Yesterday, a terrorist set off a bomb outside a fertility clinic in Palm Springs, CA. On Sunday morning, NBC issued a news flash with the headline: FBI calls California fertility clinic bomb an act of terrorism citing suspect's anti-natalist ideology.
The piece did not go into much detail, but it did report:
The car bombing outside a California fertility clinic, which killed one person and injured four others, appears to be driven by anti-natalist ideology, according to two senior law enforcement officials briefed on the incident.
Anti-natalism refers to the belief that no one should have children. Investigators are focusing on social media posts made by the suspect, which they say support anti-natalist views. While the posts are still being verified, officials believe they reflect the ideology behind the bombing.
UPDATE: Suspect is now identified. From NBC news
The suspect, identified by authorities as Guy Edward Bartkus, was reportedly dealing with depression and had personal relationship issues. Authorities believe the suspect is a 25-year-old man from Twentynine Palms, three law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation told NBC News.
I can't keep up. There is no limit to the things people object to. Now the list includes birth. I don't mean the birth of some disfavored demographic. I mean birth itself. I'm sure I am missing some nuance. But on the surface, this means some people have problems with their arrival as sentient human beings.
I guess I shouldn't be surprised. There are pro-Nazi Jews. Anti-feminist women. Gays who back homophobes, Minorities who vote for a confessed bigot. And poor people who love the party of the rich.
Don't get me wrong. Just because someone checks a set of demographic boxes doesn't mean they should slavishly support someone simply because they check the same boxes. I am a white guy who thinks that a particular flavor of white guy is a pox on the American experiment. However, to be against birth is to take it to an extreme.
I looked up the definition of anti-natalist. This is what the Cambridge Dictionary had to say:
Click here for the Wikipedia page.
I can understand why someone doesn't want to have children because of concerns about the direction the human race is taking. Or simply because it's too expensive. But that is the prospective parent's choice.
The world would be a better place if everyone let their neighbors be. And if so many people weren't trying to bomb their philosophy into our conscience.
