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ARTICLE VIEW:
What is nihilism? A teen charged in a mass shooting plot and a car
bomber subscribed to the same ideology, authorities say
By Rebekah Riess, CNN
Updated:
7:00 AM EDT, Sun June 8, 2025
Source: CNN
An last month in connection with an alleged mass shooting plot
targeting a mall in southwestern Washington subscribed to a
“nihilistic violent extremist ideology,” according to officials.
Similarly, FBI officials said , the man accused of bombing a Palm
Springs, California, fertility clinic last month, “had nihilistic
ideations.”
It’s this “preoccupation with themes of violence, hopelessness,
despair, pessimism, hatred, isolation, loneliness, or an
‘end-of-the-world’ philosophy” – as the FBI defines nihilistic
ideation – that allegedly drives these individuals to violence.
Here’s how experts and authorities describe nihilism.
What is nihilism?
Nihilism, which is usually defined as a philosophical concept rather
than a set of actions, is the belief that “all values are baseless
and that nothing can be known or communicated,” according to Alan
Pratt, professor emeritus at Embry-Riddle University.
Nihilism is “associated with extreme pessimism and a radical
skepticism that condemns existence,” Pratt wrote in a . “A true
nihilist would believe in nothing, have no loyalties, and no purpose
other than, perhaps, an impulse to destroy.”
Nihilism is also often connected to German philosopher Friedrich
Nietzsche, who argued that “its corrosive effects would eventually
destroy all moral, religious, and metaphysical convictions,”
according to Pratt.
Retired senior FBI profiler Mary Ellen O’Toole, who has researched
past violent actors to provide the FBI with its initial definition of
nihilistic ideation, describes nihilism as “something on a
continuum.”
“A person’s outlook on life is never black or white,” O’Toole
told CNN. “Over the years, there have been some people that have
planned mass violence, where their nihilistic thinking, or view of the
world, was very extreme, and then you have some where it’s less
extreme.”
FBI defines ‘Nihilistic Violent Extremists’
Both FBI investigators and Justice Department prosecutors have recently
deployed a new specialized term to describe those radicalized by
nihilism – Nihilistic Violent Extremists, or NVEs.
In on a separate case, the FBI defines NVEs as “individuals who
engage in criminal conduct within the United States and abroad, in
furtherance of political, social, or religious goals that derive
primarily from a hatred of society at large and a desire to bring about
its collapse by sowing indiscriminate chaos, destruction, and social
instability.”
“NVEs work individually or as part of a network with these goals of
destroying civilized society through the corruption and exploitation of
vulnerable populations, which often include minors,” the definition
continues.
Investigators have found these types of extremists often use social
media platforms to “connect with individuals and desensitize them to
violence … corrupting and grooming those individuals towards
committing future acts of violence … for the purpose of accelerating
the downfall of society.”
Nihilism and the ‘black pill’ concept
CNN’s , in her book “ How I Witnessed the Darkest Corners of the
Internet Come to Life, Poison Society, and Capture American
Politics,” describes the way individuals on social media platforms
like 4chan deal in explicit nihilism – with the “black pill”
concept.
“The black pill is a dark but gleeful nihilism: the system is
corrupt, and its collapse is inevitable. There is no hope. Times are
bad and they’re going to get worse. You swallow the black pill and
accept the end is coming,” Reeve described.
“You start searching for evidence to prove to yourself that you’re
correct, and it’s easy enough to find … The hardships and
heartbreak you’ve faced can now be explained as the inevitability of
a sweeping historical force,” she wrote.
“You spend more time in blackpilled online forums, where the darker
the commentary, the more attention it gets, so you compete to write the
most creative description of the depravity,” Reeve continued.
“Incels traffic in explicit nihilism too, with the ‘(black pill)’
concept providing an ideological veneer to cover their self-loathing
and isolation,” a article explains.
“,” short for “involuntary celibate,” describes someone,
usually a male, who is frustrated by their lack of sexual experiences.
“Many school shooters and incels display and act upon the same
suicidality that also characterizes much nihilist activity. For
instance, incels have adopted a phrase, ‘going ER,’ to describe the
phenomenon of taking one’s own life in a bloody murder-suicide plot
against society,” according to the article.
The phrase refers to , a 22-year-old who in May 2014 killed six people
in Isla Vista, California, before fatally shooting himself.
O’Toole says decades ago, the concept of nihilism and holding
nihilistic ideations was a phenomenon – but added the “black
pill” terminology over the last 15 years shows how normalized the
nihilistic worldview has become.
“Twenty-five years ago, the shooters that we looked at … didn’t
have social media, so they couldn’t compare notes, and so that
didn’t give them the opportunity to say, ‘Hey, do you feel the same
way I do? Yeah, I feel the same way you do,’” O’Toole said.
“Behaviors that were really anecdotal 25 years ago are now being
normalized because other people share them.”
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