Terror without ideology? The rise of nihilistic violence

8 May 2025

Recent, seemingly disconnected, acts of violence – including school shootings in the US, stabbing sprees in Sweden and the Southport attack in the UK – have been linked to online communities centred around nihilistic worldviews (the rejection of all religious, moral and social values, often accompanied by a belief that life is meaningless). Such attacks challenge ideology-based definitions of terrorism and pose questions for policymakers over whether “nihilistic violence” can be addressed by systems developed to confront ideologically-based threats.

This ISD Investigation outlines how these attacks have been catalysed by the growth of online communities that lionise mass attackers and promote a nihilistic worldview. ISD explores the relationship between nihilistic violence and extremist ideology, and assesses the utility of labelling attacks inspired by subcultures of nihilistic violence as acts of terrorism. We also examine whether these increasingly overlapping threats demand parallel systems for violence prevention or the expansion of existing counterterrorism approaches.

A violent aesthetic: What makes nihilistic violence different

ISD defines nihilistic violence as violent acts lacking an ideological motivation and driven by a misanthropic worldview.^[1] ^[2] Our research has linked the two most prominent contemporary subcultures of nihilistic violence, the True Crime Community (TCC) and the pseudo-Satanic No Lives Matter (NLM), to at least four school shooters and five disrupted school shooting plots and two Swedish stabbing sprees in 2024 alone. While these acts of violence outwardly appear similar to extremist violence, they lack the political or ideological dimension that drives typical extremist attacks. Nihilistic violence is an expressive, misanthropic act that seeks to fulfill an inward-facing emotional need and/or garner notoriety or acceptance in nihilistic communities.

Central to these subcultures is the substitution of aesthetics for ideology. TCC adherents (generally referred to as TCCers or TCC fans) often disregard the motivations of the school shooters they revere, focusing instead on deeply researching and replicating their mannerisms, attire and cultural references. Similarly, individuals associated with NLM seek to replicate violent attacks, most frequently stabbing sprees targeting the elderly, committed by other members of NLM or the wider 764 network to which NLM belongs.^[3] These aesthetics help supercharge the spread of these ideas through memes, images, clips of music or even color schemes, which in turn bolsters communities that condone or encourage further acts of violence.

Subcultures of nihilistic violence have inspired acts of violence comparable to ideologically-motivated extremist movements and challenge existing prevention and intervention structures built to counter threats based on known, coherent ideologies. The decentralised, constantly evolving nature of these subcultures complicates our understanding of the networks – and therefore, efforts to detect and prevent this type of violence. The absence of ideological justifications can reduce the need for lengthy indoctrination and complex planning, reducing the timeline for violence and making it harder for parents, peers and law enforcement to detect. Further complicating prevention and intervention, members of these communities are often juveniles, with some attackers as young as 11eleven. Those who seek to carry out nihilistic violence often do not fit neatly into the ideologically-based classifications that have been adopted by counterterrorism agencies, creating the potential for them to “slip through the cracks.” These concerns are not merely theoretical. In at least two cases in the UK — the Southport stabbings and the foiled school shooting in Edinburgh — plotters associated with subcultures of nihilistic violence were referred to prevention programs multiple times prior to their acts of violence.

Defining the spectrum

Subcultures of nihilistic violence and ideologically-motivated extremist groups exist in overlapping spaces online. They often share aesthetics and symbols, and adherents are rarely a pure expression of either phenomenon. Members of extremist groups may be fundamentally motivated by a misanthropic worldview and see their participation as social rather than ideological. Conversely, those carrying out acts of nihilistic violence may have participated in extremist communities or even use extremist symbols or language. However, a deeper examination of their rhetoric (often including manifestos) and their target selection makes it clear that ideologically-motivated extremism is not the primary driver in their radicalisation or mobilisation to violence.

