One of the curious things about meaningless nihilism is that it's reasonable - but it's reason driven by emotion. Take a pile of fundamental particles, arrange them in a certain way in the empty void, and you get a playful, adorable puppy and a cold, unfeeling lamppost. 1/ https://twitter.com/GalaxiosMedia/status/1313239899718393856

The nihilist, in his pessimism, says it's all meaningless, just gray goo without point. And he is right, but the direction his logic goes is colored by that pessimistic emotion. It's the thing that gives his thinking direction. 2/

A more healthy person will note that you take the same bogstandard fundamental particles, and you get a fluffy puppy and a cold, hard lamppost. They will note how wondrous it is that such utterly different things come to be just from arranging things differently. 3/

One key feature of the language of dismissal: It uses similarity to erase distinction, to pretend that two things that are clearly different are, in fact, the same because they resemble each other, that the sameness is the only meaningful thing about them. 4/

It erases richness from life, to dismiss it as bland and flat. You could write entire books about holding someone in your arms, the tone of an instrument, the feeling of straining against reality, and still come short. Joy comes, in part, from appreciating that hands-on richness.