Posted on 08/22/2025 6:01:46 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
https://ghostarchive.org/archive/MXm3v
As Skyler and I exchanged emails, I was reminded of an essay the great University of Virginia sociologist James Davison Hunter wrote last year for The Hedgehog Review. He, too, identified nihilism as the central feature of contemporary culture: “A nihilistic culture is defined by the drive to destroy, by the will to power. And that definition now describes the American nation.”
He pointed to our culture’s pervasive demonization and fearmongering, with leaders feeling no need to negotiate with the other side, just decimate it. Nihilists, he continued, often suffer from wounded attachments — to people, community, the truth. They can’t give up their own sense of marginalization and woundedness because it would mean giving up their very identity. The only way to feel halfway decent is to smash things or at least talk about smashing them. They long for chaos.
Apparently, the F.B.I. now has a new category of terrorist — the “nihilistic violent extremist.” This is the person who doesn’t commit violence to advance any cause, just to destroy. Last year, Derek Thompson wrote an article for The Atlantic about online conspiracists who didn’t spread conspiracy theories only to hurt their political opponents. They spread them in all directions just to foment chaos. Thompson spoke with an expert who cited a famous line from “The Dark Knight”: “Some men just want to watch the world burn.”
You left out ‘self-annointed’ between ‘arrogant’ and ‘elitist’. Otherwise, spot-on!
Thanks for the meme.
Any Big Lebowski reference makes it a good day here.
Brooks wrote an article about nihilism for the Atlantic back in April. It’s not hard to get around their paywall. This article may just be a rehash of that earlier one.
There is a lot of cynicism about government and its claims now. People today are less likely to believe what the government, the Establishment, and progressives want them to believe. I don’t think that amounts to nihilism for most people though. We go on with our lives and aren’t taking up guns for no reason.
What a waste of electrons!
To not believe is the nothingness of the modern Left is to be a “nihilist” ... as holding to truth and beauty (or even just facts) make us “nihilist” in the minds of those who reject all facts ... as well as truth and beauty,
Or to put a paraphrase in their Left wing, mealy mouths: I may not know art but I know so I know what it looks like just the same ... and it’s drag queen story hour!
To quote Arthur Dent : “I think I’ll go have a little lie down somewhere...”
19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
True! Never bumped into a stranger who almost immediately began assuming that I was a fellow conservative, opposed to the Dem Party. But have had numerous encounters with strangers (taxi drivers, random pedestrians, shoppers, etc.) who, at the drop of a hat, immediately launched into invective directed at President Trump, smugly assuming that I shared their feelings.
Even my Fidelity investment broker sent an e-mail to us (and presumably to her entire clientele) last November explaining what a "troubling time" it was, and that she would understand if we needed "space" to "process our trauma." She didn't explicitly reference Trump, but it was obvious what she meant.
Regards,
What do I mean in practical terms? Abolish much of Academia, government bureaucracies, the intel agencies, everybody in the military O5 on up, Big Pharma, Big Food, the Fed, Hollywood, Big Tech, international organizations. Gut what remains. Cut it back to the bone.
Ya gotta remember he’s speaking to a Leftist audience given its the NYT. He’s trying to make them imagine what it might be like to have to be bathed in what they imagine to be horrible all the time, everywhere and in everything. That’s what its like to be a non Gaia Worshiper and non Socialist. The endless propaganda they try to shove down your throat at every turn in everything. You can’t even get away from it at the movies, in sports, anytime you turn on the TV, in school, etc. Its all pervasive.
My thanks to the New York Times for allowing me to read his entire essay with no pay wall.
Unfortunately, after reading the entire essay, I still have no idea what Right-Wing Nihilism is.
Yeah... She was sipping Cosmos and skinny margaritas with her girlfriends while watching The View.
More diarrhea from Brookes. No clicky from me, I don’t do NYT. Screw them. Screw Brooks.
The soon-to-be Islamic caliphate of western Europe awaits if you don’t care for Christian nationalism.
You’d be praying five times a day. It would be easy to think of things to pray for.
When the sun shines bright in summer, you’ll might be able to wash burkas.
“I don’t do NYT”
It is amazingly easy to do without the NY Times.
I have even tried to read an article online for years.
I glance at the paper copy in the library for about a minute.
Who reads/subscribes to this crap?
Yep I know that’s what he’s doing but it’s remarkable that he’d use such an obnoxious term without any indication that he finds it objectionable. It just shows what a predicament he’s in over there at the NYT — how constrained he is. It actually would be interesting to send him an email asking him how he feels about the term “Christian nationalist”. I suppose it’s possible he’s so immersed in that bubble that he isn’t just playing along with it but actually has come to accept it to some degree.
Outstanding pull.
Mr. Brooks realizes the tide is turning & is now coming back towards conservatism to remain relevant.
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