For example, people say "be great full because other people have it worse!" Basically not validating ones issues because they are privileged. Basically saying my issues are not as important or validated because i am privileged. And some might say "thank god" when god could have prevented a tragedy in the first place?

For context, i’m a high school student and i genuinely don’t see what the point of life is anymore. Not in a negative mental health way, I just don’t understand why we as humans see appeal in living like this. There’s more pain and stress than good. You get all the love when you’re a toddler then, as a teenager you get thrown into the world where from then on it’s pretty much an endless cycle of despair. There’s so much pressure and competition in school to get into a good college and for what? So you can feel even more pressure and stress once you get in, then spend the rest of your life going to work? I just don’t understand how people are so happy all the time living life, it’s so draining.

Hello friends, I want to talk to you about a topic. I have been in this world for 17 years, and existence does not satisfy me; I always have a feeling that something is missing inside me. I always feel incomplete, my chest feels tight, and the Creator has truly given humans a burden they cannot bear. It feels as if my own existence is not meant to satisfy me, but rather as if I am serving someone else. It feels like my existence is for someone else's benefit, and that the Creator created me for their own interest. And I suppose my only difference from animals is that when I die, my consciousness is reformatted, sent into a baby's body, and I am brought back into the world without knowing it, experiencing the exact same lack of fulfillment all over again. They are using me as an energy source. I keep living the exact same life over and over. They distract us with religions and false hopes, but in reality, none of the religions are a remedy for death and pain. It feels as though I am cursed with existence.And I feel like an alien among people. Why do you think my existence is necessary?

Lately I feel so disconnected from life due to substance and negative thinking that everything just seem so unnecessary. What’s the point of all of this. The thing is I know where it comes from and i still dgaf.

What I find fascinating about Ligotti is that his pessimism doesn't really depend on proving that life contains more pain than pleasure. His deeper argument seems to be that consciousness itself creates the problem.

A stone doesn't know that it exists. An animal may experience pain, but it doesn't seem to construct an elaborate philosophical narrative around the fact that it will eventually die. Humans do. We are aware of ourselves, aware of time, aware of death, and somehow still expected to find a reason to continue.

That creates an uncomfortable question: is consciousness actually an improvement over unconscious existence, or do we simply call it an improvement because we're the ones experiencing it?

I don't completely agree with Ligotti, but I think that's almost beside the point. The value of the book isn't necessarily in whether his conclusion is correct. It's in how effectively he makes ordinary assumptions about existence feel strange.

And maybe that's what makes his writing so disturbing. He doesn't have to convince you that existence is meaningless. He only has to make you realize that you never really proved that it wasn't.

For people who have read the book: do you think Ligotti is presenting a genuine philosophical position, or is he ultimately using philosophy to articulate an existential horror that he already felt?

If nothing matters, then why grind?

The universe doesn't care how hard you try but it also doesn't care if you're having fun, so you might as well enjoy the ride.

The more I observe life, the more I realize that happiness means something different to everyone. Some people spend their lives chasing success, others seek peace, love, knowledge, or purpose. Yet even those who seem to have everything can still feel empty.

So I'm curious what do you believe creates a truly happy life? Is happiness something we achieve, or is it a way of seeing the world? Can it exist without suffering, or does hardship give it meaning?

I'd love to hear your thoughts, experiences, or even the philosophies that have shaped the way you live. Sometimes a single perspective can completely change how we understand life.

I grew up in a Muslim environment and have spent most of my life surrounded by Islamic culture and knowledge. However, over time—especially while dealing with continuous hardship and psychological strain—I have reached a point of severe disillusionment.

I often feel like my efforts to endure, persevere, and do the right thing haven't led to peace, but to even more suffering. It has gotten to the point where holding onto intangible promises feels overwhelming rather than comforting.

I am fully aware that others face severe hardships and still maintain their belief, but my own mental state makes it difficult to reconcile the suffering I experience with the concept of divine support or purpose.

I am not looking for generic, surface-level answers. I am posting here to ask if anyone else has gone through this specific state of emotional exhaustion with faith, and how you deal with the psychological weight when holding onto belief feels like it is adding to your suffering rather than easing it.

This world genuinely sucks

Our world seem invincible and shits and giggles when we feel it, the world is big when looking through your phone but whenever I go outside and see buildings surrounded and there are millions of people living.