This blending reflects an overlap between these communities online. Most subcultures of nihilistic violence are loose networks that interact with other subcultures and extremist groups online, leading them to swap symbols, terminology and memes. For example, the manifesto of a 17-year-old who killed two at a Georgia (US) high school in January 2025 included racist comments, accelerationist concepts, and references to the Terrorgram Collective. However, a deeper examination of the manifesto and his social media accounts reveals that he was deeply immersed in non-ideological subcultures of nihilistic violence, and that his attack appeared to lack a coherent ideological purpose or political end-goal. While it is difficult to rule out any ideological influence entirely, the available evidence suggests that he may have drawn motivation from subcultures of nihilistic violence online.

From purpose to pointlessness: Divergences from ideological extremism

There are four characteristics that differentiate nihilistic violence from ideologically-motivated extremism: justification for violence, group dynamics, desired impact and target choices.

Justification for violence

Those who carry out nihilistic violence are not seeking to change society or promote a specific ideological outcome. School shootings committed by participants in the TCC fandom are among the most notable examples of nihilistic violence in recent history. Manifestos left by attackers, social media analysis and existing secondary research are devoid of evidence that these school shootings are carried out to promote an ideological objective. Instead, perpetrators of these attacks are deeply enmeshed in subcultures that share misanthropic and nihilistic worldviews, promote anti-social behaviour and encourage violence as an outlet for their emotions and personal struggles.

The purported manifesto of a December 2024 school shooter in Wisconsin entitled “War Against Humanity” epitomises this. Comprised almost entirely of misanthropic statements such as “I’ve grown to hate people and society” and “I will always hate humanity and it will never be overruled.” It also contains a short autobiography, in which she paints a desperate picture of what she believes has been a futile existence saying, “I hate humanity for forcing me into this little hole.” While the manifesto does feature racist sentiments, the manifesto (and her attack) lack a political or ideological objective. By contrast, more than half of the manifesto of the 2019 El Paso attacker is explicitly devoted to the “economic” and “political reasons” for the attack. It is clear from this that he sought to dissuade immigrants from coming to the United States and to inspire similar attacks in order to magnify the effects.

Group dynamics

Another key distinction lies in group dynamics and constructions of supremacy. Subcultures of nihilistic violence form strong in-groups through shared trauma, grievances and misanthropic worldviews. Some subcultures also establish formal mechanisms to develop in-group dynamics while others create more informal communities in which adherents and followers can interact. For example, NLM requires acts of violence to join the inner circle of the group; the looser-knit TCC offers space in which mass killers are venerated and vulnerable youth are bombarded with narratives that portray violence as sexy, noble and memorable.

This differs from the group dynamics of ideologically-motivated extremist groups. While both form strong “in-groups,” subcultures of nihilistic violence are not focused on the supremacism of their in-group or the need to do violence against an “out-group” to express or advance that supremacism.

Desired impact and targets

Lacking supremacist or political goals, those inspired by subcultures of nihilistic violence often choose to attack targets with aesthetic or personal, rather than political or ideological, meaning. The victims themselves are often immaterial to the attacker’s motivation and are rarely mentioned in manifestos. Targets are often familiar locations with personal meaning to the attacker or chosen for their vulnerability, enabling the attacker to cause maximum harm or damage. This stands in stark contrast to ideologically motivated extremists, who select targets to send a message or based on inherent characteristics such as race, religion, or ideological affiliation.

A deadly intersection: The overlap with ideological violent extremism

While their motivations are distinct, those engaged with subcultures of nihilistic violence may also interact with ideologically-motivated communities online including neo-Nazis and accelerationists. Even subcultures such as TCC, which have developed a distinct community and operate on distinct platforms, show a marked influence from extremist groups online. This is unsurprising given that both seek to recruit young, vulnerable people through fringe internet platforms. Nihilistic violence is most often conflated with neo-Nazi accelerationism, which incorporates misanthropic and nihilistic themes, but the two are ideologically distinct. While accelerationism also rejects political solutions, it is rooted in ideological tenets (most often neo-Nazi) or the philosophy of nihilism, an anarchic worldview often used to justify antisocial behaviour.

