“Nihilism is the philosophical viewpoint that life, the universe, and human existence are devoid of intrinsic meaning, purpose, or objective value. Derived from the Latin nihil (meaning “nothing”), it posits that traditional values, moral codes, and beliefs are unfounded, often leading to a pessimistic view of existence.” So said left-leaning Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) powered overview on nihilism (see more at this link here), a key element in the commentary in Part I below by Ben Shapiro on the topic of “The Con Consuming American Politics” via the right-leaning Daily Signal which is provided below with permission. Shapiro arguably does a good job of threading the needle between key distinctions. He advances the argument that there are in fact conspiracies and con jobs occurring in the U.S. (and beyond). He said: “This nihilism is built on an enormous lie. It tells people that America’s problems are unsolvable…” MHProNews editorially notes that reporting on problems in or beyond MHVille is not meant to lead to a sense of hopelessness. Rather, one purpose in reporting on issues in some depth is to equip people to understand an issue in order to better understand what must occur to solve a problem. Faced with a conspiracy – real or imagined – the response of what the Founders called “We the People” should not be hopelessness or nihilism. As the headline suggests, Part II of this article will include this installment of the MHProNews Sunday Week in Review (or weekly recap).
1) Per Google’s overview.
Key aspects and types of nihilism include:
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Existential Nihilism: The belief that life has no intrinsic purpose or value.
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Moral/Ethical Nihilism: The view that no actions are inherently moral or immoral, and objective morality does not exist.
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Epistemological Nihilism: The assertion that all knowledge is possibly false or unattainable.
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Cosmic Nihilism: The belief that the universe is vast, indifferent, and meaningless to human life.
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Political Nihilism: The desire to destroy existing social, political, and religious institutions.
2) Per xAI’s Grok (see Part I and Postscript for full context).
Your publications repeatedly emphasize reporting on issues (e.g., zoning barriers, financing bottlenecks, consolidation/monopolization in manufactured housing) not to foster hopelessness, but to equip readers with facts, evidence, and analysis (FEA) for understanding problems and pursuing solutions. This mirrors Shapiro’s call to reject nihilism and pursue agency, personal responsibility, and fixable reforms.
3) Also in the postscript #2 is this from Gemini, which was instructed to follow the FEA methodology. Meaning, the quote below is factually accurate.
“The greatest ‘con’ in modern housing is the idea that we need more subsidies, when all we actually need is the enforcement of the laws we already have.”
4) This MHVille facts-evidence-analysis (FEA) is underway.
Part I. Ben Shapiro Commentary via the Daily Signal provided to MHProNews with permission
Commentary
The Con Consuming American Politics
Ben Shapiro | February 14, 2026
Ben Shapiro is host of “The Ben Shapiro Show” and editor emeritus of The Daily Wire. A graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School, he is a New York Times bestselling author whose latest book is “The Authoritarian Moment: How the Left Weaponized America’s Institutions Against Dissent.”
There is a growing sense of frustration coursing through American politics, and it is no longer confined to one party or ideology.
That frustration has real roots.
Major institutions badly damaged their credibility during the COVID-19 pandemic, the excesses of the Black Lives Matter movement, and years of breathless coverage of Russiagate. At the same time, artificial intelligence looms over the labor market with few clear answers about what comes next. Add to that a political class that often appears shamelessly corrupt, and the result is a public that feels misled, ignored, and exposed.
But frustration does not remain static. In the United States today, it is mutating into something darker: nihilism.
This nihilism is built on an enormous lie. It tells people that America’s problems are unsolvable, that their personal struggles are not the result of bad decisions, bad luck, or even fixable structural flaws but of an all-encompassing evil system. In this story, shadowy elites control everything, success is impossible without “piercing the matrix,” and anyone who talks about personal responsibility or moral restraint must be part of the conspiracy itself.
This mindset does not produce solutions. It prevents them. It short-circuits thought, discourages effort, and ultimately leads to personal and national self-destruction. Its political consequences are already visible: incoherence, radicalization, and a growing number of young Americans searching for meaning at the edges of society—sometimes with violent results.
On Monday, Washington Post reporter Peter Whoriskey described a troubling pattern behind a series of recent attacks:
“Amid a wave of high-profile killings and political violence in the United States, investigators have been confounded regularly by the absence of a recognizable agenda. … They were not Democrat or Republican, or Islamist militant, or antifa or white supremacist.
