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My problem with /u/diversity_is_racism and his philosophy is that it is barely recognizable as nihilism. It simply makes too many morally substantial claims. He might not do this intentionally, but having read his blog from time to time, he certainly borders on it all the time. Might is not right; inferiority is not wrong; they simply are. There may be an objectively descriptive component to might and inferiority and their effects, but ultimately whether or not you end up calling these non-morally good or bad will depend on the subjective evaluation of each individual. The kind of society which he desires is just unlikely to match what most of us would want.

Stevens' position (or /u/diversity_is_racism) is that we can adopt nihilism as a tool to make a world more suitable to our individual liking. I agree with this. But the problem is that his re-evaluation of our values hardly seems suitable with a world most of us would be happy to inhabit. For instance, he defends elitism and inequality. Yet far more sophisticated moral nihilists (and actual academic philosophers) like Richard Garner, Russell Blackford, Joel Marks and Ian Hinckfuss have more or less argued that it is belief in morality, and not nihilism, that tends to lead to this kind of society. Indeed, Ian Hinckfuss has even written a short book on how morality ends up defending elitism, inequality and authoritarianism, which ultimately leads to lower desire-satisfaction and less happiness for most of us. To me, I hardly understand why the rest of us would hope to be among the elite in Stevens' desired society instead of trying to make life better for everyone; the chances of indirectly being better off ourselves are greater by striving for the latter.

Instead of reading Stevens' book, I would recommend reading Hinckfuss book The Moral Society: Its Structure and Effects. It is free and can be read or downloaded here.

I also recommend buying Richard Garner's book Beyond Morality. It is the best and most comprehensive book on amorality thus far.

Aww thanks. I definitely encounter people who have more formal training and I'm just blown away by their vocabulary and some of the concepts they present. I like to try to simplify difficult concepts into things that are more easily digested.

Philosophers are not known for being accessible in their writing. There's a ton of people out there like me who try to make philosophy more accessible.

I've listened to podcasts that delve into singular ideas. I find these particularly enlightening. I listened to Ayn Rand audiobooks (lol). I've bought used college textbooks for next to nothing, because once teachers stop using that edition nobody wants them. I've read 3 different people who analyzed Nietzsche's work because he's so unapproachable in writing style. I really love Nietzsche because he would mirror my own thoughts and sometimes take me to the next level and sometimes I feel I'd be at the next level of his thoughts.

I wish I remembered all the good podcast/audio stuff to recommend for ya. For more accessible books, Bernard Reginster's "The Affirmation of Life" was a really good analysis of Nietzsche. It's good because he would essentially take one concept Nietzsche presented and just really hammer it out in a more logical form before moving onto the next. Moral philosophy is most fascinating to me. I highly recommend Michael Sandel's Justice for a really great overview of positions with great examples and things to think about.

I would recommend reading the book The Denial of Death. It will help you understand your mind, it goes through child psychology as well as existential philosophy. The things you feel are pretty natural once you have seen through the illusion society helped you construct as a child.

Turn your passive nihilism into active nihilism. Create things you want, even if you don't know the everlasting point or meaning in what you're creating, it'll have some short term point and meaning to you.

I have never met a happy passive nihilist.

If you're actually interested in ideas on the topic (and getting your mind fucking blown), I highly suggest "Rationalized Epistemology: Taking Solipsism Seriously" by Albert Johnstone.

It's a dense read but he has a good sense of humour, and is very thorough :)

Some good books about Zen, if you're interested in learning more:

Hardcore Zen: Punk Rock, Monster Movies and the Truth About Reality Great book, written by a modern Zen 'master.' Colloquial, not translated and thus easy for us westerners to understand.

Not Always So, Shunryu Suzuki

Moon In A Dewdrop, Dogen This guy is the real shit. Lived hundreds of years ago. You can go as deep as you want into this guy's writings, many levels of meaning (or none?). More metaphorical/figurative than the others, very poetic.

When/if you read this stuff, don't worry about understanding everything sentence. It's easy to get caught in the trap of reading and re-reading sentences and paragraphs to try to understand, but in doing so you miss out on the flow/stream of consciousness of the works. Just read it through, eventually the ideas will start to become clear.

Moral judgments are usually distinguished by their binary and normative characteristics, so "good" does not necessarily indicate a moral judgment, as "good" does not necessarily indicate a mandate. A good (in a non-moral sense!) test of whether the word "good" is being used in a moral sense is whether it is being parameterized by a condition of interest. If there is no parameterizing interest, and there is no implied objective (like the two times I've marked my own usages of the word "good" in this comment), then it is most likely a general claim and a normative, that is, a moral expression; otherwise, it's still a judgment, but not necessarily a moral judgment. Your reasoning implies that nonmoral judgments do not exist.

The Wiki article on Value Theory has a good (in a non-moral sense!) run up to the necessity of nonmoral judgments and "goods." Bernard Williams' classic Introduction to Ethics serves as both a fair introduction to much of Ethics in general, and as a perspective well-steeped in moral nihilism itself.

Surprised nobody's mentioned the work of Thomas Ligotti yet. While not exclusively centred around Nihilism, many of his writings (especially this) showcase a range of very interesting and informative nihilist themes and subjects.

That is based on a minority interpretation of quantum mechanics. Here is an excellent book which explains quantum without succumbing to metaphysical weirdness.
https://www.amazon.com/Comprehensible-Cosmos-Where-Laws-Physics/dp/1591024242

I've found Brett Steven's Nihilism: A Philosophy Based In Nothingness And Eternity to be an interesting and thorough entry-level read that deals more with contemporary society in the west.

Optimistic Nihilism: A Psychologist's Personal Story & (Biased) Professional Appraisal of Shedding Religion https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GQP2FN2/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_XqS0AbP93N1PA

The act of not caring isn't the easiest thing to do for most people. Caring about what other people think of you is one of the things we kinda need in our minds to be able to live in harmony with other people. So to reject the surface of not caring can sometimes be hard. One thing you'll notice is that it's a trait a lot of old people have haha, people who have "been there, done that" and learned lessons from each of their experiences. That's not a common trait to find among younger people. I'm just babbling, you want answers right?

I'm reading a book called The Subtle Art of not Giving a Fuck. I'm nowhere near done with it, but even the small amount that I have read so far has REALLY helped me get rid of so much anxiety. This book even helped me improve my grades as well, and it's making me realize so much more about myself. I suggest you read it. Rent it from your local library if you don't wanna buy it.

I know you were looking for answers that coincide with nihilism. Sure I can say "nothing matters you're all gonna die so why care?" right? But you already know that so that answer would just be redundant and a waste of time.

https://www.amazon.com/Drug-Lord-High-Ground-Book-ebook/dp/B0756XPS9J

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A book about this idea

Neo Nihilism

A History of the Ancient Near East by Van De Mieroop. The Bible has a context.

I don't know if Ernest Becker ever called himself an existential nihilist, but The Denial of Death is widely regarded as a book full of existential nihilist themes.

The self does not exist either. https://www.amazon.com/Self-Illusion-Social-Creates-Identity/dp/0199988781

https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Good-Evil-Prelude-Philosophy-ebook/dp/B003A1K1YQ/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1522797046&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=beyond+good+and+evil+kaufmann

Edit: I found this version a great read.

Church of the latter day dude
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dudeism
A belief system based on Tao with modern slang and personification
A whole book on the philosophy of the movie
https://www.amazon.ca/Big-Lebowski-Philosophy-Keeping-Abiding/dp/1118074564