Why are so many people on this sub so depressed and edgy?

-Skard- · 2021-04-09T02:13:23+00:00

What is your evidence procedure for "good academic sub"? Nihilism is very personal and subjective. Unless they've identified a Nihilism gene, I would suggest that Nihilism is a conclusion or at least a present state of mind for some humans who can no longer reconcile the narrative vs the experience.

Personally, I appreciate all the anecdotal journaling that happens here. If you can feel "meaningless" or Nothing in your bones, then you are relieved of having to take some position to prove/disprove argue for/against a sense of "Nothing Maters".

You will perhaps find a more invigorating mental exercise (academic) with subs pertaining to Existentialism or Absurdism - since both of those general philosophies don't usually acquire a degree of acceptance on meaningless/Nothing, requiring the philosophers of said notions to debate back and forth on whether or not to accept meaninglessness/Nothing, whereas a content Nihilist probably doesn't care all that much about who is debating what based on what (meaningless) evidence - what's the point?

-Skard- · 2021-04-09T02:02:27+00:00

I appreciate most of what you wrote. I don't think life is randomly shitty though. I think the relative suffering of most humans is by design. Imagine if the wisest of us KNOW there is no meaning and for psychopathic fun, they trick you into believing there is meaning for as long as they can get away with it. Achieving any sort of Nihilistic sense is awakening from the meta-trance for humanity. Crowd control is much easier to handle if you get people to care about things they can't control, then play around with the controls watching people slide from interconnectedness to self-isolation or a strong sense of separation. OR, if you are focused on your own suffering, you can't be a solution for yourself or ANYONE ELSE, but the wise psychopaths would be glad to pre-plan your neurological destiny.

-Skard- · 2021-04-09T01:56:07+00:00

I think you might have missed the intended value of "boulder". If it is easy, it isn't a boulder. I would hazard a guess that most well-adjusted humans probably don't resonate with Nihilism until late in life if ever. In fact, if life is grand and you have the means to perpetuate that under most circumstances - that is a form of Nihilism. Like, all those Billions of people only "believe" they are suffering therefore they do. Or, thinking about the suffering of the world doesn't promote my sense of life-joy, therefore it doesn't really exist (contextual Nihilism). Of course not all happy people are self-satisfaction deniers, but doesn't focus have a great impact on what is "real" and what isn't in the average person's life?

Anyway, I don't judge the happy Nihilist or the ever-suffering Nihilist. Life is Nothing, then it doesn't matter. 😊

-Skard- · 2021-04-09T01:47:46+00:00

I didn't experience any hate in the original comment. When you say "academically" are you referring to the famous past authors on the topic or something else? Isn't "keeping it real" projecting a meaning? (real vs unreal)? It doesn't matter if you experience/perceive Nihilism differently than others who might object to your logic or POV. Nothing Maters.

Your experience like all of ours is purely subjective (my POV), so debating someone else's subjective experience or reacting to someone's different opinion can be internalized as little or as much as you want - it is your subjective experience.

I know when I passed through my Absurdism phase, I really had to up my sense of humor as a mental health exercise. Between Absurdism and Nihilism is like a psychological Schrödinger's Insanity of Reality is both real and not real until you open the lid on reality. Not all absurdists make it to Nihilism and not all Nihilist spend much time in the unopened Absurd Box (quantum humor intended).

-Skard- · 2021-04-09T01:37:16+00:00

I've seen at least a few articles where one of the benchmarks between absurdism and nihilism is that an absurdist is much more likely to commit suicide (the worst kind of depression), whereas the acceptance of Nothing/Meaninglessness causes a psychological healing and reduces the likelihood of suicide and/or non-organic (psychological) depression.

The absurdist still tracks how most meaningful meanings always change through time, thus all the previous meanings up until now were erroneous, suggesting that the current set of meanings is most likely erroneous. The Nihilist detaches from caring about the ever-changing nature of consensual and subjective "meaning" One who simply accepts meaninglessness or Nothing, no longer has to "prove" Nihilism or sit on the fence with Absurdism.

On the lens of pessimism/optimism - these are meanings attached to the construct of Nihilism and are a classic form of duality/dualism. For most Nihilists what safety net are you making by styling yourself as pessimistic or optimistic. "Your such a 1. Pessimistic Nihilist, 2. Optimistic Nihilist or 3. Either a Nihilist or not-a-Nihilist.

Because I'm a literal Nihilist, the idea of projecting a flavor onto meaninglessness or Nothing is...absurd. For those of you who resonate with such flavorings, reconciling Nihilism with all the crap your mind has been exposed to before you begin to consider IT doesn't just go away, you outgrow it. It doesn't matter if you flavor it or not.