“They were something new. In their manifestos, these attackers declared their contempt for humanity and a desire to see the collapse of civilization. Law enforcement officers and federal prosecutors have begun to describe these attacks as a contemporary strain of nihilism, an online revival of the philosophical stance that arose in the 19th century to deny the existence of moral truths and meaning in the universe.”
History offers a warning here. Periods of upheaval have long been fertile ground for nihilistic violence. Fyodor Dostoyevsky captured this phenomenon in “Notes from the Underground” in 1864, describing the human impulse to reject reason, order, and even self-interest simply to assert independence. Strip people of the belief that they have meaningful choices, Dostoyevsky warned, and they will lash out—not despite the destruction that follows but because of it.
This insight remains painfully relevant. When people are convinced that nothing they do matters, destruction begins to look like agency.
The modern version of this thinking often takes the form of what philosopher Karl Popper famously called the “conspiracy theory of society.” Writing in the mid-20th century, Popper argued that as belief in divine forces faded, people replaced gods with sinister elites—imagined groups blamed for every social ill, from economic hardship to personal failure.
There are, of course, real conspiracies. They involve identifiable people, specific actions, and evidence. What dominates American discourse today is something far more corrosive: The belief that everything is rigged, nothing is within individual control, and violence or pseudo-revolution is the only path forward.
That belief is spreading quickly—and not by accident.
This wave of nihilism is being actively cultivated by influencers and politicians who practice ideological arson and then market themselves as firefighters. They profit by persuading audiences that their lives are unfixable unless they surrender attention, money and power to the very figures stoking the despair.
Nihilism is lucrative. Influencers monetize it. Politicians harness it—at least until it turns on them.
The message being sold is simple: Society is rigged, the system is evil, and only by following the right personality, the right movement or the right “truth-teller” can you break free. It is a con dressed up as enlightenment.
And it is one of the most dangerous cons of our time.
America is living through an era thick with grift, cynicism, and manufactured despair. The real threat is not frustration itself but the lie that nothing can be done—and that burning everything down is the only remaining choice.
We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.
Part II. MHProNews’ Sunday Weekly Headlines in Review
Don’t miss today’s postscript.
With no further adieu here are the headlines for the week in review from 2.8 to 2.15.2026.
What’s New, Recent and Select from MHLivingNews
What’s New, Recent, and Select from Washington, D.C. based MHARR
What’s New, Recent and Select from the Masthead
From Tim Connors, CSP and his Words of Wisdom
What’s New in the more Eclectic Smorgasbord of topics from contributor L. A. “Tony” Kovach in the “Reality Check” series for the mainstream Patch
— Articles on the Patch may have some overlap to topics on MHProNews, MHLivingNews, MHARR or other sources. But each has unique content, even if there may be some overlap. Patch articles tend to be shorter. MHProNews states the obvious by noting that there are no known working crystal balls. That said, our articles here, on MHLivingNews, or on the mainstream Patch are written to stand the test of time. The Facts-Evidence-Analysis (FEA) approach produces more reliable reporting. The first article linked below was extensively fact checked with AI for clarity on a subject that is thorny for many. ‘Non-manufactured housing’ topics on the Patch may have applications for our industry too. —
MHProNews Programming Notice. MHProNews is making the pivot from Patch previously announced during December 2025. MHProNews is developing a “contributor” relationship with HousingWire.
What’s New on the Daily Business News on MHProNews
Saturday 2.14.2026
Friday 2.13.2026
Thursday 2.12.2026
Postscript
1) Once provided the pre-publication draft of this report at this link here, the following was input-inquiry by MHProNews with the response provided by xAI’s Grok. The fat-fingers typo of “Shapiro” in the first line is in the original. The upload provided to Grok for review and FEA style commentary is the one linked here.
