by Brooke Laufer on X
Why the breakdown of meaning and an embodied identity fuels extremist violence.
The nature of political violence has changed. What once looked like moral struggle—however misguided—has increasingly given way to something more chaotic and disturbing. Among many young adults, a powerful “revolutionary impulse” has taken hold: not just the urge to protest, but the belief that one is personally called to carry out sweeping, often violent acts in the name of social change. In a growing number of cases, individuals drawn toward extremist violence also identify as transgender. This is a pattern that warrants careful examination rather than reflexive dismissal.
To be clear, identifying as transgender or exploring the concept of “gender identity” does not cause violence or criminal behavior. But the pattern raises important psychological questions about identity and instability. For some individuals, a fragile or fractured sense of self—often shaped by a felt conflict between biological sex and gender identity, and reinforced by narratives of constant threat or victimhood—may intensify alienation, urgency, and emotional volatility. When a person’s identity becomes detached from embodied reality, personal history, and stable relationships, it can drift toward nihilism: the belief that life itself has no inherent meaning or value. In that state, ideology can rush in to fill the void. For a small but notable subset of radicalized individuals, the combination of identity instability, existential fear, and moral absolutism can make violence feel not only permissible, but purposeful.
Friedrich Nietzsche described nihilism as the collapse of a society’s highest values—its moral frameworks, religious beliefs, and metaphysical assumptions—once they no longer command trust or authority. When those structures dissolve, what replaces them is not liberation but disorientation. The familiar landmarks that once anchored meaning disappear, leaving behind anxiety, emptiness, and a deep uncertainty about how to live or who to be. It is within this vacuum that destructive ideologies—and destructive acts—can take root.