sj_zero on Nostr: I see true nihilism as something we're specifically incapable of at a biological ...

I see true nihilism as something we're specifically incapable of at a biological level. People who think they're nihilistic tend to immediately start relying on internal systems of value built into themselves thus not being nihilistic. "Nothing" ends up not meaning "nothing", but just "not the current thing".

"I'm so nihilistic but I fear death and like good feelings and hate bad feelings and breathe and have reflexes and and and..." imo that means you've reverted to systems of meaning built into your DNA which isn't nihilistic. Those systems of value and meaning actually underpin everything humans have derived since. You could call it something like paleoism or archaeism, a reliance on the original basics built into us by evolution from long ago.

Then there's the argument you mention, "nothing matters so let's just do whatever we want" is hardly nihilism, since it explicitly places value on what "we want", suggesting there's some sort of meaning and value in the things "we want". It's one step above archaeism because not only do you implicitly accept all your biological values, there's a new layer of values on top of that regarding immediate desires.

By contrast, a rock is nihilistic. It doesn't care if you move it or leave it. If you push it towards a crusher, it'll just go with it because it doesn't care if it is broken or not. If you soak it in acid it'll happily sit there, because it doesn't matter if it is dissolved or not. It won't flee from rain, it won't seek heat or cold. It won't seek or avoid anything because it lacks meaning, value, and sense.

It may seem like a meaningless nitpick, but it's really important. We are biological things with meaning, value, and sense packed into our DNA given to us by our ancestors going back billions of years and exploding forth from every action or inaction we take. We are soaking in so much meaning we can't even easily perceive of what we have because our brains are inherently wired for it.

And from there it becomes easy to see how the logic from a false premise leads to terrible outcomes like you said. Since you're not starting from nothing, if you think you are then you're wrong, and if you're starting with such important things being wrong, how can you reach a correct destination?