This form of nihilism has existed for awhile. I was a 17 year old gay edge-lord in 2006 - who said things like they do. I was trying to attack the world that wronged me. This is how most people react and is not exceptional. Siding with the enemy is initially welcoming but there are no hugs to be had if you cry.
Thanks for sharing this! It’s cool to read about the perspective of someone who grew up among nihilists & money-chasers. I actually haven’t been able to tune into Joshua Citarella’s “Doomscroll” after Dasha’s appearance. I get that he’s for free speech but I also thought he was supposed to curate *interesting,* non-mainstream political thinkers & comedians. Moral vacuum aside, Dasha didn’t even try to be funny or charming. And how is being a Trump supporter and a Catholic, beige-loving e-girl not mainstream? It’s like JD Vance meets [whatever trad wife is making the rounds on TikTok.]
Anna & Dasha have increasingly promoted a trad wife pathos: stay skinny, get Botox, don’t let your man see your beauty routines, have babies while you’re young —ideally from a rich daddy,-and by all means, don’t become one of those pathetic “careerist” women who postpone motherhood and end up alone. Anna in particular has become more conservative, mocking romantic / sexual arrangements outside the family unit. Almost like slut-shaming, which is weird coming from them.
I could go on, but zooming out, I still can’t believe so many Bernie supporters turned to the (alt)Right. Sure, the Libs superficial DEI attempts & language policing were lame, but that’s not the Left. And as American society becomes more dystopian & punishing, we need a socialist project more than ever. If it’s uncool, cringe & basic to care about the material conditions & the wellbeing of most people, so be it. The alternative is just sucking up to the little men in power, and that is so old.
Thank you! Yeah it’s really insidious rather than cool what they are pushing. Also they don’t live what they preach at all. It’s all a spectacle. Citarella interview wis interesting bc he seems to play a simpleton and get her to say so much dumb stuff like “trumpian era is post politics”
For me, it was so sad and excruciating watching “Red Scare” curdle. I remember it as the podcast where Simon Reynolds talked about Mark Fisher and the lead drum of capitalist realism, which is a far cry from the podcast that I saw had Ann Coulter on as a guest? Urrgh.
It’s an easy thing to throw up your hands and go “Fuck, whatever”. It also seems cowardly, especially as someone who tends to be drawn to fixing things. What to fix, though? Jesus Fucking Christ - it’s all so broken, you can see the glass and concrete rubble everywhere. It’s hard not to be hypnotised by all the light and shadows bending and splitting off the glass shards, though - nihilism seems like a trauma response as much as anything else at the moment.
Thank you for writing this. It’s really much appreciated.
A lot of people I know hide behind cynicism to hide their hurt feelings about politics. It absolutely kills solidarity which is about the only thing we’ve got to keep the powerful in check. I’m sure the Harvard Boys were taking notes on their handiwork in Russia in the 90’s. The dark shit they do out in the world always gets brought back home.
Really enjoyed this one! I have completely retreated from Twitter and Instagram because the nihilism & detached energy on social media genuinely makes me physically ill. I hate edgelords! It’s just such a spiritually lazy way to exist.
“But the surprising thing is that a lot of people buy this act. They really think that being cynical and nihilistic and being on the side of powerful corporations is some sort of transgressive act. That’s how warped the culture is here”. ….. this pretty much sums up *exactly* how i feel right now. ☹️
I'm old enough to remember the remnants of the old left in the U.S. and they fought like hell against the system but they also had a lot of cynicism. That cynicism was often labeled as "defeatism" in criticism and self criticism sessions but it remained a big part of that subculture. You might fight the system but it was a romantic fight against everything and almost everybody in a cruel and unjust world. What's changed is the out in the open acceptance of oppression as if it were somehow a good thing, possibly cool or even "transgressive" in the way listening the Dead Kennedy's might have been transgressive to an 1980's high school punk. If anything the woke liberal left seemed, or even now seems, a bit optimistic. Maybe fascists just don't understand the consequences of their actions? Revealing their hypocrisy might turn them towards justice, save the administrative state and return us to the cosmopolitanism of a better time? Then again, maybe not.
I really like your observation that "...both the USA and USSR were 2 big Enlightenment projects fighting each other for their version of utopia to win."
I think it can also be argued that this broad Enlightenment project secularized morality, while at the same time unleashing moral demands, in both societies--what Turgenev, through his fictional medical student Bazarov, labeled as nihilist. Wasn't the popular ideal of Russian enlightened youth, from the 1860s onward, centered to a significant degree on this type of hard, impersonal scientific nihilist? Weren't men of this type also called "realists," or "new men?"
As of today, in both in the US and Russia, isn't this type of nihilism further ascendant?
Ir also may be the case that the "scientific" sociology of Marxism-Leninism tried to transform socialism from Utopia into a type of science with factual objections to this theory, at that time, labeled as a reactionary attack against socialism. As Lenin stated in 1917:
"The dictatorship of the proletariat is a scientific term stating the class in question and the particular form of state authority, called dictatorship, namely authority, based not on law, not on elections but directly on the armed force of some portion of the population."
