Should We Have More Kids? Or Just Let People Die Off?
- Kevin Lankes
- Jun 2
- 5 min read
Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/97DkESx9P24
Life, it turns out, is just another sexually transmitted disease. And some people out there are looking to eradicate it. One of them was 25-year-old Guy Edward Bartkus, who’s the perpetrator of what could be the largest bombing in the history of Southern California. I know that took a dark turn, and it was sort of fun at first, and I promise it might be again as we take a look at the ideology Bartkus was into and what it says about morality and the nature of humanity itself. Stick with me as we go over the ins and outs of Antinatalism.
I’m Kevin Lankes, and all I can think of right now is the John Cusack movie Better Off Dead, which in my honest opinion is a truly underappreciated classic that was just way ahead of its time. Siskel and Ebert gave it two big floppy thumbs down, and we’ll see what I give Antinatalism.
Earlier in May, in Palm Springs, California, a bomb exploded in a car that sat in the parking lot of a fertility clinic. It damaged buildings, vehicles, and property within a 250-foot radius. Fortunately, the clinic made a statement to say that no one working inside was injured and none of the embryos were damaged. However, the bombing did injure four bystanders and sent the bomber himself to his grave.
25-year-old Guy Edward Bartkus was identified as the culprit, and he’s been linked to the Antinatalist ideology. He posted in the subreddit and he’d written a manifesto that’s being analyzed as we speak and we should expect to see a bunch of Antinatalism show up there.
So what the heck is it? At one time, the word was used to describe state-sponsored methods to decrease population rates in some countries, many of them not super great, like forced sterilization. But it made a hard turn into pop philosophy and had some help from climate change activists. The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement popped up in 1991. It has a website that’s still stuck in the 90s, and where this text is displayed on the homepage: “Phasing out the human species by voluntarily ceasing to breed will allow Earth’s biosphere to return to good health. Crowded conditions and resource shortages will improve as we become less dense.”
Two books came out in 2006 that redefined the concept of Antinatalism for the everyday mind. One was called The Art of Guillotining Procreators, and the other was called Better Never to Have Been. Then in 2019 a 27-year-old Indian man sued his parents for giving birth to him. The case launched a massive global conversation and thus popularized the term Antinatalism for more people around the world. So you know, all I have to say about that is, watch out, mom and dad. I’m coming for your assets. Like the half a can of pringles in the closet, and umm, the lint in the couch cushions. But you have to dig around for that, because I don’t want to accidentally find JD Vance in there.
Speaking of the couch f*cker himself, Vance, like a lot of other members of today’s extreme American right has publicly shamed couples--women--in particular and specifically, for not having children. Where they claim it’s a moral imperative to have children that make you feel more connected and engaged in society, Antinatalists believe that you’re actually protecting your unborn children by not having them. And that, to them, is a kind of mercy, because you’re not subjecting them to the cruelty and trauma of the world, and its possible end.
To sum things up to its most basic underlying tenet, Antinatalism is the belief that having children is morally wrong. Like the fertility clinic bomber, who left a record of his beliefs behind his charred, decimated corpse. He’s just extra crispy now. We have one thing in common, and that we’re both air fryer enthusiasts.
Bartkus called himself a promartalist, which means that he’s super into people dying. In a 30-minute recording recovered by authorities, it’s alleged that he said, “Basically, I’m anti-life. And IVF is like kind of the epitome of pro-life ideology.” This actually indicates that Bartkus may have been a proponent of a more extreme current form of Antinatalism that’s making the rounds in darkened corners of the internet right now, something called Elifism. I’m not 100% sure how the Elifists would pronounce that, but the thing you need to know is that the word Elife is the word “life” spelled backwards. Elifists are people who take the Antinatalist idea that no unborn children should exist and apply that to all human beings. So, Bartkus telling us that he’s anti-life could really be true.
We seem to know a good amount about what this guy was thinking and planning and more is going to come out over time. Bartkus was also trying to livestream the explosion, but somehow wasn’t able to so I guess we can all at least be a little thankful for that.
Some of the media outlets I’ve read are missing the underlying Elifism and choosing to say that the bomber expressed “nihilistic ideations” online. Now, nihilism is a good frine of the show, so we’re going insist that we separate out the harmful negativity of this confused and sad youngster because our nihilism is nothing like that. Our nihilism is positive. It’s impactful. It’s inspiring. There is no meaning except the one we make for ourselves, and here at LDSFG, the idea is that the reduction of suffering is plenty of meaning all on its own, and it’s just and good to help other people because we’re all stuck in this weird and funny place together. Bartkus went a different way, and his plan was to intentionally increase the suffering of others. And that’s really the antithesis of the kind of positive nihilism this channel is all about. It’s like that Douglass Adams quote: “In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.”
People who genuinely feel as if all is lost and everything is hopeless are able to use that deep pain to justify violent acts against others. It’s a kind of logical fallacy that I’ll never understand. If everything is hopeless, then let’s make sure each and every one of us has the absolute time of our lives until it’s over.
I struggled with this in a very personal way recently and have since realized I was wrong about something and someone very close to me. I believe that we should be good to people just for the sake of it. And I firmly believe that those who intentionally cause harm to others that includes violence or discrimination are truly the worst of us. We stormed beaches across oceans to remove those people from the equation, let’s not decide to go back on the promise of that humanity now.
It’s my opinion that if we’re going to lose the game and fail to save the Earth from climate change or global conflict, that we go down with the ship. I’m in it until the very end, because every passing moment is a chance to turn it all around. And I hope you’re in it with me. Let’s not throw up our hands and be Antinatalists, let’s do some f*cking good wherever we can in the world in the hopes that we can all have such a collective impact that it’ll shake the primordial foundations of the Earth and snap us all back into a collective humanity that will care for one other, and make each other whole.
I’ll see you in the next one.
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