to pull off their plan, and I dont want to sacrifice myself for them.
They unfortunately like to see themselves as the monarchs, when more likely than not someone more powerful than them is putting them on the chopping block, too.
Inequality is only appealing to those that can never imagine themselves on the worse end.
If I've learned anything from Revolutions by @mikeduncan.bsky.social It's that they can go in any direction at any time. Who's to say the fascists with all the guns won't end up on top.
No that's a vital part of existentialism actually, recognizing that everything is meaningless and thus you have a certain freedom through it. The freedom to create your own meaning
Not really. Existentialism is often referred to as anti-Nihilism because of this. Active N. takes the root of N. belief, that the universe is an uncaring and meaningless void, and asks you to give it meaning. E. is focused on individual experience and choices; the fact none of it matters isn't vital
I had a Nihilism phase in 2016, (can you blame me?) What a fool I was! If "the universe doesn't care" then you should do your damnedest to care enough to fill the deficit! You didn't see those billions of years before you and you won't see the billions after. This is your life, LIVE IT!!!
The universe is full of caring. It's me, I care.
I don't think people's nihilism phase should end, they should grow through it. It is unfortunately true that there is no inherent meaning to anything, and that the majority of our institutions are arbitrary. And that's scary but you gotta deal with it
A pessimist in this election will be more like "oh well, there's nothing I can do, no matter who I choose... I'll vote on the half-Hitler instead of the full-Hitler but I'm not happy about it..."
A nihilist will be more like "fuck it, I'll vote third party just for the giggles".
To me nihilism is the acknowledgement that I WILL do whatever I want, and so will everyone else, and the great dread of responsibility that comes from that.
There are still right and wrong things to do, things can still be assigned value. But those values have to be decided on, by us.
Except even Nietzsche's response to nihilism was to go and exert your will and create your own meaning! NOT WALLOW. NEVER WALLOW. WALLOWING NOT ALLOWED.
I feel like nihilism’s become a very good way for people to consolidate their recognition of how pressing certain issues are with their unwillingness to do anything about it at the mildest inconvenience which is a totally cool and not at all frustrating, counterproductive, and unhelpful mindset…
To be that bitch and get into the semantic argument, may I suggest “learned helplessness” as the term you’re looking for? I do think people need to come to terms with the fact that the one and only thing that makes us or anything meaningful is our feelings.
Right?? Averaged across the entire human population, this is by far the best time *ever* to be alive. There's so much more work to be done, but still. We've come so far, gang.
I always just remind those people that so far in all of human history the people trying their best and making an effort to improve their lives and the lives of everyone around them have at least a 51% win rate, so check mate, the human spirit prevails again, losers.
Nihilism is the easy lazy choice, and getting out of the darkness can take lot of effort. I decided to counter-culture it by making my own roleplay religion. The positive holy energy has been a great tool when facing all the gloom and doom.
The "Burn it down!" crowd are mostly emotional. In my town, they're the same folks who loved the disastrous "Defund the police!" slogan. Getting them to actually think about problems and solutions isn't easy. But when a solution is found, they'll vote for it. I just mute 'em.
The phrase "It's easier to tear down a house of cards than to build one up" makes it important that we have genuine people focused on positivity and progress, no matter how exhausting it gets
Your genuine excitement for technology content makes you part of that house of cards by inspiring others :)
YES! Omg it's literally one of my biggest anxieties. I grew up being very literally lied to about many topics (science, history, etc), and the ability to learn the truth of things online SAVED me.
Seriously, I would have taken MUCH longer to get into film photography and home development without your video series and that hobby has measurably improved my life
I'm not aware of the larger context here, but positive contributions to the world go very far and in ways that you wouldn't expect
Nihilism is so thoroughly misunderstood. Being a nihilist does not mean you are a doomer or a pessimist. It's a recognition that life and the universe has no inherent meaning. Good part of that is, you make meaning for yourself. Nihilism isn't "nothing has meaning so therefore nothing matters"
Don't get me started on the type of negative people who actually try to talk about something positive, but the moment you ask how it could be achieved they instantly go back to being doom and gloom, saying it's impossible, despite giving a real world example of it being achieved.
