The Dangerous Mindset Spreading Across America: Cultural Nihilism Among Gen Z

There’s a dark philosophy hollowing out America, particularly our youth. You can feel it in the collective shrug that’s replaced outrage. In the deadpan memes about society’s inevitable collapse, sandwiched between a skincare ad and someone’s engagement announcement. 

This burgeoning philosophy is one of utter helplessness, where nothing can change and life is void of purpose. The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche called it “nihilism.” But the phenomenon has become so widespread among young Americans that modern thinkers have given it a premodifier: “cultural nihilism.”

Polls show record levels of youth disaffection with democracy and trust in institutions hovering near record lows. Entire online cultures have been built around being “black-pilled,” where cynicism has replaced conviction. Young people have stopped believing things could get better, so they’ve stopped trying. 

But before we start shaking our fists at “kids these days,” it’s worth asking why so many people—especially young people—feel this way. Spoiler: it’s not because they don’t care. It’s because they did.

Why Young People Turned to Cultural Nihilism

Imagine being told your whole life that you can “be anything,” then discovering that everything from housing to healthcare is priced like it’s meant for a Bond villain. The world Gen Z inherited came preloaded with economic instability, climate anxiety, political paralysis, and social media that often feels like scrolling through the apocalypse. 

Many Gen Zers blame older generations for handing them the short end of the stick. They watched institutions fail to handle crises—from recessions to pandemics—and saw political leaders respond with spin instead of solutions. 

They watched polarization turn every debate into a cage match, every compromise into betrayal. Outrage became the world’s currency, and politicians are printing it like inflation doesn’t exist.

Meanwhile, social media has created a kind of performance anxiety for the soul—an endless stage where doomscrolling doubles as both habit and hobby. Sincerity gets punished, snark goes viral, and optimism is often treated like cringe.

So when young people look at democracy, they don’t see a place where problems get solved or promises are kept. They see a stalemate where everyone’s yelling but nobody’s listening. At that point, it’s easy to start wondering if democracy even works.

It’s not laziness or cynicism. It’s disillusionment. They see the gridlock and think, What’s the point?

In other words, nihilism isn’t apathy—it’s heartbreak turned inward. It’s what happens when idealism meets a system that keeps failing you.

When Disillusion Turns to Destruction

Research shows a growing number of younger Americans are losing faith not just in politics, but in the idea that peaceful, democratic change even works. 

A recent YouGov poll found that nearly one in five adults under 30 say violence to achieve political goals can sometimes be justified—roughly double the rate among older Americans. A Newsweek survey found that 40% of Gen Z believe a “strong leader” who can sidestep Congress and the courts entirely would be a good system of government for the U.S., versus 27% who thought it would be bad.

That’s not because younger Americans are villains in waiting. It’s an emotional reaction to hopelessness. The system feels rigged—or like it was never designed to be fair in the first place. And when nothing ever changes, “burn it all down” can start to sound less like chaos and more like the only viable solution. 

This isn’t just about politics. It’s about whether the next generation believes peaceful progress (and ultimately democracy) is still possible—or if they’ve given up trying.

The Way Back

Political analyst Rabhya Mehrotra remains optimistic. A study conducted by Mehrotra and her colleagues at More In Common found that Gen Z isn’t rejecting democracy itself—they’ve just stopped believing that ours actually works.

“The biggest takeaway I can emphasize is that to make Gen Z invested in our democracy, we need to listen to their problems, rather than dismissing them,” she said.

That requires addressing the issues they care about most, including healthcare access, mental health, and the affordability of higher education. 

But creating practical solutions to these issues requires civic participation. The question becomes: how do we rally a base to engage with a system that they no longer believe in?

Maybe the solution doesn’t come from belief at all. A disaffected American may consider a slightly different approach to nihilism: optimistic nihilism.

When nihilism says, “Nothing matters,” optimistic nihilism replies, “Then we get to decide what matters.”

We can apply this way of thinking to politics. When cultural nihilism says, “The system is broken—burn it down,” optimistic nihilism replies, “The system is human-made—so we can fix it.”

It’s a mindset that acknowledges absurdity without surrendering to it. If life feels meaningless, that means the slate is blank. If institutions are broken, that means they’re ours to change.

Instead of despairing at the void, treat it as a creative space: if no ultimate meaning exists, your choices matter even more.

And that’s the hidden hope inside all this talk of societal collapse: if everything’s falling apart, that means nothing’s set in stone. Democracy, like meaning itself, only dies when we stop participating.

—Alex Buscemi (abuscemi@buildersmovement.org)