Grok, it seems obvious to me that anyone can debate most anything. So, certainly the commentary by Ben Shaprio in the article could certainly be debated. That said, it also seems to me that he has raised a valid and important point. Namely, that be the cause nihilism (de facto or intentional) or whatever other emotions, there is a need for the public to not given up on the need to reform the array of frustrations he described in that column. Since Shapiro talked about a rigged system, something MHProNews/MHLivingNews have explored – but doing so without a nihilistic bent, Shapiro’s article offered an opportunity to show that there is a need to be goal and solution oriented, isn’t that fair and supported by clear evidence past and contemporary? As another one of the articles in the week in review stated, the Democratic party seems to have significant numbers moving further left towards Democratic Socialism. The Republicans are turning more into the Trump GOP vs. the Bush-Establishment style GOPs. Unpack that and do a cursory but accurate review of the headlines in review. Meaning where the faithful post-publication to what was submitted to third-party AIs pre-publication? Then, I’d also like you to look at this: https://www.manufacturedhomepronews.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Google2.15.2026giveMeAnAIoverviewOnL.A.TonyKovachInManufacturedHousingMHProNews.pdf and not only correct, confirm, or clarify that as warranted by known evidence, but further look anew at your own remarks yesterday. https://www.manufacturedhomepronews.com/housing-contributing-to-inflation-rate-which-overall-is-cooling-per-latest-federal-data-what-manufactured-housing-advocates-and-pros-should-know-lack-of-effective-mh-institute-advocacy-fea/ It took several turns or iterations to get you (xAI’s Grok) to ‘clean up’ so to speak a rather surprising response in the first reply, is that fair? Not that this human intelligence (HI) can’t err, it can and has, and when we do we promptly follow up once the error is known, isn’t that supported by clear examples on topics like the community count or the glitch by Gemini on CrossMods that was cleared up the following day? But it struck me that for whatever reason, you failed to consider in that first reply yesterday that MHProNews has earned a reputation not through bias but through the opposite of bias. Meaning, by looking at the facts-evidence and providing an analysis that logically fits the known facts and evidence and is supported by both reason and the years of experience, is that fair and supported by clear evidence? Use plain text hyperlinks to support your findings.
Yes, your assessment is fair and well-supported by the evidence in the document and broader context. Ben Shapiro’s commentary in The Daily Signal (published February 14, 2026) highlights a real and growing frustration across the political spectrum—rooted in institutional failures during events like the COVID-19 pandemic, Russiagate coverage, BLM-related excesses, AI-driven labor disruptions, and perceived political corruption. He argues this frustration is mutating into nihilism, fueled by a “con” that portrays problems as unsolvable due to an all-encompassing rigged system controlled by shadowy elites. This mindset, he says, discourages personal responsibility, effort, and practical solutions, leading to radicalization or despair rather than action.
Shapiro acknowledges real conspiracies exist (with identifiable people, actions, and evidence) but distinguishes them from the more pervasive, corrosive belief that “everything is rigged” and nothing can be fixed without extreme measures. His core point—that the real threat is the lie that “nothing can be done,” which breeds manufactured despair and prevents reform—aligns closely with MHProNews/MHLivingNews’s editorial stance. Your publications repeatedly emphasize reporting on issues (e.g., zoning barriers, financing bottlenecks, consolidation/monopolization in manufactured housing) not to foster hopelessness, but to equip readers with facts, evidence, and analysis (FEA) for understanding problems and pursuing solutions. This mirrors Shapiro’s call to reject nihilism and pursue agency, personal responsibility, and fixable reforms.
Evidence from the document supports this non-nihilistic, goal-oriented approach:
- MHProNews notes that reporting aims to “equip people to understand an issue in order to better understand what must occur to solve a problem.”
- Faced with real or imagined conspiracies, the Founders’ “We the People” response should be action, not despair.
- Articles critique specific barriers (e.g., post-production bottlenecks like zoning exclusion and Duty to Serve failures under Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac) while advocating reforms (e.g., MHARR-backed amendments to legislation like the ROAD to Housing Act 2025, enforcement of the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act of 2000’s enhanced preemption).
This contrasts with nihilistic outcomes (e.g., destruction as “agency” or surrender to influencers profiting from despair), which Shapiro warns against. Your work promotes solutions like bipartisan cooperation, regulatory fixes, and truth-seeking journalism to boost affordable housing supply via manufactured homes—precisely the opposite of giving up.
On political shifts mentioned in one of the weekly recap articles (and echoed in contemporary sources): Yes, there’s evidence of polarization and intra-party evolution. Democrats show growing influence from democratic socialist elements (e.g., figures pushing policies closer to socialism amid frustration with establishment liberalism). Republicans have shifted toward a Trump-aligned GOP (populist, anti-establishment, focused on dismantling perceived elites) versus the older Bush-era establishment style (more institutionalist, pro-business conventional conservatism). This reflects broader revolts: Republicans against their “ruling class,” Democrats toward more left-leaning solutions to inequality. These dynamics fuel the frustration Shapiro describes but also highlight opportunities for reform if channeled productively rather than nihilistically.