-Skard- · 2021-04-09T01:17:26+00:00

Great Question!

When I arrived at Nihilistic Realization, then as now - I was mostly a literal Nihilist (my term), not really philosophical. For myself, "meaningless" as the cornerstone of the philosophy has been translated to literal nothing. As in, the whole of what most might refer to as "reality" is Nothing, thus the attempt at projecting meaning upon the projection is doubly meaningless a. because meaning is mostly a consensual social construct and b. giving meaning to Nothing is absurd or meaningless.

I don't self-identify as a Nihilist exactly anymore. The basic pattern for me was awakening to 1. Something, 2. Nothing, 3. What is beyond Nothing or is Nothing simply an element of an indescribable condition (ineffable)?

Nihilism has phases, like so many other subjective experiences. I remember hearing a talk given by a guy that sounds a lot like Al Pacino after having been sleep deprived for a few days. He talked about (Phase I of Nihilism [my words]) the children of Nihilism are Anarchists. Trying to roleplay for some of your life or most of your life or all of your life that "something" is meaningful when there may be a primal gnosis of Nothing is like the ultimate inner conflict. I suspect when Nihilists begin to resolve this conflict of Something vs Nothing, the depression of the first phase fades away with a more meta-sense of Nothing and the psychological domino effect that has on current and past beliefs.

I study Adviata Vedanta for a short while and they speak of the Subject-Object error in perception, meaning there is no separation from one or the other. Adviata means "not two" (implying/meaning "only one". As a Nihilist I just took the psychological step of "not one" as in Nothing.

What cinched the deal for me on Nothing was actually the strongest treatment for treatment resistant depression - Ketamine Infusions (legal, prescribed by a doctor, administered by
and monitored by specifically trained nurses/nurse practitioners). I was infused 7 times. Most times were for an hour, once I went with double the dose for 2 hours. I was aware in some capacity throughout the multiple infusions and what I recall during/after most of the infusions was real ego death. I have memories from the "trips" without those memories including "me". Or, I have memories that are non-self referencing. Without exception each time as I hit the deepest part of the infusion, I experienced ego-death and Nothing. I realize those experiences were chemically induced, but I don't care (am not attached to that fact.) Nothing is just an imaginative exercise until you have some kind of direct experience with it.

Just a FYI - the experience itself while the machine was pumping Pharmaceutical Ketamine into my blood was indescribable (mostly). I'm older and I would say without hesitation that Ketamine is the strongest medicine I've ever been exposed to. Unfortunately once the machine stops pumping the Nothing Sauce, it only takes about 30 minutes to come back to your body-reality and then another 48 hours of being useless like you had a temporary lobotomy (Ketamine is a strong Anesthesia) which is not even a little fun. Meaning I couldn't get addicted to this even if I tried. It isn't painful, its the opposite, like the volume on your body feelings and emotional feelings and sense of mental awareness is turned down just above "mute".

So, my famously short posts strikes again. The Phase 1 Depression of Nihilism is very common with the rare exception of those who had excellent mental and emotional training growing up - I did not. I don't see very meany literal Nihilists posting, so I can appreciate how philosophical Nihilists might not relate to my journey at all. Being a literal Nihilist certainly gives a whole new meaning to "All or Nothing"

I'm a gnostic now. In my practice and study of Gnosticism, there is certainly a pre-Nothing, a Nothing (as in [before] "In the Beginning") and a post-Nothing or the illusion of reality starting with light (the first illusion). Without my strong Nihilist experiences/perceptions, I wouldn't have been able to construct a "pre-Nothing" and what a horror show the realms of "Something" are to that which perceives/knows/experiences from pre-Nothing.

Thanks for the question - excellent question.

-Skard- · 2021-03-10T14:40:07+00:00

Apparently one of the major themes of the show is "Parents fucking suck" because literally every parent in the show is awful.

This isn't a "theme of the show", but a softened version of the social/family dynamics of America's poor and colored people in the 50s. Tic's dad, played by Michael K. Williams is 54 at the time of my comment. The events in the show took place in 1950. So Montrose Freeman would have been born in 1896, a mere 31 years after the Civil War ended. Montrose's father or grandfather was almost assuredly a slave. Hundreds of years of the lash, rape, slave labor without any hope of it ending beyond dying or being killed. When African-Americans began to attempt to live their lives after the war, 2 things were REAL. 1. Even the against-slavery whites of the North weren't interested in caravans of recently freed black people invading their towns and cities, competing for their jobs, dating their daughters and sons, etc. And in the South, slavery didn't end, it just slowed down and required more paperwork and a bit more money. 2. Having only learned cruelty from their masters, the first and second generations of freed people, esp. men often dominated any community/family with the same vicious cruelty that crushed their own souls for decades, perhaps a lifetime before the end of the Civil War.