Subcultures of nihilistic violence also often act as aesthetic adopters of extremist terminology or symbols, in part due to their overlapping networks. Groups such as 764 and No Lives Matter have adopted neo-Nazi symbology and often share overlapping memes or imagery. However, their interest is largely aesthetic and does not represent an adoption of neo-Nazi ideology. Conversely, members of ideologically-motivated extremists groups may embrace nihilistic violence or even belong to those subcultures, but their violent acts are carried out in furtherance of ideological goals.

The 15-year-old school shooter who killed two in December 2024 at the Abundant Life Christian School in Wisconsin is a prime example of this overlap. ISD research indicates that the shooter was primarily motivated by her TCC fandom. Analysts identified 16 social media accounts for the shooter, almost all of which contained references to past mass shooters, including Dylann Roof and the Columbine attackers, popular among TCC adherents. However, there was also clear evidence that the school shooter had consumed neo-Nazi media and had adopted neo-Nazi symbols. Her Telegram profile picture depicted a Nazi-era officer wearing a swastika armband and her X banner photo showed the arson of Asane Church in Finland (widely suspected of being carried out by neo-Nazi and black metal frontman Varg Vikernes). A cursory examination of her social media might lead one to believe that the shooter was motivated by neo-Nazi ideology. However the linkages to TCC, her target choice, and the language in her manifesto (described above) more accurately reflect her motivations — namely nihilistic violence.

Some cases are more complicated and likely represent a blend of ideological and nihilistic motivations. In August 2024, a Turkish minor stabbed several individuals outside of a mosque in the city of Eskiseher (Turkey). The youth’s manifesto bore all the hallmarks of a neo-Nazi accelerationist: the attacker identified himself as a “saint,” explicitly referenced accelerationism and encouraged others to carry out violent acts with a video game style point system. However, the attacker also appears to have been influenced by subcultures of nihilistic violence and may have co-opted accelerationist aesthetics: his manifesto cites misanthropy as the main reason for the attack, expressing hatred for humanity and a desire for violence. He also referenced a litany of past attackers, a common characteristic of TCC manifestos. The document included photos of the Columbine shooters, Halle synagogue attacker Steven Balliet, Anders Breivik, Brenton Tarrant, Timothy McVeigh, Finnish school shooter Pekka-Eric Auvinen, and Unabomber Ted Kaczynski.

The manifesto and social media presence of a school shooter who targeted an Antioch, Tennessee, high school in January 2025 has similar hallmarks of hybridised thinking. While ISD analysts assess that neo-Nazi accelerationism was his primary influence, he also displayed characteristics often associated with subcultures of nihilistic violence. In his 51-page manifesto, he named several mass shooters he admired (including white supremacists Payton Gendron, Brenton Tarrant and Patrick Crusius) and stated that he had “connections with some of them only loosely via online messaging platforms.”

Such cases highlight the aesthetic overlap between accelerationist Saint Culture and the TCC veneration of past mass shooters, a microcosm of the broader blurred lines between ideologically-motivated extremism and nihilistic violence. Accelerationists revere “saints” because they believe that their attacks advanced a political goal and through canonisation, they seek to encourage others to carry out similar attacks. TCC fans have no desire to advance a political goal and venerate a much wider pantheon of attackers including ethnic minorities, serial killers and others who would be entirely rejected as unworthy by accelerationists. Some figures, most prominently Roof and Tarrant, are central figures for both communities.

No Lives Matter & the True Crime Community: Examples of nihilistic violence subcultures

Subcultures of nihilistic violence range from loosely affiliated group chats to well-structured organisations with names, symbols and media products. Not all who carry out acts of nihilistic violence are affiliated with an organised group or recognised subculture. However, below we outline two of the most prominent subcultures of nihilistic violence, providing insight into the worldview, associations and motivations of the wider phenomenon.

True Crime Community (TCC)

TCC is a loosely connected fandom celebrating serial killers, terrorists and mass murderers. TCC and its variations are mostly made up of young, female fans of male serial killers. Young women developing obsessions with male murderers predates the internet (for example, devoted followers of Charles Manson). However, the Columbine shootings spawned a dedicated online fan community that began on niche forums, later spread to nearly every social media platform, and remains active even 25 years after the attack.

