Recent Examples on the Web

Charlatans Peele and Abrams think such nihilism is insightful. Armond White, National Review, "Lovecraft Country Is Systemic Racism Entertainment™," 26 Aug. 2020

Many Americans, in assessing their own behavior, are asking how the government is using the time that sheltering at home has bought; without a better answer from someone, there is a risk that a sort of public-health nihilism will take hold. Amy Davidson Sorkin, The New Yorker, "As Trump’s Hostility to Masks Fuels a Public-Health Nihilism, Fauci Issues a New Plea," 1 July 2020

But that doesn’t mean that nihilism is suddenly an option. Whitney Phillips, Wired, "How to Avoid Spreading Misinformation About the Protests," 4 June 2020

For all his commitment to nonviolence, however, King understood the way frustration can turn into rage and rage can curdle into nihilism, when injustice is too brutal to comprehend and justice is perpetually deferred. Gilbert Garcia, ExpressNews.com, "Garcia: For San Antonio, Saturday unrest leads to Sunday healing," 31 May 2020

Quarantine comedy reacts to that state of affairs with a nihilism that is entirely reasonable. Megan Garber, The Atlantic, "Quarantine Is Changing the Way We Laugh," 2 Apr. 2020

How did an innocuous animated frog with bulging eyes and an appreciation for peeing with his pants pulled all the way down journey from indie comic obscurity to meme celebrity to notoriety as the global poster-frog for hatred and alienated nihilism? Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter, "'Feels Good Man': Film Review | Sundance 2020," 27 Jan. 2020

There is much analysis about what Luke’s appearance here means, how his simultaneous backward focus plus baby-with-the-bathwater anti-Force nihilism represents aging Star Wars obsessives or George Lucas himself. Darren Franich, EW.com, "Star Wars rewatch: The Last Jedi destroys a legend to rebuild the same legend," 16 Dec. 2019

Morgan Rainey’s blighted idealism is as central to Stone’s vision as Rheinhardt’s fluent nihilism is. George Packer, The Atlantic, "A Novelist’s Ambition to Define America," 18 Apr. 2020

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'nihilism.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.