Nihilism

What kind of "overcome"?

This is right. You're confusing your own anhedonia and depression with an effect of nihilism. It's not that you don't enjoy your life because it doesn't matter. You're just not enjoying your life and that's making you grasp for other reasons it might matter.

You can kill yourself if you want. Or you can find something to do with your time that you enjoy. Or you can just hang out and be miserable. It doesn't matter what you do, really.

I was a nihilist through high school and college. I thought it was the supreme philosophy. But I ultimately found it unfulfilling. I "overcame" my nihilist world view by eventually adopting Existential Christianity. I found it fulfilling to acknowledge that it is possible that there is no God or grand meaning, but choosing to believe in the face of that.
Read Kierkegaard

Discover egoism and move on

By mixing it with another belief system. Egoism, Christianity, anarchism.. Whatever gives you a sense of meaning. There may be no objective meaning, but that only means you have to find meaning for yourself. Try reading Camus' Sisyphus or looking into existentialism

You dont overcome it, its the best thing that could possibly happen to you. You build on it and transform into the ubermensch.

For genuine nihilism - suicide.

For meme nihilism - Stirner memes and making up excuses for why you are too afraid to kill yourself.

>Stirner
>Nihlism
user pls

I've met a couple people like you and I just dont get it. I'm a nihilist that follows rational egoism. Why would you choose to believe something after allegedly understanding nihilism? It doesnt make sense.

Stirner was absolutely a precursor to nihilist thought.

Why would you want to?

nihilism only drives the weak and stupid to suicide

Being a precursor to nihlism doesent make you a nihlist.

Not the guy you are replying to, but what is the core difference? Nihilism in itself is based upon a /belief/ that life has no inherent meaning. It's only expected for someone to potentially drift on the opposite scale of this belief.

Meant for

That's why quoting Stirner memes makes you a meme nihilist, not a real nihilist.

Replace it with something better, obviously.

Which would be virtually anything.

you don't even realize the entirety of your belief is memes

certainty that there is no meaning is a belief just as much as the opposite. if you arrived at it through doubt you should just off yourself and stop polluting the gene pool.

Well nihilism isnt just accepting that life is meaningless, edgy teenagers discover that all the time. Nihilism frees you from the shackles of society, the biases, and false assumptions that were pumped into you as a kid. Nihilism essentially gives you a clean slate to build off of. So I dont understand why someone would jump right back into something so far fetched as believing in god. I'm not saying you can't live for something, or work towards something. But in my mind this person just proved to themselves that god does not exist, then chose to believe anyway...does that make sense? You can't have accepted that life is meaningless with the pretense that there might be a god. There being the potentail for a god inherently gives your life meaning because you were created with/for a purpose. Thats different then achieving nihilism and then saying "I'll live for my own pleasures then" or "Ill be an altruist and try to help society."

In my radical nihilist days I did a ton of reading on existentialism and philosophical pessimism, like Camus and Schopenhauer, and came to believe that the only meaning is what we create for ourselves. But like I said, I didn't find that a fulfilling personal philosophy. When I started reading Kierkegaard it made a lot of sense to me. I acknowledge that most meaning is, in fact, manmade, and acknowledged that it is possible that all meaning is manmade (that is, subjective). But it makes me personally happier and gives me a sense of fulfillment to believe in Christianity, even acknowledging that it could merely be a creation of man. So for me, in a universe where we have to construct our own meaning, what ultimately makes me feel a sense of purpose is believing in Christianity. And I realize that that's why I believe in it

Or with everything.

Become a pantheist. It's basically Nihilism, but in the positive direction instead of the negative one. It's the exact same logic, but the emotional benefits are much better.

Compassion desu.

>But in my mind this person just proved to themselves that god does not exist

This is where your premise falls apart. The person convinced oneself into a belief that the God isn't existent. This of course, doesn't prevent someone from growing out of the said belief. You are trying to peddle your brand of Nihilism as something inherently fact-based.

Not the guy you're talking to, but I've always detested that picture with absolute vehemence. It's a fedora-tier sentiment expressed in that picture; since it isn't the atheism of the fedora meme that's obnoxious, but the self-righteous insistence of their own "enlightenment" that's bringing them such euphoria.