When this Leninist revolution began to self-destruct the Frankfurt school began to articulate an alternative, considered in the1930s as leading edge left-thinking.
This Frankfurt school, from my perspective, largely consisted of Jewish Marxists who fled Germany in order to save their lives and who also argued, that contrary to traditional Marxist expectations, the proletariat in Germany largely united with their oppressors.
The Frankfurt school solution, taken the failure of the proletariat to throw off their nationalist chains, was "the long march through institutions." Just as Lenin concluded that the Bolsheviks had to take the place of the proletariat if there was to be a revolution, the Frankfurt School seemed to reason that Marxist intellectuals had to subvert all the institutions of bourgeoise society. They saw the proletariat as now an unreliable class and therefore revolution had to be addressed by undermining social and cultural institutions led by the emerging professional/managerial grouping, with the result being the collapse of the bourgeoise belief system and its society.
Is it appropriate to substitute the word Democrat (particularly its professional academics, lawyers and mass media personalities) for the word Bolshevik, in 2025?
Is it appropriate to maintain that most liberal reforms in the U.S. also relied on a type of denunciatory ethics--slavery, exploitation, discrimination-- what had some of its origins in Russia?
Is this type of denunciatory ethic a key foundation of our political and cultural problems today?
Sorry to ramble on for so long. Some of my thoughts above based on the essay by Michael Polanyi called "Beyond Nihilism," written in 1960.
I believe there is much less nihilism in Russia now than back in the 90s, and than in the US today. Say, here are two poems of a poet Vadim Zhuk from StPete; he died the other day. What can be further from nihilism?
This form of nihilism has existed for awhile. I was a 17 year old gay edge-lord in 2006 - who said things like they do. I was trying to attack the world that wronged me. This is how most people react and is not exceptional. Siding with the enemy is initially welcoming but there are no hugs to be had if you cry.
I really appreciate these words and insight.
Thanks for sharing this! It’s cool to read about the perspective of someone who grew up among nihilists & money-chasers. I actually haven’t been able to tune into Joshua Citarella’s “Doomscroll” after Dasha’s appearance. I get that he’s for free speech but I also thought he was supposed to curate *interesting,* non-mainstream political thinkers & comedians. Moral vacuum aside, Dasha didn’t even try to be funny or charming. And how is being a Trump supporter and a Catholic, beige-loving e-girl not mainstream? It’s like JD Vance meets [whatever trad wife is making the rounds on TikTok.]
Anna & Dasha have increasingly promoted a trad wife pathos: stay skinny, get Botox, don’t let your man see your beauty routines, have babies while you’re young —ideally from a rich daddy,-and by all means, don’t become one of those pathetic “careerist” women who postpone motherhood and end up alone. Anna in particular has become more conservative, mocking romantic / sexual arrangements outside the family unit. Almost like slut-shaming, which is weird coming from them.
I could go on, but zooming out, I still can’t believe so many Bernie supporters turned to the (alt)Right. Sure, the Libs superficial DEI attempts & language policing were lame, but that’s not the Left. And as American society becomes more dystopian & punishing, we need a socialist project more than ever. If it’s uncool, cringe & basic to care about the material conditions & the wellbeing of most people, so be it. The alternative is just sucking up to the little men in power, and that is so old.
Thank you! Yeah it’s really insidious rather than cool what they are pushing. Also they don’t live what they preach at all. It’s all a spectacle. Citarella interview wis interesting bc he seems to play a simpleton and get her to say so much dumb stuff like “trumpian era is post politics”
Oh, God, Evgenia. This is so beautifully put.
For me, it was so sad and excruciating watching “Red Scare” curdle. I remember it as the podcast where Simon Reynolds talked about Mark Fisher and the lead drum of capitalist realism, which is a far cry from the podcast that I saw had Ann Coulter on as a guest? Urrgh.
It’s an easy thing to throw up your hands and go “Fuck, whatever”. It also seems cowardly, especially as someone who tends to be drawn to fixing things. What to fix, though? Jesus Fucking Christ - it’s all so broken, you can see the glass and concrete rubble everywhere. It’s hard not to be hypnotised by all the light and shadows bending and splitting off the glass shards, though - nihilism seems like a trauma response as much as anything else at the moment.
Thank you for writing this. It’s really much appreciated.
A lot of people I know hide behind cynicism to hide their hurt feelings about politics. It absolutely kills solidarity which is about the only thing we’ve got to keep the powerful in check. I’m sure the Harvard Boys were taking notes on their handiwork in Russia in the 90’s. The dark shit they do out in the world always gets brought back home.
Really enjoyed this one! I have completely retreated from Twitter and Instagram because the nihilism & detached energy on social media genuinely makes me physically ill. I hate edgelords! It’s just such a spiritually lazy way to exist.