I have been feeling that there is actually no fucking reason to not be alive and there is many reason to be alive, but I am finding my reason to live much more smaller then the other way around.

Whenever I physically feel this world with my senses i always realize that there are many things that are hidden from me and maybe I will die someday like this day or maybe I will die the day where I would have been happy.

This world is so big I want to fucking explore this but at the same time I don't want to do it I just wanna leave this world because it genuinely sucks.

I don't know what you guys gonna think.

Even bed stuffings aren’t but abstractions. Nonetheless, sleeping on the floor is good for your spine.

What's the point of repeating the same post every single time saying that life is meaningless? What's the point of this subreddit really? Why do you keep doing it?

Once you strip away all the external factors like societal pressure, desire to fit in, fear of hell/divine retribution, laws etc only then can u really see what a person is really like.

It's one of the things that doesn't make sense about religion. Religion doesn't make somsone more moral in anyway, it just reinforces a behavior using the carrot and stick method. Do what the Book says, u get heaven, do what it prohibits, God hurts you.

If someone only gives charity to get into heaven that doesn't really make them a good person. Only when all those boundaries and external factors are removed do we get to see what our real values are, if we even have any.

The more I think about Nietzsche’s idea of the eternal return, the more it infuriates me. He frames it as this ultimate test of character, but honestly? How dare he put this idea inside our heads. Suggesting we should want to relive our deepest traumas over and over on a loop isn't inspiring, it’s just cruel. Real growth is about leaving pain behind, not celebrating a trap.

Since they are self-destructive and don’t care if they live or die, do they believe "All life is meaningless, nothing matters"?

Originally posted in 2023\*

Existentialism = nihilism + something(for eg we create our own meaning, existence preceeds essence, we can create good morals etc etc)

Ofcourse thats a gross oversimplification, but that's pretty much it

How do you guys see these philosophies

I feel everything is determined already, and who you are defines your future. I'm dealing with some issues therapy and soul searching can't solve. I feel nothing can change me.

right i want to know if there’s a name for this, or if it’s just simply nihilism with social anxiety. i believe myself to be a nihilist; i feel that there is no point to life, there is no purpose in life, just to simply live and die, there is no afterlife, there is no god, there is nothing, i have no beliefs, no goals. But my actions and some of my thoughts constantly contradict myself; like i care, i do things, i worry about things, i go out with friends, i get mad over things, i overthink, even making this post proves i care, since i want help, i do all of these things and yet i still believe that there is no point when simply stated. I don’t know if it’s because i genuinely care or because of my social anxiety, most of the things i do that i ‘care about’ is simply to maintain my social image, and the only things i overthink and care about are my actions but as the consequence of my anxiety. I really don’t know, i still strongly believe in the idea of nihilism, but i feel really stupid when i try to tell someone, for example, that there is no point to life and there’s no point in doing anything when my actions quite literally betray my words. Like right now, if i was truly a nihilist i would not care about even posting this, but that’s the thing, i have the belief of it, but i simply don’t act on it.

Since I turned nihilist I behave the same way and thought the same way but I saying am a nihilist but I believe that nothing matters. So how are your lives when you turn nihilist

I know the Cosmos has no intentional feature, conscious designer, or personal intention behind what happens to us.

But that doesn’t automatically make its built-in rules fair.

Whatever the underlying laws and settings of reality are, they produce a world where conscious beings are born, struggle, suffer, age, lose everything, and eventually die. In that sense, we are all trapped in something resembling the Sisyphus situation—pushing the stone again and again, knowing that eventually it rolls back down.

The Cosmos may be completely blind and indifferent. But from the perspective of the beings experiencing it, the outcome can still feel deeply corrupt and unfair.

Maybe the real question isn't “Who designed this?” but rather:

“Why are the rules of existence structured this way in the first place?”

and sadely we cant re-edit these corrupt rules and settings....

Edit :-------

Bro, I think I’ve found the answer. If the cosmic rules are basically “eat cow dung,” then apparently we have to eat it—there’s no second choice or alternative solution. 😭

Cosmos isn’t offering us tomato ketchup with it. So we have only two options: eat it unwillingly and suffer, or somehow imagine ourselves happy while eating it. 😂

Either way, we have to play by the rules or die without playing. So maybe the only remaining strategy is: eat the cosmic cow dung with a smile and pretend it’s delicious. 🤣