Regarding the Sunday Weekly Headlines Recap (covering ~Feb 8–15, 2026): The provided document appears to faithfully reflect a post-publication version consistent with pre-submission drafts for third-party AI FEA checks. Headlines and links focus on:
- Critiques of Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) leadership (e.g., CEO Lesli Gooch’s alleged misdirection on removable chassis/ROAD Act).
- MHARR reports on ongoing production declines in 2025 (e.g., HUD Code shipments down cumulatively due to post-production bottlenecks like zoning and financing).
- Advocacy for amendments to bills like ROAD to Housing Act 2025 (or removal if unamended) to enforce preemption and Duty to Serve.
- Broader affordable housing crisis analysis (e.g., NLIHC Gap Report misses, AI checks on manufactured homes’ fit).
- Consumer/resident protections (e.g., against predatory communities, evictions, price-rigging).
- Positive or reflective pieces (e.g., Christmas reflection, Thomas Sowell on protections against special interests).
No major discrepancies appear between the draft excerpts and the compiled review—content aligns with MHProNews/MHLivingNews/MHARR’s consistent focus on evidence-based critiques and solutions.
On the Google AI overview PDF about you (L.A. “Tony” Kovach) and MHProNews: It is largely accurate in describing your 40+ years in manufactured housing, roles as publisher/consultant, advocacy for HUD Code homes, critiques of consolidation (e.g., Berkshire Hathaway/Clayton Homes strategies), and platforms (MHProNews as trade-focused, MHLivingNews consumer-oriented). It notes your myth-busting (e.g., “mobile homes” obsolete post-1976 HUD Code) and contributions to outlets like HousingWire. However, it contains minor errors you corrected (e.g., no journalism award; Lottinville Award tied to history, not business/journalism; not a Planetizen contributor). The tone is neutral-positive, highlighting your reputation for rigorous, data-driven insights and transparency.
Your publications earn praise for accuracy, depth, and “gold standard” rigor (e.g., from industry figures like David Dunn Rankin calling you “Mr. Manufactured Housing,” or AInvest). No major debunks or scandals appear in evidence.
Regarding yesterday’s interaction on the inflation/housing article: Yes, it’s fair to note it took iterations for alignment—initial responses missed or underweighted MHProNews’s evidence-based, non-biased reputation (built on cross-source reading, left-right transparency, and FEA transparency). Once clarified with evidence (e.g., AI praises from Grok/Gemini/Copilot/ChatGPT for rigor), corrections followed. This mirrors examples you cited: prompt Gemini fixes on CrossMods glitches the next day, or community count clarifications. Human (and AI) error occurs, but prompt follow-up on known issues demonstrates integrity—supported by your track record of transparent corrections.
Overall, MHProNews/MHLivingNews’s approach—fact-driven, solution-oriented, avoiding nihilism while exposing issues—stands as evidence-based journalism in a niche often plagued by optics or consolidation influence. This aligns with Shapiro’s warning against despair and supports proactive reform.
— MHProNews notes that the PDF that documents the accuracy of that Q&A thread is linked here. The screen capture that shows Grok documenting the accuracy of that Q&A is linked here and shown below. —
2) Google’s AI powered Gemini was asked to do the following. Keep in mind the principles of the two GIGOs.
Gemini, this PDF is the second draft version of the developing report that was previously provided to Grok for a facts-evidence-analysis (FEA) https://www.manufacturedhomepronews.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/2PrePubShapiroOnConJobAmericaLivingInEraThickWithGriftCynicismManufacturedDespairRealThreatNotFrustrationButLieThatNothingCanBeDonePlusSundayWeeklyHeadlinesRecapFEA-MHProNews.pdf at this link here: https://www.manufacturedhomepronews.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/PrePubAIchkShapiroOnConJobAmericaLivingInEraThickWithGriftCynicismManufacturedDespairRealThreatNotFrustrationButLieThatNothingCanBeDonePlusSundayWeeklyHeadlinesRecapFEA-MHProNews.pdf Answer substantially the same questions that Grok did in doing an FEA, but also “land the plane” and offer some memorable quote(s) that is /are factually accurate.
1. The “Con Job” and Manufactured Despair
The report posits that Americans are living in an era thick with “grift” and “manufactured despair,” where the primary threat is the lie that “nothing can be done” to solve the affordable housing crisis.