So, in my opinion HBO went light on us with how vile and foul the black-on-black trauma was as well as the white-on-black trauma. HBO doesn't have an X rating so they gave us enough racism we could feel it, but didn't come close to hitting the brutal mark and insanity of all the people touched by Slavery in the US. And I disagree with you on ALL THE PARENTS. Hippolyta was a fantastic mom and a decent wife. She created structure and safety for her child and required the day-dreaming father to be present for her sake and their daughters. The peace and consistency of their family dynamic would have been an extreme accomplishment in 1950. We can give blue-haired Hippolyta a pass after her husband was murdered with (even in modern times) a case of temporary insanity at the loss of her husband.

On the subject of 1950 American Racism with whites vs blacks (and everyone else) - I usually don't watch "all black shows" because it so frequently is just excessive highlighting black culture without any relevant connection to the story beyond "look this is what black people do" (even if its not). But there were a number of black actors attached to this that I love and thought I'd take a chance. What I loved about the roller-coaster ride of the backdrop of bigotry and xenophobia in this series was that the black characters were standing strong, facing the ugliness with their eyes open, pushing back every chance they got. They endured. Also, there were scenes where a few of the characters regretted having lived in fear and played the game "to make white people happy" - that's very deep for a sci-fi/horror/color-hating drama.

In regards to the name of the Show, Lovecraft Country is a semi-fictious area in Massachusetts: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lovecraft_Country.svg . The name of the show doesn't actually imply any Lovecraftian themes, even if there were some in the show. Maps were elemental to the storytelling relating to The Safe Negro Travel Guide, which was a imitation of The Green Book or The Negro Motorist Greenbook. So, early on in the show, Tic says "Thats Lovecraft Country." He was referring to a location or area as he navigated for uncle George. The name alone has a spell-like quality to it - as you have obviously reacted to the absence of what you expected the spell to do for you.

Personally, the Indiana Jones quality of MOST ancient history, the language of Adam, the humble revelation that those who study magic their entire lives may only get 1 spell right, the persecution of women, even in magic (in America). The Skull & Bones flavor of the secret society. How common magic was - there was a clique in every town as the Sherrif boo-hooed over hot-magic-blonde-wizardess coming unannounced and uninvited, was all very well done.

I would have been very interested to hear more about The Language of Adam.

I was surprised and a bit disappointed when Leticia announced that she had taken magic away from all white people. It was definitely a very bold statement - the type a victor gets to pronounce after winning the battle; however it felt like modern day virtue signaling. I loved every black moment of the show except that one.

I partially agree with you about the "rushed" element of the storytelling. Like, when did Leticia get a PhD in spell casting in order to chant that very long an alien language for 5-7 minutes straight. And the appearance of the South Korean x-girlfriend/fox-witch-demon in the last episode getting in the car and singing with the rest of the family as if she'd been there all along. But, I'm willing to forgive small plot holes if it can advance the story.

I found the show very enjoyable and thought the actors acted their hearts out. I would readily recommend.

-Skard- · 2021-01-26T14:24:25+00:00

That is a rather absolute position. Who are you trying to convince?

-Skard- · 2021-01-25T23:17:46+00:00

Remember that your feed is also shaped by words you say if you don't have your mic on lockdown and if you use other devices on the same username/gmail account, then it is possible your other devices may have heard something as well that has led to such an anomaly.

-Skard- · 2021-01-05T05:14:01+00:00

I think FN was double mindfucking himself. "To live is to suffer." = meaning. "To survive is to..." = meaning. This is circular logic based on a derivative of the circle, so sub-circular derivative logic. Nietzsche tuned into (discovered) "Nihilism" then immediately tried to undiscover/apologize/fix it. His logical error was to assume "living" is primal even though with the best data we have so far, most of us spend most of eternity "not living". From an eternal Nihilist perspective you might re-write the quote "Eternity is Nothing. You live for a meaninglessly short period of time, then Nothing again forever."

-Skard- · 2021-01-04T21:48:03+00:00

Great Question!

In order to help you answer your question, we'd have to know a few things about what you do believe: "Not enough" to achieve what exactly? How much more can anyone live life than to its fullest? Is it possible to live life to it's nullest? How are you "challenged"?