In TCC, killers are considered tragic, sympathetic celebrities that are beloved and memorialised by their respective fans, and who each have their own defining traits, mythology and origin stories. The motivation of the murderers is of far less importance than the characters themselves – a distinguishing feature from other communities which venerate killers such as Saint culture, martyrdom, and gore/snuff communities. Members of TCC use Tumblr, as well as fringe platforms such as Telegram. They also often intersect with other subcultures or ideologically motivated extremists online: this has led them to adopt imagery or memes, including neo-Nazi symbols, as seen with the December 2024 Wisconsin school shooter.

TCC’s complete disregard of politics typifies a subculture of nihilistic violence. Attackers that emerge from this community generally attack schools but rarely select targets to advance any type of political goal. Their motivations are often linked to issues of identity and mental health, but attacks are almost always self-serving acts of violence likely intended to garner notoriety with their fellow TCC fans, as well as the general public or express emotions such as loneliness or misanthropy that the shooters feel they cannot adequately express without some type of publicly visible anti-social action. TCC affiliates frequently leave behind robust social media footprints and manifestos that highlight their admiration of past killers; at the same time, these documents express irreparable dissatisfaction with the world, their lives, humanity and/or the future.

TCC is the subculture of nihilistic violence that has spawned the most violence in recent years. While systematic data collection remains poor, ISD research indicates that in 2024, at least four school shooters and five disrupted school shooting plots were likely linked to TCC spaces online. The attackers/plotters shared or created online content referencing their favourite mass shooters which included Adam Lanza, Dylann Roof, and the Columbine attackers. These four attacks resulted in eight deaths (not including the perpetrators) — double the fatalities caused by extremist violence in the United States in 2024.

No Lives Matter (NLM)

Unlike TCC’s decentralised, free-form network, NLM has adopted the online cellular structure more commonly associated with ideologically-motivated extremist groups, acting as part of the 764 sexploitation network. Outwardly, NLM appears no different from an ideologically-motivated extremist group: members produce propaganda, carry out attacks and glorify past acts of violence. However, a closer examination of the group’s publications and activities reveals a complete lack of ideological motivation and clear indications of nihilistic violence.

The group’s core belief is misanthropy: an NLM leader begins an undated publication entitled “Evil Has No Limits” with a discussion of misanthropy and the phrase “kill or be killed no lives matter.” He goes on to describe himself as motivated by nihilism and “pure hatred.” Other publications produced by the group, including the “Manhunt Guide” and “NLM Kill Guide”, provide tactical guidance and encourage violence without any ideological justifications. Group members also promote anti-social behaviour, stating “societal standards should not exist” and telling prospective members that they are recruiting “true misanthropic individuals.”

The acts of violence themselves also reflect the nihilistic nature of the group. In October 2024 and February 2025, two separate Swedish teenagers affiliated with NLM stabbed elderly victims and uploaded the footage to 764 and NLM chatrooms. Their victims were not chosen for any inherent characteristics, and their videos lacked any ideological justification. Analysts assessed that the attackers carried out the stabbings to gain acceptance or status within the group.

Conclusion: Confronting the void – implications for law enforcement and policymakers

Subcultures of nihilistic violence represent a challenge parallel to traditional ideologically-motivated extremist groups. Though both intersect online, prevention and law enforcement efforts are largely structured to identify and counter ideologically-motivated threats. It is crucial that policymakers understand the role of disparate networks and the increasingly clear influence of subcultures of nihilistic violence.

As shown in the Southport case, mechanisms based on group or ideological affiliation are insufficient; subcultures of nihilistic violence do not necessarily display the ideological markers often used by law enforcement and prevention professional to identify radicalisation. In the most severe examples, potential attackers are identified as a threat but their cases are not adequately addressed because they do not fit the requirements for criminal investigation or enrolment in prevention programming. For example, the Southport attacker was referred to Prevent three times and recently released details from the trial of a British minor accused of plotting a Columbine-inspired school shooting revealed that he was referred to Prevent twice. But both were eventually dismissed from further investigation.

