‘Nihilism’ is in the news. What’s behind this ‘nothing’ philosophy?

When tragedy strikes, we search for meaning—and sometimes the search lands on words we only half understand. After a fatal bombing at a California fertility clinic, investigators suggested the suspect was driven by “nihilistic ideations.” But what does that actually mean? NPR uses the moment to trace nihilism’s tangled roots—from 19th-century Russian rebels and literary disillusionment to Nietzsche’s philosophical crisis and the ironic nihilists of The Big Lebowski. It’s a word with weight, but also confusion—and misapplication is part of the danger. Jaclyn Diaz with NPR has the full story on something that isn’t nothing.

Jaclyn Diaz

NPR

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