“But the surprising thing is that a lot of people buy this act. They really think that being cynical and nihilistic and being on the side of powerful corporations is some sort of transgressive act. That’s how warped the culture is here”. ….. this pretty much sums up *exactly* how i feel right now. ☹️
I'm old enough to remember the remnants of the old left in the U.S. and they fought like hell against the system but they also had a lot of cynicism. That cynicism was often labeled as "defeatism" in criticism and self criticism sessions but it remained a big part of that subculture. You might fight the system but it was a romantic fight against everything and almost everybody in a cruel and unjust world. What's changed is the out in the open acceptance of oppression as if it were somehow a good thing, possibly cool or even "transgressive" in the way listening the Dead Kennedy's might have been transgressive to an 1980's high school punk. If anything the woke liberal left seemed, or even now seems, a bit optimistic. Maybe fascists just don't understand the consequences of their actions? Revealing their hypocrisy might turn them towards justice, save the administrative state and return us to the cosmopolitanism of a better time? Then again, maybe not.
Great piece AND another book recommendation - sincere thanks
Great piece!
Once again, Dimitry Orlov & "Social collapse best practices" FTW.
https://youtu.be/kySDKESt3_M?si=0hdIKSTCiUFAq7_M
Got your garden seedlings started yet?
I really like your observation that "...both the USA and USSR were 2 big Enlightenment projects fighting each other for their version of utopia to win."
I think it can also be argued that this broad Enlightenment project secularized morality, while at the same time unleashing moral demands, in both societies--what Turgenev, through his fictional medical student Bazarov, labeled as nihilist. Wasn't the popular ideal of Russian enlightened youth, from the 1860s onward, centered to a significant degree on this type of hard, impersonal scientific nihilist? Weren't men of this type also called "realists," or "new men?"
As of today, in both in the US and Russia, isn't this type of nihilism further ascendant?
Ir also may be the case that the "scientific" sociology of Marxism-Leninism tried to transform socialism from Utopia into a type of science with factual objections to this theory, at that time, labeled as a reactionary attack against socialism. As Lenin stated in 1917:
"The dictatorship of the proletariat is a scientific term stating the class in question and the particular form of state authority, called dictatorship, namely authority, based not on law, not on elections but directly on the armed force of some portion of the population."
When this Leninist revolution began to self-destruct the Frankfurt school began to articulate an alternative, considered in the1930s as leading edge left-thinking.
This Frankfurt school, from my perspective, largely consisted of Jewish Marxists who fled Germany in order to save their lives and who also argued, that contrary to traditional Marxist expectations, the proletariat in Germany largely united with their oppressors.
The Frankfurt school solution, taken the failure of the proletariat to throw off their nationalist chains, was "the long march through institutions." Just as Lenin concluded that the Bolsheviks had to take the place of the proletariat if there was to be a revolution, the Frankfurt School seemed to reason that Marxist intellectuals had to subvert all the institutions of bourgeoise society. They saw the proletariat as now an unreliable class and therefore revolution had to be addressed by undermining social and cultural institutions led by the emerging professional/managerial grouping, with the result being the collapse of the bourgeoise belief system and its society.
Is it appropriate to substitute the word Democrat (particularly its professional academics, lawyers and mass media personalities) for the word Bolshevik, in 2025?
Is it appropriate to maintain that most liberal reforms in the U.S. also relied on a type of denunciatory ethics--slavery, exploitation, discrimination-- what had some of its origins in Russia?
Is this type of denunciatory ethic a key foundation of our political and cultural problems today?
Sorry to ramble on for so long. Some of my thoughts above based on the essay by Michael Polanyi called "Beyond Nihilism," written in 1960.
I believe there is much less nihilism in Russia now than back in the 90s, and than in the US today. Say, here are two poems of a poet Vadim Zhuk from StPete; he died the other day. What can be further from nihilism?
Мне бы домик подле храма
У столетья на краю,
Мне бы томик Мандельштама
Да садовую скамью.
Мне бы лёгкого соседа -
Муравья и воробья,
Полупьяную беседу
О повадках бытия.
За окном глядятся в воду
Облака и фонари.
Мне бы тихую свободу,
Не снаружи так внутри.
Прощай, шевелящееся,
Прощай, все живое, таящееся
У яблони, в складках крыльца, у сарая, под
гнётом доски,
Стрекозы, мышонки, дроздята, улитки,
бельчата, большие жуки,
Прощайте, засады, уловки, подходы,пробежки,
прыжки,
Прощай, возвращений ночных романтический
шорох.
Будь проклят ваш город.
На заднем сиденье, в нелепой корзинке, везут
меня с дачи.
Я плачу.
Nolite te bastardes carborundum, Evgenia!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQYReHvnPfc
https://genius.com/Motorhead-dont-let-them-grind-ya-down-lyrics