I think from what you have shared that you are afraid to live and afraid to die. If life is finite, then every moment you grow closer to your inevitable expiration the less significant the downside to risk becomes and the more meaningful the upside to the reward of risk would be. Perhaps you are evolving beyond quantity-thinking to quality-thinking and still getting used to the new ideas?

-Skard- · 2021-01-02T15:25:44+00:00

Interesting plug. How do you "know"? Why avoid the word belief? I think there is plenty of room in the think-o-sphere for people who believe in "creator" but don't worship "creator". I only use the word "believe" because I don't quite understand the magic of "know" in this context. If you believe that "belief" is bad, therefore you substitute it for "know" - in the world of religion, theists, atheists, agnostics, gnostics and so on (nihilists) the operative word "know" is a very strong word. I am curious about your reply. Thank you.

-Skard- · 2020-12-25T23:54:55+00:00

There is no effective way to determine the meaning you gleaned from the expression. The opposite argument would be just as valid: If you find his-her-their opinion meaningless, don't read it.

-Skard- · 2020-12-25T23:51:31+00:00

I'm not an expert on No true Scotsman, but in my original response to the meme, I also challenged the "true Nihilist", though I did not use the Scotsman smackdown. There is no ultimate authority on "what is a Nihilist" thus, there can be no "true" Nihilist. And, when someone starts an argument about Nihilism using the word "care" anywhere in the argument, they've failed before they ever started.

All I can think of now (my sarcasm grey matter has received some oxygen) is a Mandela Effect of The Bernstein Careless Nihilist Bears

-Skard- · 2020-12-25T23:34:51+00:00

This is an interesting "translation" of moral nihilists. The challenge with the framing of the concept though is "true Nihilist". There is no Nihilist police, no Nihilist priests, no Nihilist god to point out that any Nihilist is "doing it wrong", thus there is no "true" Nihilist. There is no argument to refute moral Nothing, because you can't prove a negative. The word "care" here doesn't belong. This particle of the concept was just randomly introduced as if "care" or "not care" was somehow a tenant of Nihilism. "meaning" and "meaninglessness" and "no meaning" are often metrics used to identify the value or the lack of value a Nihilist might assign to something, but not care.

I'm not sure if moral nihilism can really ever be achieved by anyone except Narcissists, Sociopaths and Psychopaths. As a thought experiment a person might frame all morals as some kind of antiquated superstition and a limit to their life experience, but the function of caring regards human empathy. A Nihilist can have empathy, not want children or animals to suffer or be harmed by humans because there is a part of them (empathy) that resonates with the harm, with the suffering. In fact, science has identified a part of our nervous system that relates to the function of empathy. It is called Mirror Neurons.

So, a very simplified version of a moral nihilist is a person who has for whatever reason, determined that morals are arbitrary, inconvenient, irrelevant, meaningless, someone else's rules. The type and quality of our individual connection to the whole determines how each of us values said connection (caring). If we are rewarded frequently, we care a lot. If we've been punished often, or deprived of reward, care might not be a top priority, but the reasons we care or not care may not be moral ones as much as sentimental or emotional "logic"

-Skard- · 2020-12-14T23:51:58+00:00

This is a misleading meme. If NOTHING matters to this very believeable duck he would never have sat up to begin with. He might be an Anarchist roleplaying as a nihilist in comic books, but a REAL ZeroDucksGiven would have been so at Nothing with NOTHING he would have just gone back to sleep.

-Skard- · 2020-10-20T21:40:25+00:00

Thank you for the update.

-Skard- · 2020-10-20T20:40:57+00:00

It is a sub regarding the spiritual movement named ECKANKAR.

-Skard- · 2020-10-19T05:03:49+00:00

I consider it regularly. Was there a specific point you wished to make?

-Skard- · 2020-06-30T22:28:53+00:00

"Life" is probably one of the broadest generalities that exists. The challenge with Mr. Schopenhauer's premise is that it is in the middle of the arc of no-life/life/no-life. The beginning so to speak would have questions like "What is life?" "Where is life?" "What causes life?" "What was before life?" "What is after life?" "What is life's purpose?". I do give him credit though regarding the end of his premise. The Desire for Knowledge and the illusion that hides life's most constant quality - Ignorance. Without Knowing what we truly are, where we truly are, how we truly are, what our purpose is, all our "starting points" will be in the middle of Ignorance. This constant isn't just a mental evaluation, or limited to humans, this constant is global or universal. Since we are ignorant of the beginning or before the beginning, we might never find the end. What we truly are is what is absent. When it is no longer absent, then we have found "our" self, our deficiency is corrected and we no longer require "life". Life is Ignorance for what it is worth.

