Does anyone have a way of explaining why people that gravitate to one have a tendency to also gravitate to the other?

I see the pattern over and over but struggle to explain why.

People without faith tend towards nihilism. Socialism is faith for nihilists.

Lack of spirituality, religion, morality, etc

They both neglect individualism and personal responsibility. They both require a lack of belief in the ability of the individual to independently improve their life to a significant degree within a society.

Really just a lot of bitterness to arrive at either.

Socialist and Marxist pseudo-intellectuals are filled with resentment towards all levels of society:

- wealthy people and their luxury lifestyle
- middle class people and their traditional/religious norms and family culture
- lower class people and their pursuits (like drinking cheap beer and watching pro sports while telling racist/sexist jokes)

When they are successful in implementing their utopian vision it results in millions of deaths and incredible misery.

You cannot be a socialist and a nihilist. Nihilism is simply the lack of values. Socialism is a value.

Sid Farkas said:

---

People without faith tend towards nihilism. Socialism is faith for nihilists.

---

First reply gets a chute. Well done

DarkBrandon01 said:

---

You cannot be a socialist and a nihilist. Nihilism is simply the lack of values. Socialism is a value.

---

What? Nihilism is defined as seeing no objective point to life. It is ultimately meaningless. It has nothing to do with rejecting all values.

DarkBrandon01 said:

---

You cannot be a socialist and a nihilist. Nihilism is simply the lack of values. Socialism is a value.

---

Nihilism: the rejection of all religious and moral principles, in the belief that life is meaningless.

Socialism: a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.

You can be nihilistic, and a socialist at the same time; however nihilism is often a term misused by liberal progressives & other groups to be "counter-cultural" - as America was founded upon & has deep roots in Judeo-Christian principles.

Believing that life is meaningless doesn't negate the ability to succumb to the belief that socialism is a way to bring happiness or peace to society.

Both nihilism and socialism, broadly speaking, ignore human behavior.

DarkBrandon01 said:

---

You cannot be a socialist and a nihilist. Nihilism is simply the lack of values. Socialism is a value.

---

oh boy - let's list the erroneous drivel in such a short post…
1. Yes, a socialist can be a nihilist
2. Nihilism isn't a lack of values. In fact it has nothing to do with values. It has to do with paradigm, specifically the perceive absence of eternal purpose.
3. How the hell can socialism be a value?! It's a system. And a crappy one at that! It uses a perverted value structure in its justification (ex. equity) but it goes beyond those values in telling people what they must do & how.

You typed 3 sentences and not only were all 3 wrong, but they're all so wrong as to be laughably indefensible to any owner of a dictionary.

I recommended some entry level remediation on English (and history and philosophy and religion) prior to your next post…

Both are for losers

They both deserve a bullet to the head!

I've always thought of socialism to be an extremely altruistic view of how society could function. The government can provide for us all because we all control the government. We can all be equal and take care of each other so no one can lack for anything. We give everything to the governemnt and the government gives it back. Of course it doesn't work anything close to that.

And nihilism is the belief that nothing matters because there's nothing to believe in anyway. Super depressing.

I don't see how a nihilist would have any use for socialism.

ChemAg15 said:

---

I've always thought of socialism to be an extremely altruistic view of how society could function. The government can provide for us all because we all control the government. We can all be equal and take care of each other so no one can lack for anything. We give everything to the governemnt and the government gives it back. Of course it doesn't work anything close to that.

And nihilism is the belief that nothing matters because there's nothing to believe in anyway. Super depressing.

I don't see how a nihilist would have any use for socialism.

---

How many socialists or socialist literature have you interacted with? In my experience almost all people that have been proponents of socialism have arrived there out of contempt for those succeeding in a free market system, not out of benevolence.

I know that is anecdotal, but if you're calling for revolution you have to have some level of hate for the current system.

Trigon Jin said:

---

DarkBrandon01 said:

---

You cannot be a socialist and a nihilist. Nihilism is simply the lack of values. Socialism is a value.

---

Nihilism: the rejection of all religious and moral principles, in the belief that life is meaningless.

Socialism: a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.

You can be nihilistic, and a socialist at the same time; however nihilism is often a term misused by liberal progressives & other groups to be "counter-cultural" - as America was founded upon & has deep roots in Judeo-Christian principles.

Believing that life is meaningless doesn't negate the ability to succumb to the belief that socialism is a way to bring happiness or peace to society.

---

You have described absurdism, not nihilism. Absurdism is the belief that life has no meaning but still has value. A nihilist would not place value on any life, not even their own. A true nihilist would see no point in advocating for socialism, because the condition of humans would be irrelevant.

Get Off My Lawn said:

---

2. Nihilism isn't a lack of values. In fact it has nothing to do with values. It has to do with paradigm, specifically the perceive absence of eternal purpose.
3. How the hell can socialism be a value?! It's a system. And a crappy one at that! It uses a perverted value structure in its justification (ex. equity) but it goes beyond those values in telling people what they must do & how.

---

Nihil means nothing. ism describes an ideology. Nihilism is the nothing ideology; an ideology that rejects all other ideology. Socialism is a system, and advocating for that system makes it a value or ideology. Because socialism is an ideology, so a nihilist must reject socialism.

