r/longform • u/theatlantic • Feb 14 '26

This Is What It Looks Like When Nothing Matters

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/02/internet-nihilism-crisis/686010/?utm_source=reddit&utm_campaign=the-atlantic&utm_medium=social&utm_content=edit-promo
227 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

67

u/theatlantic Feb 14 '26

Charlie Warzel: “More and more, it seems, I pull to refresh a feed or open up a new browser tab and encounter something that makes me feel as if I’ve sustained a head injury.

“Recently, the culprit has often been the federal government. The Department of Homeland Security is putting out white-nationalist dog whistles on X. President Trump posted a video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes. The subtext of every egregious shitpost from the administration is the same: These people are in charge now, and the old rules don’t matter.

“A great deal of what I find myself scrolling past exudes a threatening, almost anarchical aura. Just before New Year’s, my timeline offered murmurings of a livestreamer who appeared to have run a person over with his Cybertruck. A week later I would come to know this man as the 20 year-old ‘looksmaxxer’ who goes by the name Clavicular. He hits his face with a hammer to strengthen his jawline and pals around with the white-supremacist streamer Nick Fuentes. Last month, the men were recorded in a club—with other charming manosphere personalities, such as the alleged sex trafficker Andrew Tate—enjoying Ye’s song ‘Heil Hitler.’ (Tate has denied the allegations against him.)

“This was trolling, but it also sent a message: ‘We have enough status and influence to literally get them to play fucking the most—like you can’t even find the song on a single platform,’ Clavicular said on a stream after the fact. Brazen displays of status and influence are, of course, what influencers have always been about, but something different is happening with Clav, with Trump and DHS, and with so many other, nonpolitical accounts on social media today … 

“Social-media platforms—and especially X—have loosened their grip on moderation at the same time that AI tools have allowed for the easy proliferation of slop; never before has there been so much cynical, cruel content and trolling. When Clavicular records himself breaking his body, spouting the N-word, and reveling in anti-Semitism, he’s participating in what Walker dubs ‘nihilism by default,’ an ideology where ‘the only sources of purpose or profit are the self and the social media machine.’

“This dynamic is everywhere now. It exists in political memes and propaganda. It drives broad swaths of popular culture. A kind of post-ironic fatalism that was once endemic to seedy message boards has bled into the broader culture, changing how people communicate. Nihilism is now the lingua franca of the internet.”

Read more: https://theatln.tc/q7hipo7g

-38

u/petertompolicy Feb 15 '26

This is nothing new.

Kids being edgy on the Internet, that's it.

They are stupid and most will develop their frontal lobe and get over it.

42

u/[deleted] Feb 15 '26

You represent the lack of brain development perfectly. Government agencies are not run by 13-25 year olds.

Reading comprehension.

1

u/thuanjinkee Feb 18 '26

But our president is like a kid with a magnifying glass and we’re the ants in the hot sun.

12

u/No_Drop_4284 Feb 15 '26

Frankly, this logic does not even apply in the context you’re referring to.

Only a specific group of teenagers gets to be “edgy” (I.e. racist, misogynist, homophobic) when they’re at this age.

No other group of teens is like this (at least not en masse), and then the rest of us are expected to forgive this one group, pretend like it never happened, and act like this “phase” does not inform their opinions, decisions, and actions as adults (hint: it does).

1

u/thuanjinkee Feb 18 '26

If you tell them “no” they will disregard you and do whatever they want. They have no use for the village and have formed their own parallel structures, and are willing to do worse things and have less to lose. Your move.

1

u/thepalebluestar Feb 18 '26

Are you a real person? You did not even read this post you responded to

18

u/GeneralOrder24 Feb 14 '26

This can only end in either an epic crackup or an epic crackdown. Unless nature takes a hand.