Rehearsing the horrors of nihilism

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When most ploys for maintaining eternalism have failed, sometimes the best that can be said for it is that it is less bad than nihilism. And, if nihilism were indeed the only alternative, that might be true.

Reminding yourself of how bad nihilism is can help you maintain the eternalist stance. Reminding others of how bad it is can help stabilize them in the stance.

This is the hellfire and brimstone of eternalist preaching. It’s likely to produce fear and loathing.

Also, it can backfire. It’s hard to explain the harm of nihilism without explaining how nihilism works. Explaining nihilism is likely to make it seem plausible. So rehearsing nihilist horror can actually pop you into nihilism, rather than keeping you out!

The antidote to this ploy is to compare eternalism with the complete stance rather than with nihilism.