Taking risks and doing crazy shit to entertain yourself with your newfound freedom from responsibility.

Existential Christianity is inherently flawed. If Christianity is true, there's no nihilism to overcome and you're just either accepting truth or rejecting truth; if it's false, you're just deluding yourself and refusing to own up to your own radical freedom.

Ooh yeah, I actually do agree. The more I look at it the less I like it.
Was posting from my phone so I just picked a random picture to go with the post. Wasn't trying to convey any sort of message with it desu

I do agree that nihilism "frees" you from these constraints, but I believe it also gives you the freedom to come to conclusions like believing in God, or any sort of higher power you want, on your own. When you can acknowledge that these beliefs may be false or subjective, then you can actually make a decision to believe in them or not. And to me that's far more valuable than just believing in them because they've been taught to you. You're actually coming to an understanding on your own.
Kierkegaard said (paraphrasing) that in order to actually have faith you need to acknowledge that what you're believing in could actually be entirely wrong. Otherwise you're not faithful, you're just gullible.

by receiving enlightenment through divine revelation

I guess I understand what you are saying, but I still don't approve of your choice. Thanks for the explanation tho.

They knew damn well what they were doing.

This guy is a faget

The problem is that while in his day belief in God may have been possible, no thinking modern person can reconcile the reality of nihilism with the obvious fantasies of the Bible.

Nihilism is inherently fact based. (also im not trying to push my brand of anything, im just discussing it thru my understanding of it) You are right that he changed his belief but it doesnt make sense to disprove god, then find belief in god. That indicates that you never really disproved god in the 1st place, which means you never truely experienced nihilism. That or he just made a completely irrational desicion, which by definition does not make any sense. I am a very rational person so I have a hard time seeing how that leap from being "certain in the truth" to "voluntary belief" is possible, unless he was never really certain.

this guy gets it

Perspectivism + growing a pair.

Not that other faggot. Voluntarily believing in nonsense is absolutely possible, your brain is not that smart, if you act a certain way and tell yourself you believe a certain thing, eventually it will come true. Many Christians know this, and will tell you to "fake it until you make it" with regard to believing in God.

spend money, enjoy the little things.
in order to do that you need a job.
this takes effort and it hurts, but then you get to buy things, like flatscreens, chinese food, and hookers.

I was hoping it was more than that, but I guess it can't be. Voluntarily believing in nonsense is dumb.

Leap of faith.

>Aristotle was a Thomist
>Nietzsche was an existentialist
kay wye ess

does anyone have that babby's first existential crisis diagram

I don't think it's possible to be a nihilist.

>Aristotle was a Thomist

If you listen to a Catholic talk about Aristotle you would think he was!

He kinda was. In that he considered moral and existential values to be baseless.

Yeah, but I've seen Christians claim variously that Socrates was inspired by Moses or visited by Jesus in a dream.

Hedonism

>I don't think it's possible to be a nihilist.

It isn't. What really happens is that you start valuing and loving suffering; and if you do that long enough you're going to turn into a monster that wants to either harm other people, or drag them down into your pit of misery.

Really, all you gotta do to overcome nihilism is just get some momentum going. Do something because it tickles you, and just keep doing that thing until it doesn't. Repeat until you die. Sure, you'll have times where you're looking to find that next thing, but bad times with the good right? All the different isms are basically different versions of that, focussing on one thing or another to occupy you.

Why believe the truth if your belief implies that the there is no value in believing things that are true? Nihilism is self-contradictory.

nihilism ≠ the Russian soul

stop buying into antinihilist memes

Sorry but no, it isn't a meme. People who become nihilistic aren't going to stay good people for long.

The Buddhists were right, life is suffering, the question is what you do in the face of that suffering, and wallowing in it, or increasing it, is certainly not the way to go.

dumbest post of 2k16 goes to you buddy

"Traditional Values" and "Individual Rights" are kinda mutually exclusive.

...and in the long run, on the international stage, so are "Free Enterprise" and "Limited Government".

...and eventually, so are "Free Enterprise" and "Individual Rights".