As boundaries between violent extremism, nihilistic violence and wider identity-based violence become more blurred, it is key that efforts to tackle terrorist, extremist and hate-fueled violence are aligned with wider violence prevention efforts including community-based programming. This may include addressing underlying vulnerabilities through public health-focused interventions targeting risk factors such as social isolation, digital illiteracy or poor mental health. Approaches predicated on ideological disengagement are unlikely to be successful given the “non-ideological” nature of nihilistic violence and many of those engaged in subcultures of nihilistic violence self-identify as suffering from mental illness and social isolation. Some also engage in other anti-social behaviours such as eating disorders or self-harm.

In some cases, counterterrorism agencies have responded swiftly to subcultures of nihilistic violence, often targeting the clearly criminal aspects of these groups such as the dissemination of child pornography. The FBI has laudably devoted significant resources to countering the 764 network and its affiliates and has launched a public awareness campaign. They have also coined a term to refer to participants in that network who have been arrested, calling them “nihilistic violent extremists.” Despite definitional issues, its usage is a clear indicator that US law enforcement has recognised aspects of this threat and has taken steps to ensure that counterterrorism authorities and resources can be applied to it.^[4]

Challenges exist even once authorities recognise the threat. Preventing attacks from those motivated by subcultures of nihilistic violence can be more difficult than ideologically-motivated attacks. Eliminating ideological motivations can shorten the timeline to violence. Ideologically-motivated extremist groups often recruit those primed for violence, but the nature of those groups requires a degree of indoctrination and assimilation before they push members towards carrying out violence. Subcultures of nihilistic violence have no such timelines. Aesthetics and memes can spread more quickly than complex ideological doctrines and when the outcome of the attack is irrelevant there is very little separating “flash” from “bang.”

This emphasises the importance of the public health approach as well as tertiary and even primordial prevention strategies. While in some cases the planning process can resemble that of ideologically-motivated attackers, most attackers motivated by subcultures of nihilistic violence do not disclose their plans in advance, coordinate with co-conspirators or display other visible signs of mobilisation. While traditional law enforcement methods will always remain a critical component of counterterrorism, this may render many investigative tools ineffective, leaving law enforcement to comb through vast troves of extremely concerning, but ultimately non-actionable online activity. These methods should be combined with cross-agency collaborative efforts to both mitigate potential acts of violence and simultaneously address the underlying vulnerabilities.

End notes

[1] Misanthropy is a concept closely associated with nihilism and refers to a hatred of humanity or the human race.

[2] Discussion of nihilism often devolves into a tautological argument of whether the rejection of ideology itself represents an ideology, but the phenomenon of nihilistic violence should be understood through the motivation of the attacker. Extremist ideology, by definition, targets an out-group for the purpose of bolstering a political or supremacist agenda. While the tactics and targets of nihilistic violence may resemble ideologically-motivated extremism, those carrying out acts of nihilistic violence do not intend to change the world around them through their actions, making their acts fundamentally “non-ideological.”

[3] 764 is a network of online groups that engage in sextortion and the glorification of violence. The network, which comprises a constantly shifting landscape of splinter groups and offshoots, forces minor victims to produce Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM). NLM is a component of the network but is distinguished from others by its efforts on real-world violence and the glorification of attacks rather than sextortion. Members of NLM may also participate in other 764 groups, but the sextortion practices that characterize them are not necessarily categorised as subcultures of nihilistic violence. 764 members are often driven by pecuniary, sexual, or group dynamics rather than a misanthropic worldview.

[4] The 764 network focuses primarily (or exclusively) on sextortion. While despicable and consistent with the anti-social behavior typical of subcultures of nihilistic violence, sextortion groups do not fit the definition of nihilistic violence described in this Dispatch as the motivations are generally based on a desire for control over victims, sexual gratification, group status, or notoriety.