Aggie_Boomin 21 said:

---

ChemAg15 said:

---

I've always thought of socialism to be an extremely altruistic view of how society could function. The government can provide for us all because we all control the government. We can all be equal and take care of each other so no one can lack for anything. We give everything to the governemnt and the government gives it back. Of course it doesn't work anything close to that.

And nihilism is the belief that nothing matters because there's nothing to believe in anyway. Super depressing.

I don't see how a nihilist would have any use for socialism.

---

How many socialists or socialist literature have you interacted with? In my experience almost all people that have been proponents of socialism have arrived there out of contempt for those succeeding in a free market system, not out of benevolence.

I know that is anecdotal, but if you're calling for revolution you have to have some level of hate for the current system.

---

Nailed it.

DarkBrandon01 said:

---

Get Off My Lawn said:

---

2. Nihilism isn't a lack of values. In fact it has nothing to do with values. It has to do with paradigm, specifically the perceive absence of eternal purpose.
3. How the hell can socialism be a value?! It's a system. And a crappy one at that! It uses a perverted value structure in its justification (ex. equity) but it goes beyond those values in telling people what they must do & how.

---

Nihil means nothing. ism describes an ideology. Nihilism is the nothing ideology; an ideology that rejects all other ideology. Socialism is a system, and advocating for that system makes it a value or ideology. Because socialism is an ideology, so a nihilist must reject socialism.

---

And a compliment is an expression of approval thus complementarianism must be an ideology of saying kind things!!!

Cut your losses dude. You said something stupid on an Internet forum. No need to double down.

As to this latest attempt: It's impossible to reject all ideologies for the same reason it's impossible to break free from "binary." (As soon as you declare yourself free from one you create a new one.) Thus the functional end point of nihilism isn't a rejection and freedom of ideologies (which again - are entirely different things from economic systems) but an acceptance of a new ideology of nothing mattering.

Just like how non-conformists so often end up with the same hair dye & tattoos; nihilists sound the same because they merge upon a central ideology.

"Too cool to conform" and "too clever for ideologies" are just different faces of the same behavioral coin.

Freaking Nihilists.

Say what you want about the tenets of National Socialism. At least it's an ethos!!

Sid Farkas said:

---

People without faith tend towards nihilism. Socialism is faith for nihilists.

---

This is the answer. If you believe in a God you're not going to be a nihilist.

4 said:

---

Freaking Nihilists.

Say what you want about the tenants of National Socialism. At least it's an ethos!!

---

tenets

They're not renting it.

Quote:

---

"So when they begin to lust for power and cannot attain it through themselves or their own good qualities, they ruin their estates, tempting and corrupting the people in every possible way. And hence when by their foolish thirst for reputation they have created among the masses an appetite for gifts and the habit of receiving them, democracy in its turn is abolished and changes into a rule of force and violence. For the people, having grown accustomed to feed at the expense of others, and to depend for their livelihood on the property of others, as soon as they find a leader who is enterprising but is excluded from the honours of office by his penury, institute the rule of violence; and now uniting their forces massacre, banish, and plunder, until they degenerate again into perfect savages and find once more a master and monarch." Polybius - The Histories VI, 9, translated by W.R. Paton

---

The evils of socialism have been understood and documented since before Christ.

Madman said:

---

Does anyone have a way of explaining why people that gravitate to one have a tendency to also gravitate to the other?

I see the pattern over and over but struggle to explain why.

---

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned this obvious reason. Nihilists see no point, meaning, value, etc in their WORK. Socialism plays right into that belief.

DarkBrandon01 said:

---

You cannot be a socialist and a nihilist. Nihilism is simply the lack of values. Socialism is a value.

---

Are you valued?

DarkBrandon01 said:

---

You cannot be a socialist and a nihilist. Nihilism is simply the lack of values. Socialism is a value.

---

You haven't met a person with contradictory beliefs and actions?

Peterson has pointed out that people that claim their life has no meaning don't act like it in their actions.

Edit

"Why did you get up and shower this morning if you have no reason to live" and similar.

Ag with kids said:

---

4 said:

---

Freaking Nihilists.

Say what you want about the tenants of National Socialism. At least it's an ethos!!

---

tenets

They're not renting it.

---

Lol, you are correct. Sorry, I was using speech to text and didn't check closely.

Example of socialist goals: https://poe.com/s/BcWwBp7FaXZSx4J1D2lx

Example of nihilist goals:
Assistant says how to end all problems for humans

The reality is that living a life of meaning, where you actually make the lives of other people better, is an act of service that also has personal rewards. But, the personal rewards are rarely worth the blood, sweat, and tears that go into making the world better. Capitalism is a way of harnessing the will of people that want to live a life of meaning to also reward the people that do that well. The personal rewards are just the short-term stimulus to the longer term life of meaning.

If you don't believe in meaning in your life, then the only thing left is personal daily comfort or complete hedonism. Bleak. Actually, hell.

Socialism is a way to organize society so that people are most likely to live a life of personal daily comfort with the least amount of personal cost to daily hedonism. Fits in very nicely with nihilism.

It is what Nietzsche was afraid of, the brilliant *******. If you kill God, what is to stop you from contributing to the progress of society?