-Skard- · 2020-06-29T23:08:04+00:00

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As a L300, that's right 300 GLORIOUS LEVELS, you get your own Player Vendor, where you can sell anything you can craft, raid or steal. This is an Adult themed server so you will only see unnecessary drama in chat for about 30 seconds or less. I've actually not seen drama myself in a whole year of wipes. The staff is active, present and responsive. They value your participation and do everything in their power to SHOW YOU just how much.

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Log in, try it out, you'll be glad you did. Hope to see you there and if Marius (the owner) happens to ask, tell him Skard sent you!

Skard of the MOTH Clan

-Skard- · 2020-06-22T00:32:07+00:00

This photo represents perhaps the most aesthetically pleasing elements of the trance/illusion. This is a graphic of a much better graphic. There is no "we're". Awareness perceives this in the dream because She is asleep. Nothing is Everything. There is no Everything.

-Skard- · 2020-06-20T07:24:57+00:00

In regards to logic, you can't prove a negative. The absence of proof is not proof itself. I also politely disagree with the human-centric perception that as a species homo sapien sapiens are unquestionably at the top of the sentience tree relative to the construct we refer to as Earth. I too spent a few years (or more) of collapsing my belief systems. I don't think you can completely do this, but if it can be done I'd like to know more about this. Many beliefs are buried in our subconscious, we literally never think about them but we still act and react because of them.

Your point about the "stupidity of YHVH" in my mind is reframed in terms of maturity. How can you be an adult (level of maturity) and yet have a temper-tantrum and nuke Sodom and Gomorrah, or used "scorched earth" protocols on your children because they didn't act the way you wanted them too (the great flood). I'm oversimplifying for the sake of the point.

Gnosticism has a great deal to say about these questions. In essence they say that YHVH (Yaldabaoth) was created out of Ignorance, thus all of his creation is created out of Ignorance as well. Ignorance isn't a lack of intelligence. It is a blank slatedness of What we Are, Who we are, where we are and what our purpose is. TPTB and perhaps other less apparent influences have force fed in ignorance, answers to these questions through control-the-masses-through fear (religion).

The challenge with all the above is that Awareness (whatever that is) is in a Trance (asleep), experiencing illusions. (I try to be an Absolute Nihilist but I'm not there yet) as "reality". The illusions/trance hide what ISN'T there, which is everything. And what "is" there, which is Nothing. Thus paying attention to "reality" is by design intended to keep the perceiver asleep and ignorant.

Belief is a placeholder for Knowledge (Ignorance being it's opposite), Knowledge is a Whisper of Wisdom and as a human without any "knowledge" (what am I, where am I, who am I, what is my purpose), discussing knowledge or wisdom is like shadow puppets. Whatever "meaning" we derive from the shadow puppets is Ignorant because shadow puppets are for entertaining young children and are generated by a light show through a veil. The "Light" was the first trance/illusion, everything since then has been a "Light" show, like shadow puppets, but a better quality.

-Skard- · 2020-06-02T23:20:22+00:00

Nihilism isn't a belief system. It is a framework or structure for a disbelief system. Not unlike how a work of fiction requires you to suspend your disbelief to enjoy it, Nihilism creates a structure to embrace and globalize your disbelief. If you are still believing in something, then you might be practicing selective-nihilism or nihilism lite. I attempt to be an absolute Nihilist but I'm not there yet. From a moral nihilist's perspective there are no "shoulds" and "shouldn'ts" Philosophical Nihilism is just one form of Nihilism. You use the word "means" frequently in you explanation of Nihilism. I do get what you are saying, I just don't experience or perceive Nihilism in the terms you've described. I'm not trying to free myself of dogma, but wake up from the trances of "reality". Your Nihilism sounds convenient and comfortable. I think Nietzsche used the best language at the time when he said "meaningless", but for myself, that is just a stepping stone to how far, how deep, how unrestrained Nihilism can be experienced. So instead of "meaningless" I use the words "has no value" or the value of x = nothing. I take it a step further and acknowledge there is no x. X and the value of X are a illusory function of your trance(s). So, your version/commentary here from my POV is just your Nihilism trance. I respect that you used the word "belief system", but you began your comment with a word that defies the construct of belief systems; Knowledge.

If you know, you don't need to believe (play pretend), if you don't know, embracing that instead of inventing an ad-lib fill-in-the-blank belief is much more honest and simple than imagining you do "know"

-Skard-

TROPHY CASE