When a 25-year-old detonated a car bomb and himself outside a fertility clinic in Palm Springs, California, on Saturday, the local interim federal prosecutor, a Donald Trump appointee, was quick to accuse the bomber of harboring “anti pro-life” sentiment.
Well, in a sense, yes. But if the suggestion was that bomber Guy Edward Bartkus was primarily motivated by abortion rights, the accusation missed the point.
Barkus might be more accurately described not so much as anti-pro-life, but rather plain, old anti-life.
Bartkus subscribed to a fringe philosophy that opposes human life in every form.
Bartkus, it turned out, subscribed to a fringe philosophy, circulating primarily among a small group of online adherents, that opposes human life in every form.
Dubbed efilism — for “life” spelled backwards — or anti-natalism, supporters of the philosophy argue that people should avoid having children because human existence is too miserable to justify.
Bartkus appears to have taken the ideology a step further than most subscribers in dying by a suicide accompanied by a spectacular act of violence.
By his own account, Bartkus also suffered from mental health problems.
The Saturday bombing outside the reproductive health clinic left Bartkus dead and four other people injured, according to authorities. None of the clinic’s embryos were damaged since they are stored off-site, the clinic’s director said.
The American Reproductive Centers clinic offers services such as in vitro fertilization, egg freezing, and egg donation, according to its website. It does not offer abortion services.
In an online manifesto attributed to Bartkus, he dubbed his views “pro-mortalism.”
“All a promortalist is saying is let’s make it happen sooner rather than later (and preferably peaceful rather than some disease or accident), to prevent your future suffering, and, more importantly, the suffering your existence will cause to all the other sentient beings,” the apparent manifesto said, according to a copy reviewed by The Intercept. “The end goal is for the truth (Efilism) to win, and once it does, we can finally begin the process of sterilizing this planet of the disease of life.”
Bartkus elaborated in a 30-minute audio recording that his father told news outlets was authentic. Police sources told multiple media outlets that they are investigating the manifesto.
“Basically, it just comes down to, I’m angry that I exist,” Bartkus says in the audio attributed to him. “Nobody got my consent to bring me here.”
Elsewhere in the audio recording, Bartkus complained about IVF clinics, arguing with imagined critics of his views.
“Greatest Problem”
Bartkus’s website also pointed to a since-blocked group on Reddit called “Efilism.” The group’s description states that “EFILism is the belief that DNA, and the suffering of sentient consciousness, is the greatest problem in the universe.”
A more academic version of the philosophy called anti-natalism is primarily associated with the South African philosopher David Benatar, who has written extensively on the thesis.
“Although the good things in one’s life make one’s life go better than it otherwise would have gone, one could not have been deprived by their absence if one had not existed,” according to the Oxford University Press summary of one of Benatar’s books. “Those who never exist cannot be deprived. However, by coming into existence one does suffer quite serious harms that could not have befallen one had one not come into existence.”
While Benatar has been profiled in outlets such as the New Yorker, Bartkus pointed to more notorious or obscure figures in his online manifesto. Along with the writings of Sandy Hook, Connecticut, Elementary School shooter Adam Lanza, Bartkus also directed readers to the YouTube videos of an influential figure in the small online world of Efilism who goes by “inmendham.”
The YouTuber posted a video Sunday denouncing the bombing of the fertility clinic.
“The fact is that there’s people in the world who are lonely, and some that are crazy, and this that and the other thing,” inmendham said. “They have some reason to be despondent, and they have low investment in their existence, and those are dangerous people.”
Bartkus’s father told the New York Times that he had not seen his son in 10 years. Bartkus burned down the family’s house in 2009 when he was 9 years old, his father said.
Bartkus said on his website that he had borderline personality disorder. According to the Mayo Clinic, people with that mental health condition have “a pattern of unstable, intense relationships, as well as impulsiveness and an unhealthy way of seeing themselves.”
The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline offers 24-hour support for those experiencing difficulties or those close to them, by chat or by telephone at 988.
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