And then suicides went up 37%?
I remember when Wisecrack was worth watching
Submitted 11 months ago by FlyingSquid@lemmy.world to [deleted]
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/0ff05abf-e8c0-40da-992a-dfc38635ad6b.png
And then suicides went up 37%?
I remember when Wisecrack was worth watching
One of those things is out of place.
No, what is it? I’m interested.
ShaunaTheDead@kbin.social 11 months ago
I'm so tired of people thinking that nihilism (Nietzsche's main philosophy for those unaware) is depressing. It's not at all, it's actually very hopeful and liberating. Nihilism can basically be boiled down to "nothing matters" which sounds depressing, but what it really means is that "nobody can tell you what matters from your perspective, only you can decide what matters to you". It was considered depressing and was railed against by the public at the time because it goes against religious teaching which tells you that religion matters objectively and unquestioningly.
It's extremely liberating even today despite religion not having a choke hold on society as much as it did during Nietsche's time. It's liberating because if what truly matters to you is shitposting on Lemmy, then that's great! Go live your most meaningful existence! Enjoy yourself and be proud of your accomplishments in that field! You choose your own worldview and what matters to you, and that's obviously a very a positive thing, it's not depressing or morose or narrow-minded and I'm tired of people just boiling it down to "Nihilism is for depressed people".
Franzia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 months ago
You can directly thank the Nazis for this incredibly depressing perspective on Nietzsche’s writing.
Hacksaw@lemmy.ca 11 months ago
I don’t know if this is a joke or not but Nietzsche’s whole effort was spent on defining and opposing nihilism, not creating and advocating for it.
He realised that God (the philosophical entity which guarantees meaning) is dead and knew that God was a tool used to combat nihilism. He was afraid that at the time nihilism was seen as the only alternative to belief in God. He spent his whole life trying to establish the virtues that were required (the ubermensch) in order to lead a meaningful life when there is no guarantee that the world itself had a meaning.
The Wikipedia article covers this topic well en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Nietzsche
ShaunaTheDead@kbin.social 11 months ago
You're right, my mistake. I was thinking of Existential Nihilism which is a school of thought within Nihilism, but is different in it's interpretation as I described in my original post.
There are also some quotes of note in the main Nihilism Wikipedia article
I think Absurdism is more what people are generally describing when they use the term Nihilism in popular culture. Here are a couple of excerpts from the same Existential Nihilism Wikipedia article I linked.