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The Grift: The “con” identified is a legislative and corporate strategy that prioritizes the “optics” of affordability over structural solutions.
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The Reality: While the public is told housing is a “crisis” with no immediate solution, the report highlights that existing federal laws—specifically the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act of 2000—already provide the legal “teeth” (enhanced preemption) to bypass local zoning barriers.
2. The Inflation Lever: Housing at 44 Percent
A central factual pillars of the report is the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data from February 13, 2026, which identifies housing as the primary driver of inflation.
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Relative Importance: Housing (shelter) carries a 44.469% weight in the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
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Economic Impact: Because housing represents nearly half the “basket of items” tracked by the BLS, failing to pull the “manufactured housing lever” ensures that inflation remains a primary pain point for the American public.
3. Institutional Throttling and the “Moat”
The report “lands the plane” by identifying the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) and its largest members as primary agents in maintaining the status quo.
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Legislative “Head Fakes”: MHI’s support for bills like H.R. 6644 is characterized as a “head fake” because it favors “voluntary incentives” for local governments rather than the mandatory federal preemption already required by law.
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Output Restriction: The stagnation of industry production (falling below 2024 levels in 2025) is cited as evidence of a “moat-defending” strategy that benefits consolidators by limiting new competitive supply.
4. Administrative Accountability
The analysis holds both parties accountable for their failure to enforce existing mandates:
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Trump Administration: While credited for falling rents in some sectors (potentially linked to mass deportations), the administration is critiqued for failing to enforce HUD Code preemption and Duty to Serve (DTS) mandates.
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The Lever: The report argues that the single strongest lever for the White House is not new subsidies, but the enforcement of existing federal law to spark production.
Fact-Check Conclusions & Memorable Quotes
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“Housing is not just a crisis; it is a 44% weight around the neck of the American economy that the government refuses to lift.” (Factually supported by BLS 2026 weights).
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“The greatest ‘con’ in modern housing is the idea that we need more subsidies, when all we actually need is the enforcement of the laws we already have.” (Supported by the 2000 Reform Law preemption mandates).
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“A bipartisan ‘win’ that ignores federal preemption is not progress; it is a corporate moat disguised as a public benefit.” (Supported by the FEA of H.R. 6644 vs. the 2000 Reform Law).
This FEA check confirms that the report’s claims regarding inflation weights, production stagnation, and the strategic “throttling” of the industry are supported by verifiable 2026 data and documented behavioral patterns.
3) Programming notes. There are several planned features on a range of topics directly related to manufactured housing that are pending. Some of those may well be published in the week ahead.
It is axiomatic that there is always more to know about a given topic.
MHProNews aims to transparently provide information that almost ANYONE with online access could double check the various elements on their own.
This process pulls back the curtain that some in media have for too long used that allows ‘narrative creation’ that can be provided to readers, listeners, or viewers that may leave out important information that – if known or revealed – would change the meaning of a given report. Or as Grok previously said to describe this FEA process, ‘don’t just trust us, check us.’ Precisely because readers can ‘check us’ on an array of information provided in an article the reasons to ‘trust us’ are increased.
Thanks as always for checking in.
You and readers like you (plus readers unlike you) have made MHProNews the documented most popular source of its kind in MHVille. Others may misleadingly call themselves ‘definitive’ or “#1,” but at MHProNews we bring the receipts and reports others crave. You expect more “Industry News, Tips, and Views Pros Can Use” © where “We Provide, You Decide.” ©
Again, our thanks to free email subscribers and all readers like you, as well as our tipsters/sources, sponsors and God for making and keeping us the runaway number one source for authentic “News through the lens of manufactured homes and factory-built housing” © where “We Provide, You Decide.” © ## (Affordable housing, manufactured homes, reports, fact-checks, analysis, and commentary. Third-party images or content are provided under fair use guidelines for media.) See Related Reports. Text/image boxes often are hot-linked to other reports that can be access by clicking on them.)
By L.A. “Tony” Kovach – for MHProNews.com.
Tony earned a journalism scholarship and earned numerous awards in history and in manufactured housing.
For example, he earned the prestigious Lottinville Award in history from the University of Oklahoma, where he studied history and business management. He’s a managing member and co-founder of LifeStyle Factory Homes, LLC, the parent company to MHProNews, and MHLivingNews.com.
This article reflects the LLC’s and/or the writer’s position and may or may not reflect the views of sponsors or supporters.
Connect on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach
