Editor’s Note: “Nihilistic violent extremism” (NVE) is a term used to bring together an array of hateful actors who, working online, try to convince people to kill themselves, produce child sexual abuse material, and other hateful actions. Bennett Clifford, a senior threat intelligence analyst at Insikt Group, argues that the term confuses more than it helps—NVE is too vague a concept and encompasses too wide a range of behavior, leading to misunderstanding, poor analysis, and potential response mistakes. – Daniel Byman
Bennett Clifford
It is past time to retire the concept of “nihilistic violent extremism” (NVE). The term was introduced in a U.S. Department of Justice court filing in 2025 and has since been adopted by the international counterterrorism community. But from its inception, it has been analytically suspect, based on a faulty definition, a contradiction in terms, a category error, and several fallacies about the nature of the modern threat actor networks to which “NVE” was intended to pertain. Defining and categorizing violent extremist threat actors is an arduous task—particularly in an era of ideologically fluid threat actors—but the concept of NVE is not doing the counterterrorism community any favors in its efforts to analyze and address ongoing threats.
In the spring of 2025, U.S. federal law enforcement filed court documents that introduced “NVE” into the lexicon of violent extremism-related terminology. The definition presented by the FBI was:
individuals who engage in criminal conduct within the United States and abroad, in furtherance of political, social, or religious goals that derive primarily from a hatred of society at large and a desire to bring about its collapse by sowing indiscriminate chaos, destruction, and social instability.
You can’t tell me this isn’t a ridiculous fossil fueled country. The temperature now at ~3:26pm in northern scarizona is 115 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade!
All I can hear is the Animals from 1965 singing: ‘We’ve gotta get outta this place, if it’s the last thing we ever do’
@1 Reginald Selkirk wrote about an article on “nihilistic violent extremism” (NVE).
I must posit that individuals that allegedly commit “nihilistic violent extremist” acts are not the big problem. They are ‘small fish’ encouraged and facilitated by the current administration, their cockroach followers, the xtian nationalists and warmongering hateful actors who are the REAL problem.
‘Nihilistic Violent Extremism’ Isn’t a Thing, and I’m Tired of Pretending It Is
You can’t tell me this isn’t a ridiculous fossil fueled country. The temperature now at ~3:26pm in northern scarizona is 115 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade!
All I can hear is the Animals from 1965 singing: ‘We’ve gotta get outta this place, if it’s the last thing we ever do’
Eastern front losses mapped
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=cD2XpNWjjyo
Each dot marks 10.000 soldiers killed, captured or missing.
@1 Reginald Selkirk wrote about an article on “nihilistic violent extremism” (NVE).
I must posit that individuals that allegedly commit “nihilistic violent extremist” acts are not the big problem. They are ‘small fish’ encouraged and facilitated by the current administration, their cockroach followers, the xtian nationalists and warmongering hateful actors who are the REAL problem.