There are so many different ways of defining Nihilism that it might be better just to avoid using the term at all, for the sake of avoiding empty platitudes.
There are a few unexpected places where I feel like nihilism might be spoken about.
Lately it has seemed to me that what really should be called “nihilistic” is perhaps the opposite of what we usually mean by: “I believe in nothing.” Bear with me, and call me out as a bullshitter if necessary, but I think that the worst manifestations of nihilism show up where people actually have very distinct beliefs.
Example 1: Free Market zealotry
Total faith in the free market system. This is something you hear a lot from some brands of libertarian. “The free market system is just the way humans organize resources. It’s the natural state of things” Normally you would say, “That Libertarian is not a nihilist, they clearly believe in a thing, namely, the Free Market System.” However, what if this is a way of refusing to think about values besides those determined by brute supply/demand outcomes? If things only have value because of supply and demand, and supply and demand really is a totally cold rational system, then isn’t a failure to attribute any further value a form of nihilism? Marxists for example suggest that there might be an implicit value in a worker’s labors. There might further be an implicit value in the utility of a given good.
Example 2: Faith-based values
Total faith in the declarations of your God. Moral dogmatism of the absolute kind. Usually you would say, “That Christian is not a nihilist, they clearly believe in a thing, namely God and our obligation to her will.” However, what if this is a way of refusing to think about values besides those determined by brute commandments passed down in textual or oral tradition. By believing that only what God says to do is a legitimate moral value, a dogmatic Christian expunges herself of the responsibility to “think ethically.” There are understandable motivations to avoid actually thinking ethically. When we are forced to think about something, we experience anxiety. Belief in dogma at the expense of actual thought, i contend, is nihilistic in the same way that dogmatic faith in hyper-rationalistic free market forces is nihilistic.
Thus, I suggest we redefine nihilism as refusal to think, covered up by belief in some piece of absolute dogma. The problem here is not the “absolutism” of belief, the problem is there is nothing thought about. Dogmatism is not a positive state, it is a negation of thought.
A nihilation of thought, thus nihilism.