This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
"The term Nihilistic Violent Extremism (NVE) refers to what is motivating some of these subjects to commit criminal acts," the FBI wrote in a statement to NPR. "They want to sow chaos and facilitate the destruction of society."
Ah, fuckers who coined the term have no clue what nihilism means.
The same FBI who was caught multiple times grooming mentally ill kids to commit terror acts so they can hit some targets?
Yeah I trust these guys
I'm honestly curious. I know nihilism is about life not having any objective or inherent meaning, but I don't see how that conflicts with their motovation. Can you explain?
Nihilism is not about making life harder, or sowing chaos, it's about accepting that there's no meaning to anything. Sowing chaos does not fit with that. It's not that nihilism would forbid you from that (it's a philosophy, not religion), but there's nothing nihilistic about sowing chaos and destruction of society, so the naming is very wrong.
I interpret it more as "since nothing matters, might as well have fun", and "fun" is subjective and can be interpretted as enjoying watching things burn in unpredictable ways (chaos & destruction). Human nature can be a bit messed up in that regard.
That can sometimes be an outcome of a moral choice after accepting nihilism (what are ethics beyond or without objective meanings?), but there's nothing necessarily relating desires for chaos and destruction to subjectivism and nihilism. Some nihilists are all about order and building so the reason they gave is bogus. They just feel the word has negative connotations so they used it without understanding what it means. It would be like saying they are jaywalkers who just want to watch the world burn. Some of them may be jaywalkers, but it's not the motivation for them being there or necessary for them being there in those spaces.
Fair point. Though that's why I think the term is composed with "violence". The desire for chaos and destruction comes from the human in question, while the nihilism is what removes the barriers of committing to the desire. Nihilism goes both ways, and there's nothing inherently good nor bad about it.
I wonder what other term would be accurate for these groups though?
Disaffected, alienated, hostile come to mind
https://wikipedia.org/wiki/764_(organization)
It's cult tactics cynical manipulators in those unmoderated spaces use to indoctrinate young adults and kids to exploit and groom. They target kids who don't have defenses to their tactics yet, either their education didn't yet include how to critically evaluate evidence & propositions or they just weren't mentally ready for that responsibility before engaging with predators. They want to seem edgy and offer truths on topics the kids' parents or teachers may not be willing to engage with to draw them in to appear like they have some knowledge or power to offer other than just hate and anger.
The best equivalent I can think of is as describing bicycling as vegan. Sure, some vegans do ride a bicycle, but it has jack shit to do with them being a vegan. And non-vegans ride them too.
So imagine someone telling you they ride a bicycle because they're vegan and that's how stupid the association with nihilism sounds.
Nihilism means there is no meaning. Whether that pertains to existence (existential nihilism) or morals (moral nihilism). Nihilism effectively works both ways: "Nothing matters, so I might as well kill myself", and "nothing matters, so might as well make the most out of it" (constructive nihilism).
This I believe falls under moral nihilism, where there is no right or wrong, only what feels good or bad. Which the article hints at by mentioning that the actors seem to have no ideological goals.
So it's not a completely irrelevant use of the term, imho.
Yes, in the same sense that vegans are bicyclers.
Nihilism isn't really a philosophy as much as it's an absence of philosophy. The idea of that creating a kind of random deviant behavior isn't really that unusual. There's lots of different kinds of nihilism as well. You can say someone is linguistic nihilist if they twist words to mean whatever suits their other interests. You can say someone is a meta-ethical nihilist if they reject the idea of global moral truth but still adhere to a localized moral behavior. You can call someone a metaphysical nihilist if they are unconcerned with the nature of their own being but still don't want to get hit in the mouth.
It's not an absence of philosophy, it is a philosophical belief. Absence of philosophy is not thinking about it.
They are just trying to stuff you with equation of "rejecting unsubstantiated authority and propaganda" (which is a subset of nihilism similarly to rejection of other unsubstantiated things) to "sowing chaos and destruction of society".
BTW, chaos is beneficial for any society. Chaos is how they evolve and find exits out of deadlocks. And rid themselves of degeneracy, which always flourishes on top, because those on top are subject to negative selection.
Honestly the whole article is absolutely disgusting police boot licking piece of crap, of the "nothing to hide" and "the law is sacred even if made illegally" and "don't question demands" kind.
Except, of course, it's wrapped into the boy being "anti-LGBTQZPN" and "accelerationist-extremist", which is pretty normal, Israeli and Turkish propaganda too uses these in the way of "look, we allow gay parades and have something appearing like western democracy, so we are good, and our victims are not like that".
OK, so the description probably is just about a kid with some disorders who got burnt out from the idiots surrounding him. Every time you hear "he was normal and had meaning in life and we understood him and then he got depressed and closed", it's probably just that - ran out of spoons to play along to mouthbreather family thinking they understand everything.
The things surrounding it - I think they are good. Between loyalty to entrenched non-transparent authority and rebellion with neo-Nazi symbols I'd choose the latter 10 times of 10.
Also when "accelerationist" means that the institutions have already decayed and it's better to break them before they've born more monsters - I agree with that. I thought the same when I was 15 and realized that democracies around us are not real in the sense that they were even in 1950s.
But, of course, if we assume the article is deliberate propaganda, one can suggest that this is the intended second layer - to make you more sympathetic to such ideology.
It's fucking annoying. It's become the term for "edgy loser"
So this is the lore for kids safety act?
Can I coin this as Cthulhuian Nihilisim?
Give us the money or we fucks you up.
