I think some of those people just also have like, 0% awareness of even the possibility of questioning or trying to go beyond those kinds of economic structures/power relations/etc…it seems hard for people to really imagine how to view things “intersectionally” or what have you…I feel like a lot of people these days who want to make things that lean on their political aspects have a tendency to of specialize in one or two “axes of critique” and then seem to have almost no angle on any others, or just a blank acceptance of the status quo. I do feel though too like, yeah, without a strong underlying compassion for “people in general” or something it’s very easy to subconsciously write people off whom your politics would otherwise imply you should have consideration for if you thought it through, which yeah probably does lead directly to what you’re talking about.
Is it ever really nihilism though…? I don’t know if I can think of any work of art I’ve encountered that really seemed to me to capture a total rejection of all life or meaning or understanding. That just makes me think of the bleakest, most flattened-out depression…in some ways that’s a boring emotion because of its total flatness, which is almost like, an essential part of what makes it so hard to experience. It seems almost impossible to actually capture in art, because in some ways it’s a totally “nothing” feeling, like being completely resistant to stimulus or experiencing all stimulus as a uniform, generic unpleasantness. Art like…makes you feel something, something distinctive, it almost can’t help it, unless you’re that depressed. Maybe this is getting off-topic though…I haven’t actually experienced any of the media you’re bringing up or TLOU or any of it so it’s possible I totally misunderstand. I just think these are interesting questions.