Nihilism is believing nothing matters therefore never do anything to change it because it's pointless.Think black pill from the incel community, or rotmaxing from TikTok.
Nihilism is believing nothing matters (Or has no intrinsic value) and there is no "therefore". It immediately branches into a bunch of separate philosophies that in terms of the actions they result in, could be completely indistinguishable.
You can even see a bunch of optimistic nihilists here ITT.
I enjoy my ability to earn living without utterly destroying my body through hard physical labor or being sent to an inhumane place for my neurodivergence.
I enjoy the accessibility of so many creative voices unburdened by the restrictions of traditional publishing.
I may be a nihilist, but cause of it I fight when I can to better the world around me so others won't be one. Being one suck I hate seeing the negative in a simple good gesture someone do for me at time.
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they are simply thinking down instead of ahead, why tell them to look up?
and no, I'm not one of those people who thinks inflation metrics matter more than grocery price - I mean real policy change that has in fact happened.
a whole bunch of people telling you things are bad is a real great way to be convinced things are bad.
and we know why the media landscape looks like it does.
a lot has happened, but nobody's talking
There's this limitless potential for good that happens all the time and sometimes it's hard to see but it's always there.
Every single election.
And the reason people get testy at election time is that this reality presents itself yet again.
That said, every 3rd party wants to start at the to, which is stupid. Build a local party, then grow into a national party. Otherwise…
The other two will team up to undermine your agenda at every opportunity. You’ll kill your own movement by being a lame duck from day 1. You need a party to rule.
that is, in fact, effectively not happening. there are a few greens in office across the country, but there need to be many, many more before we're talking presidential ambitions.
they get a lot of attention every four years and then might as well disappear.
that part of it is squarely on them.
We can argue until we're blue in the face about this, but I've laid out my perspective.
The rabbit hole leads to a dark place.
i agree with you! i think the democratic party has a lot of shit to reckon with.
yet i'm still pretty comfortably of the mind that not voting for the lesser evil (keeping in mind we seem to be in agreement in viability of candidates) is a bad move.
It’s pointless, they’re not arguing in good faith! I mostly try not to engage but occasionally can’t help myself
It's basically like when someone would say "I think Awesome movie A is even better than Awesome Movie B", and a reply is "so you think B sucks?".
And before someone brings up the UK, their representatives each represent a lot fewer people, and each seat is still a two-party race basically
There is work to do.
multiple thoughts are floating around in my head and I cannot just act on one of them!
Please read the books. I know they're boring but read the books.
there's a reason i didn't say "firebomb a walmart" because that *would* be incoherent
given current world events I can smell a whiff of logic in that conviction, but I reserve the right to disagree.
just want some adventure in their lives and don't actually want to help their neighbors or society
Inequality is only appealing to those that can never imagine themselves on the worse end.
I don't think people's nihilism phase should end, they should grow through it. It is unfortunately true that there is no inherent meaning to anything, and that the majority of our institutions are arbitrary. And that's scary but you gotta deal with it
Nothing is.
Nihilism is more like "There's no purpose in life, so I'll just do whatever the fuck I want".
A nihilist will be more like "fuck it, I'll vote third party just for the giggles".
There are still right and wrong things to do, things can still be assigned value. But those values have to be decided on, by us.
I'm exhausted myself.
Real talk, don't threaten nihilists' lives, disproving their dumb philosophy is not worth jail.
Your genuine excitement for technology content makes you part of that house of cards by inspiring others :)
Now I think we need more effort placed on "how to obtain information" because I'm seeing a LOT of stuff which worries me.
I'm not aware of the larger context here, but positive contributions to the world go very far and in ways that you wouldn't expect
It's pointless (as everything else is) because we are all going to die
And even if we are remembered after our deaths, someday the sun is gonna explode and wipe everything, so...
like bro makes his wole existance to make other people suicidal
i despite those motherfuckers
People who think making any effort is pointless because the 'game is rigged'.
.
.
What the fuck.
It's stupid.
Those people are really exhausting.
You can even see a bunch of optimistic nihilists here ITT.
Things are neat and I wish more people would acknowledge that.
I enjoy the accessibility of so many creative voices unburdened by the restrictions of traditional publishing.
This is a great time to live.