>Get a (You)
>Excited to read it
>It's not an argument
Sad

Underrated post, this usually works for me

I see two possibilities:

1. Absurdism
2. In the absence of any discernible meaning of life, you may become massively depressed because you realize ever action you take is illogical. If there is no ultimate goal, you're working towards nothing.
However, in the absence of meaning, there is still one purpose to life: to FIND the goal. This is logical since, if there is an objective or meaning to life, that is what you should be working towards. If you don't know what hat the meaning is, you should try to find it.

I'm the same as him. I was a nihilist for a very long time (meaning and metaphysical value of things can never be known) and later even lapsed into solipsism. But it felt empty, devoid of any aesthetic value. There was no purpose, no direction or goal for me to strive for. There was no aesthetical value I could ascribe to my works, as I had neither goals nor beliefs. This would be easily averted by fulfilling my desires, but I had no material desires (I am ascetic), and my spiritual desires were gutted by my nihilism. I distracted myself by drink and company (in reality, neither of fulfilled my needs and desires), but still often felt empty and miserable. I have become a (mostly) fascist since then, partly for existential reasons, but mostly from conviction. My life has become much better with a sense of purpose, and it is no longer void of aesthetics. I am also trying to take up poetry. I am good at wordcraft, but lack inspiration. I thought about christianity for a bit, but the Bible left me utterly unmoved. It was interesting, and I appreciated its insistence on subordinating everything to belief, deriving extacy from it, and the fact that it is stoicism on steroids, but I didn't have any conviction. I couldn't feel what others felt when they read it. So I dropped it.

>Thats different then achieving nihilism and then saying "I'll live for my own pleasures then" or "Ill be an altruist and try to help society."

No it's not. If you're a nihilist, then you believe living for your own pleasures of being altruistic is meaningless. What purpose does it serve? It serves no real purpose since there is no purpose to life. If you're a nihilist, it's pretty much impossible to continue living without being a hypocrite. That said, suicide is not any more logical.

>I was a nihilist but I couldn't bear it so I turned to ideological authoritarianism instead

Nietzsche really was a prophet.

I mean, I am still technically a nihilist, because I am completely unconcerned about the truth-value of belief. I don't think people "ought to" do anything, and I still don't think metaphysical values can be known. But my belief has become the guiding force behind my desires. I am unconcerned with its truth-value. It has become part of me, one with me, supra-rational. Because of this, I do not hate zealots, regardless of what I think about their beliefs. The act of faith itself is, to me, intensely beautiful.

What reason had I to bear it? And, really, I had, by act of choosing, created my own belief. I did, after all, say that I differ from Italian fascists on some counts, didn't I? Besides, my beliefs are my goal and purpose, not a crux (as Nietzsche considered christians use christianity).

Nihilism is only depressing if you're disappointed by the fact that life has no meaning. If that's the case you're not a real nihilist imo.

True nihilistic freedom comes when you realize that it's meaningless that life has no meaning.

>Besides, my beliefs are my goal and purpose

That's not the point is it? The point is that you are putting your faith into some political system that most likely would destroy millions of lives and turn the world in to a even worse shithole than it is now, simply because you are using your rationality to cut to pieces every single thing around your that you think doesn't have a metaphysical leg to stand on.

Maybe you should try to not be the posterboy for Reason™, and start paying attention instead of making your thoughts into God.

Not an argument

>most likely would destroy millions of lives etc.
I could respond, but that would be off-topic. This is not a thread about politics (neither is this board, really), and I would hate to derail it as the merest mention of politics usually does. But really, if you argue from a nihilistic standpoint, why "should" one care about millions of lives?

>maybe you should
>should

>start paying attention
To what?

Nihilism cannot be proven anymore than any other belief

>But really, if you argue from a nihilistic standpoint

Who said I did?

That's why there's an "if". But what were you really trying to day in that post?

What do you think I was trying to say?

I'm not gonna repeat myself.

Marxism,anarchism or any sort of ideology that frees the man to find his true nature.

Shitposting really has improved. I like it.

A well thought out and detailed post?

WHAT IS THIS WITCHCRAFT?

I wasn't shitposting at all, but whatever.